On October 9, the 2566th anniversary of Zhongzi's birth, the "2024 Zhongzi Cultural Festival" was grandly held at Zhongmiao in Surabaya. This cultural festival is divided into a ceremony to worship Zhongzi, rebuild the sage Zhongzi Temple monument unveiling ceremony, Zhongzi culture open class and other links. More than 180 descendants of the Zhong clan from Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province, Heilongjiang Province and Taiwan, relevant leaders of Surabaya County and people from all walks of life, a total of more than 300 people attended the event.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, the official chanted "Enlightenment", the main gate slowly opened, and the ceremony officially began. The guests marched to the front of the Gaoming Hall to stand solemnly, the ceremony followed the ancient system, the representatives of the descendants of the Zhong family paid three gifts to the sage Zhongzi, Zhu Yafeng, member of the Standing Committee of the Surabaya County Party Committee and Minister of the Propaganda Department, read out the memorial text, and the guest representatives presented flower baskets and bowed.
After the ceremony, the guests witnessed the unveiling ceremony of the monument of the rebuilding of the sage Zhongzi Temple, and listened to the open class on the interpretation of the Zhongzi spirit to further understand and inherit the spirit of Zhongzi.
Zhongzi's surname is Zhongmingyou, Zi Lu, a native of Bian Yi of Lu State, that is, a native of Quanlin Town, Surabaya County, is the most important student of Confucius, one of the ten philosophers of Confucius, and one of the seventy-two sages of Confucianism. After his apprenticeship, Zhongzi followed Confucius all his life, and worked hard to defend and practice Confucius's ideas and doctrines.
Surabaya County is known as "China's Spring Township, Zhongzi's Hometown, Health and Blessing Land, Shengyuan Surabaya", among which, Zhongzi's hometown is one of the most important cultural labels in Surabaya County, and Zhongmiao is the most important physical carrier of this cultural label. Zhong Temple is located in the east of Surabaya County on the west bank of the Ji River, is a temple dedicated to Confucius's disciple - Zhong You, was built in the 19th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1591), after several expansions, gradually become a scale. Nowadays, Zhongmiao covers an area of 53.6 acres, according to historical records to repair Zhongzi Temple, the main gate, Gaoming Gate, Gaoming Hall and other buildings, is a provincial cultural relics protection unit.
The holding of this Zhongzi Cultural Festival aims to better inherit and carry forward the spirit of Zhongzi culture, strengthen the exchange and friendship of Zhongzi descendants at home and abroad, promote mutual learning of Zhongzi cultural research, spread the excellent traditional Chinese culture to all walks of life, and show the broad and profound Chinese civilization.