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The Ancestor Worship Ceremony at Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace Will Be Held on April 22 Preview of Three Highlights of the Ceremony

This year’s ancestor worship date draws near. “On the third day of the third lunar month, people pay homage to Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor”. The Ancestor Worship Ceremony at Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace in the Guimao Year will be held on April 22 (the third day of the third lunar month) in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou City. It will be the first large-scale offline ancestor worship ceremony after the end of the three-year pandemic. On the day, online ancestor worship and overseas ancestor worship will be held simultaneously. What are the highlights of this year’s Ancestor Worship Ceremony? We can find the answer from the press conference held by the Organizing Committee of the Ancestor Worship Ceremony at Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace in Beijing on March 27.

[Highlight 1] The Yellow River cultural elements are more prominent in the nine rituals, with an aim to reproduce real music and dance of the Han Dynasty

The ceremony’s theme remains “To Pursue Peace, Amity and Harmony with the Same Root and Ancestor”.

The ceremony process comprises nine items identified as national-level intangible cultural heritage items by the State Council, namely Salute to the Prosperous Age, Offer Flower Baskets, Clean Hands and Ignite Incense, Worship, Recite a Prayer, Sing an Ode, Music and Dance, Pray for China, and Unity of Heaven, Harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

[Highlight 2] The Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace Park is fully opened to the public for the first time after an upgrading program

This year marks the first year that the Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace Park is fully opened to the public after an upgrading program.

A rebroadcast of the Ancestral Worship Ceremony will present a panoramic view of the new appearance of the park for the first time. This is a highlight of the upcoming ceremony that is different from previous sessions.

A live broadcast of the Ancestor Worship Ceremony will integrate virtual technology to show the spectacular scenes of early Chinese civilization, restore history in a visualized way, and present an immersive history of Chinese civilization in the new park. At the site of ancestor worship, the guests will see sights varied with their steps, travel back to ancient times, trace their roots, and worship Yellow Emperor.

[Highlight 3] Cloud-based worship: cool new technologies empower online worship which is held with the offline one at the same time.

Since the launch of online ancestor worship in 2020, Chinese people around the world have worshiped Yellow Emperor on the Internet, which has become an important feature of the Ancestor Worship Ceremony at Yellow Emperor’s Birthplace.

This year, the online ancestor worship ceremony is comprehensively upgraded by means of new technologies, according to the requirements of the ceremony.

In terms of technology, the platform uses metaverse, XR (mixed reality) and other technologies to launch various products including XR light show, AI virtual technology video, cultural IP, SVG special effect, and interactive games, which can realize multi-dimensional fused communication and enhance the attractiveness and influence of the ceremony.

At the same time, the platform innovates the ways of presentation, adding a virtual digital human commentator to the VR panorama, introducing the landscape characteristics of the Yellow Emperor Hometown Park via the “digital human”, and making participants have an immersive experience with scientific and technological means.

The 2023 World Convention of Henan Entrepreneurs and other activities will also be concurrently held during the event.

Over the past 17 years, the Ancestor Worship Ceremony has contributed to a good situation of a linkage between culture and trade, coordination between politics and economy, economic development promoted by culture, and a win-win result.

Copyright by Zhengzhou Municipal Tourism Administration