MEMORIAL HONOURS ANCESTOR HUANG DI IN NATIVE PLACE, APRIL 22

Press conference site of Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in His Native Place (Photo: Business Wire)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 (Bernama) -- The Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in his Native Place will be observed on April 22 in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, along with online and overseas memorial ceremonies, according to its organising committee at a press conference in Beijing.

The theme of the Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in his Native Place in the year of Guimao (2023) was "Peace, Concord and Harmony with the Same Root, the Same Ancestor and the Same Origin".

The State Council of China announced nine items recognised as national intangible cultural heritage projects for the ceremony's agenda, including gun salute in the grand era, dedication of flower baskets, offering incense with cleansed hands, worshipping rituals, and harmony between heaven and earth.

According to a statement, the CCTV-4 of China Media Group, Phoenix Satellite Television and key network platforms at home and abroad will carry out the live global broadcast, at the same time.

One significant difference from previous years' memorial ceremonies is that for the first time during the broadcast of the event, a panoramic view of the development of Huang Di's native place's scenic area will be shown.

Before the start of the nine agendas of memorial ceremony, there will be a simple, rustic and solemn park opening ceremony in front of the Root-searching Gate of Huang Di’s native place, highlighting reverence for humanistic founder, Huang Di.

Since the launch of an online ancestral memorial ceremony in 2020, the global Chinese have been paying homage to Xuanyuan through the Internet, an important feature of the ancestral worship ceremony of Huang Di’s native place.

The online ancestral memorial ceremony despite differences in geography and time has not only drawn much interactive participation, but also attracted more and more young people to pay attention to and participate in the ancestral memorial ceremony.

This year, the online ancestral memorial ceremony has been comprehensively upgraded according to the requirements of the Grand Ceremony, combining with new technologies.

The online ancestral memorial platform standardises the rituals and etiquette, maintains consistency between online and offline ancestral worship, strives to expand on contextualisation, immersion, visualisation and interaction, amplifying the effect of network communication and stimulating the powerful synergy of global Chinese praying for China.

-- BERNAMA