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The Luoyang Peony Festival
Luoyang Peony Festival is listed as one of the four most famous festivals in China. Until this year, it has been successfully held for 30 times. Since 2011, Luoyang Peony Festival has been crowned as a national event.
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Peony has traditionally been regarded as China’s typical flower. Luoyang is the town of peony and Luoyang peonies enjoy high reputation in whole China. This kind of flower was firstly planted in Luoyang in Sui Dynasty, reaching its peak in Tang Dynasty and winning national fame in Song Dynasty. The colors of Luoyang peony are varied and diversified, dividing into nine main color systems: red, white, pink, yellow, purple, blue, green, black and duel color. The categories of Luoyang peony reach 1100. In April every year, the peony flower blossoms, forming a vast flower sea and attracting people from home and abroad.
Peony is widely enjoyed for its rich colors and strong fragrance, embodying wealth and prosperity and symbolizing China’s noble manner since ancient time. Premier Zhou once said that peony should be China’s national flower. Each April, during the Luoyang Peony Festival, hundreds of thousands of peonies bloom together in a majestic display of natural beauty. The prime time to enjoy the peony flowers is from April 5 to 20.
The Luoyang Guanlin International Worship Ceremony
The Luoyang Guanlin Temple is the place where bury the remains of the great ancient general Guan Yu. It is also the only classic architecture acting both as grave and temple. For a long time, people come here to worship and admire the brave general of the Three Kingdoms Period. The Guanlin Worship Ceremony has been closely combined with the Heluo Cultural Festival, thereby becoming another culture and tourism festival after the Luoyang Peony Festival.
Guan Yu has always been praised to be the model person of morality and loyalism. The brevity, kindness, loyalty and justice displayed by him imply China’s traditional virtues, and because of this, he is admired nationwide. This ceremony was first held in Luoyang in 1994 and exerted a profound influence all over the world. On the ceremony every year, people and groups from different places present sacrifice, wine and incense to Guan Yu statue under the leadership of the main worship official. Through this activity, people also say their prayer for safety, wealth, loyalism and honesty. Traditional dances and lion dances are usually presented for guests during the ceremony.
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