The Historical Development of Zhougezhuang Internet Festival

At first, the worship of the sea was mainly carried out by fishermen in a piecemeal way, and there was no fixed date. Because of the saying that "a hundred fish come ashore in Grain Rain", fishermen often choose an auspicious day to sacrifice to the sea. About 100 years ago, Zhougezhuang Internet Festival began to take shape, forming a collective worship of Poseidon with families or ships as units, which was widely distributed in coastal fishing villages. Influenced by the Cultural Revolution, the activities of offering sacrifices to the sea in Zhougezhuang once disappeared. Since the early 1990s, the activities of offering sacrifices to the sea, mainly in ewald Zhuang Village, have gradually resumed, and the date is fixed at 18 in March of the Gregorian calendar.

1984 is called "Zhougezhuang Internet Festival". Since 2004, the jimo city Municipal Bureau of Culture, the Party Committee and the government of Tian Heng Town have added some folk cultural activities such as masterpiece performances, magnificent gongs and drums, yangko and so on to the Zhougezhuang Internet Festival. In 2005, folk performances such as inviting the god of wealth, drinking strong liquor, Wuqiao acrobatics and cockfighting were added, as well as folk photography contest, fragrant flour plastic contest and folk discussion. In 2006, it was officially named "Tianheng Sacrifice to the Sea", and the theme slogan of "Harmony between People and Sea, Prosperity and Security for the People" was put forward for the first time, including inviting the God of Wealth, drinking alcohol, performing antique sea sacrifices, and sailing ceremonies. In 2008, the festival won the "Best Public Participation Award" in the "Festival China Award" organized by Qingdao Municipal Government.

In June 2006, it was published as the first batch of Shandong intangible cultural heritage protection list, and in June 2008, it was published as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection list.

Zhougezhuang Internet Festival has developed into the largest folk festival in China, with the strongest characteristics of fishing culture, the most complete preservation of the original sea sacrifice ceremony and the largest scale.