On the morning of March 27, the Organizing Committee of Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in his Native Place held a press conference in Beijing, announcing that the Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in his Native Place will be held on April 22, 2023 in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Online and overseas memorial ceremonies will be held at the same time.
The theme of the Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor Huang Di in his Native Place in the year of Guimao (2023) was “Peace, Concord and Harmony with the Same Root, the Same Ancestor and the Same Origin”. The agenda of the ceremony included nine items recognized as national intangible cultural heritage projects announced by the State Council of China: gun salute in the grand era, dedication of flower baskets, offering incense with cleansed hands, worshipping rituals, reading of the worship texts, singing the chant, worshipping with music and dance, praying for the blessing of China, and harmony between heaven and earth. At that time, the CCTV-4 of China Media Group, Phoenix Satellite Television and key network platforms at home and abroad carried out the live global broadcast.
This year is the first full opening of the park of Huang Di’s native place after planning and upgrading. The broadcasting of memorial ceremony will be the first time to present a panoramic view of the construction of the scenic area of Huang Di’s native place, which is a major highlight of the ceremony that is different from previous years. Before the start of the nine agendas of memorial ceremony, there will be a simple, rustic and solemn park opening ceremony in front of the Root-searching Gate of Huang Di’s native place, highlighting our reverence for our humanistic founder – Huang Di.
Since the launch of online ancestral memorial ceremony in 2020, the global Chinese have made paying homage to Xuanyuan through the Internet an important feature of the ancestral worship ceremony of Huang Di’s native place. The online ancestral memorial ceremony despite of differences in geography and time has not only drawn much interactive participation, but also attract more and more young people to pay attention to and participate in the ancestral memorial ceremony.
This year, the online ancestral memorial ceremony has been comprehensively upgraded according to the requirements of the Grand Ceremony, combining with new technologies.
The online ancestral memorial platform standardizes the rituals and etiquette, maintains consistency between online and offline ancestral worship, strives to expand on contextualization, immersion, visualization and interaction, amplifying the effect of network communication and stimulating the powerful synergy of global Chinese praying for China.
The platform aims to build “a national important site in the inheritance and innovation base of Chinese historical civilization”, “a place for the children of Yanhuang to find their roots, a place for pilgrimage of Chinese culture, a place for experience of Chinese civilization, and a place for practice of Chinese national education”. The demonstration of the cultural brand is based on the theme of “Tour in Henan·Reading China”, highlighting the charm of “root” and “soul” of the culture of Huang Di, our humanistic founder. At the technical level, it uses technologies such as metaverse and XR (mixed reality) to launch XR light show, AI virtual technology videos, cultural IP, SVG special effects, interactive games and other products to integrate multi-dimensional communication as well as enhance the attractiveness and influence of the ceremony.