Dates of temple fairs in villages of Xu Shui.

The date of temple fairs in villages in Xu Shui is the sixth day of March.

Temple fair is a folk religion and custom of Han nationality, which is usually held on festivals such as Spring Festival and Lantern Festival. It is also one of the forms of market trade in China, and its formation is related to the development of temples and religious activities. It is held in temples on festivals or designated days, mostly in or near temples, and is used for activities such as offering sacrifices to gods, entertainment and shopping. Temple fairs are very popular in vast areas of this country.

Temple Fair is a traditional folk activity widely circulated in China. Folk custom is a life culture created, enjoyed and passed down by the broad masses of people in a country or a nation. Temple fair is an organic part of this life culture, and its emergence, existence and evolution are closely related to the lives of ordinary people.

The custom of temple fair

Temple fair customs include touching stone monkeys, lying on Phoenix Bridge and playing with money. Below the arc-shaped stone carving of Baiyun Temple, there is a stone monkey relief. People think that touching stone monkeys can eliminate disasters, so they compete to touch them. There is a big copper coin hanging in the bridge opening under the phoenix bridge. There is a small copper bell in the hole of the copper coin, which means that the bell rings for good luck. If you can hit the bronze bell with a coin in your hand, you will get what you want.

With the changes of the times, many new contents have been added to ancient temple fairs, such as business negotiations during the temple fairs, but showing folk customs has always been the main feature of temple fairs.

The contents include lion dance, traditional national flower performance, modern dance, Beijing folk figure modeling, traditional commercial cover exhibition, old Beijing photo exhibition, folk arts and crafts exhibition, special book exhibition, Beijing opera, martial arts and acrobatics. Temple fair integrates tourism, leisure and entertainment, shopping and catering, and has distinctive traditional ethnic characteristics.