The 2024 China International Confucius Cultural Festival is kicking off on Friday in Qufu, a county-level city in Jining, East China's Shandong province.

The city is also the birthplace of Confucius, who was born some 2,575 years ago.

The festival, which will run until Oct 7, aims to better explore and showcase the contemporary value of Confucian culture and strengthen the international dissemination of Chinese culture.

With the theme of "Dialogue with Confucius, Mutual Learning Among Civilizations", this year's event is mainly hosted by the Shandong provincial government, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Commission of China for UNESCO.

Over 370 guests from 36 foreign countries as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have been invited to attend the opening and closing ceremonies and other main activities of the cultural festival.

In addition to the opening ceremony and the 19th UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy award ceremony held on the Friday evening, key events of this year's festival include a memorial honoring Confucius.

The memorial ceremony will be held on Saturday morning in Qufu via live activities and online streaming, in a bid to broaden participation and enhance the global influence of the event.

People from more than 60 Confucian temples, academies and institutions from both home and abroad, as well as some mainstream media outlets, are paying tribute to Confucius online, promoting traditional Chinese culture and showcasing the influence of Confucian culture worldwide.

Key platform

Over the past few years, the global online memorial has become an important opportunity and platform for people to learn about Confucius and traditional Chinese culture, organizers said.

It has become a symbol of uniting Chinese communities, telling the Chinese story, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning among world civilizations, they noted.

As the ceremony begins, attendees will enter the Yangsheng Gate to attend the temple-opening rituals. The Yangsheng Gate was the main southern gate of Qufu in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), which now faces the Confucius Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

They then will move to the temple's Dacheng Hall where the main attendees will present flower baskets to the statue of Confucius. A memorial text will be read by a senior government official and finally all attendees will pay their respects to the ancient philosopher by bowing.

The tradition of the Confucius memorial ceremony dates back to 478 BC. It was initially held once a year in autumn and changed to twice in spring and autumn since the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

The grand ceremony incorporates music and dance to express Confucian thought and culture, illustrating the significance of "ritual" in Confucian teachings. It has evolved into an opportunity for Chinese people to get together to honor their ancestors, perform time-honored traditions and uphold the virtues of their rich cultural heritage.

To promote traditional culture overseas, this year's festival is to host the "Together with Friends" international event series for the dissemination of Chinese culture for the first time. For example, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will support Shandong in collaborating with overseas Chinese cultural centers and tourism offices to carry out a series of related activities that may last for months.

The organizers also plan to publicize Chinese culture and tourism in countries such as Germany, Serbia and Singapore, cooperating with overseas social media platforms to further expand the influence of Chinese culture.

Additionally, internationally influential media platforms are organized to conduct a worldwide collection of photos and short videos themed "Confucius in My Eyes", designed to mainly appeal to teenagers from around the world.

Nowadays, teenagers are a crucial group in promoting cross-culture exchanges. The festival has also emerged as a significant platform for teenagers to study Confucian philosophy and experience Confucian culture.

By attending relevant activities during the festival, global teenagers can learn and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, further fostering exchanges and mutual learning among young students from China and abroad, local officials said.

To support the festival, various cities and counties across Shandong have planned more than 100 cultural and tourism activities from Sept 15 to Oct 7. They include a Confucian Culture Week designed for Chinese and foreign students, theatrical performances and cultural competitions.

The Confucius cultural festival can trace its origins back to a special tourism activity called "Visit to the Birthplace of Confucius" inaugurated in 1984. The activity was upgraded to an international event in 1989 and approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council in 2014 to be one of the two longstanding traditional festivals in Shandong.

After 40 years of development and innovation, the festival has had a wide-ranging impact at home and abroad. It was selected by the China National Tourism Administration as a demonstration event for Chinese tourism celebrations and recognized by the International Festival and Events Association as one of the top 10 festivals in China with international influence.

Moreover, the festival has made significant contributions in the fields of culture and education. In 2006, for example, the event hosted the first UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy awards ceremony.

This award is aimed at recognizing outstanding contributions in the field of continuing education by government organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals worldwide. It was the first time that the United Nations named an international award after a Chinese figure, enriching the international connotations of the Confucius cultural festival and making it a highly influential international event.

Introduction of Confucius

Confucius, known as Kong Fuzi or Kong Zi in Chinese, was a renowned Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure who lived from 551 to 479 BC during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). He was an educator and philosopher who founded Confucianism, a school of thought that influenced later generations. He was also the first Chinese person to set up private schools and enroll students from all walks of life.

Confucian philosophy emphasizes personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, kindness and sincerity. His teachings, collected in The Analects, stress the importance of family, respect for elders and reverence for the past.

He believed that a harmonious society could be achieved through the cultivation of virtue and adherence to ethical principles.

Confucius held various government positions and sought to implement his ideas through political reform. But he spent much of his life traveling from state to state, offering advice to rulers and teaching his disciples.

Although he faced many challenges and his ideas were not widely accepted during his lifetime, his influence grew significantly after his death. For thousands of years, Confucius has been regarded as a symbol of China's traditional culture, as well as the country's intellectuals. His legacy endures through the continued study and practice of Confucian principles in modern times.