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Museum worships poet on 'Day of Humans'

By Huang Zhiling (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-02-09 19:18

A grand ceremony was held in the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to worship Du Fu (712-770AD), one of the greatest Chinese poets, on February 9 which was the seventh day in the first month of the lunar Chinese calendar.

After the main entrance of the museum was open at 10 am, the deacon in charge of the worship presented a bunch of the wintersweet blossoms to the statue of Du. Hundreds of primary school students recited poems by the poet at the same time.

People in Sichuan worship Du Fu on the 'Day of Humans'. [Photo/Huang Zhiling]

According to Chinese folk customs, the first seven days of the Spring Festival are represented with seven different animals.

The first day is the chicken, the second the dog, the third the pig, the fourth the sheep, the fifth the cattle, the sixth the horse and the seventh human beings.

In the Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911), He Shaoji, a famous scholar, wrote the lines: "Du Fu has a nice residence in Chengdu. On the Day of Humans, I come to worship the poet."

Thanks to the popularity of the lines, people in Chengdu have worshipped Du on the seventh day in the first month of the lunar Chinese calendar.

Du lived in his famous cottage in the museum for nearly four years, penning 240 of his existing 1,400 poems.