birthday of pangu emperor

pangu emperor is the role of creating a world in fables. the legend says he was born in chaos, and then he worked hard to create this world. the sky turned higher and higher everyday, and the earth became thicker and thicker everyday, and he grew tall everyday till he was 18,000 years old, on that, a world was formed. after he died, every parts of his body turned to sun, moon, stars, winds and clouds, mountains and rivers, farmlands, grass and plant, gold and stones. for remembering him, people chose a good place to build a temple of pangu emperor.

temple of pangu emperor is located in the north of shiling town in guangzhou, at the foot of pangu emperor mountain. pangu emperor temple was finished in 1809, but was burned down later, till 1909, it was rebuilt and saved until now.

in the middle of the temple sits the joss of pangu emperor, two grand thuribles in color of purple copper stands in front of the temple. under the two grand thuribles are four altars built into four stories, which may contain thousands of pilgrimers. as the temple is well known far and near, pilgrimers in an endless stream burn joss sticks all year round. every 12th aug. of lunar calendar, birthday of pangu emperor, people from nanhai, panyu, shunde, qingyuan and sanshui will gather together to celebrate his birthday. prilgrimers may climb up the mountain behind the temple along stairs, and a pavilion is built at mountainside. in the west side of the mountain, there is a gigantic rock sticking out, which is named qiankun( the universe) rock, on which pangu emperor once lay down. this rock covers an area of over 30 square meters, with a crack of 30 cm wide and 1 meter deep. nearby, several blocks of rocks are piled up, spring gushes from the rock bottom all year long, and people name it longkou spring, and regard it as saint water. every pilgrimer climbing this mountain will take some spring home in hope of seeking safety for their family.

in guangzhou, there is a lot of other folk-custom, it is hard to introduce them one by one, such as dragon dance, and panyu mase, zini chunse, panyu shise, which are a kind of folk procession ceremony.