Commemorating the Sage Confucius

May 26, Qingdao, Shandong Province: Actors perform a dance during the opening ceremony of the Confucian Temple in Jimo, held to commemorate the ancient Chinese philosopher. 
The Confucian Temple in Jimo was destroyed by war in 1929. The reconstruction project started in January 2015 and finished in August 2016. To celebrate its opening, about 120 people from all walks of life attended the ceremony.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.), an educator and philosopher, has been deified as a great sage of ancient China and is now regarded as a symbol of China’s traditional culture. Rituals to commemorate Confucius started in 478 B.C., the year after his death, and have now been held for more than 2,000 years. Now, the annual grand ceremony to commemorate the sage has been nominated by UNESCO as part of China’s intangible cultural heritage.