What does it mean to send dolls to Xishan?

"Sending dolls to Xishan" is a folk festival, which is said to have started in the Tang Dynasty. Legend has it that a concubine in Li Shimin died after giving birth to a son. In order to appease the resentment of the newborn baby, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty made sacrificial regulations for her and demanded faithful implementation. Since then, every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the princess is sacrificed in Xishan, and the hand-made dolls are offered to the gods to pray for the baby's safety and health.

Nowadays, at the foot of Xishan Mountain in Beijing, the activity of "sending dolls to Xishan Mountain" is held every year, attracting tourists and believers from all over the country. Participants will take their own hand-made dolls to Xishan, sing prayer songs and walk along the mountain road, and finally give the dolls to the gods. In this way, tourists can not only feel the inheritance of this traditional culture, but also think about their own life significance in the process of making dolls and experience a novel and special experience.

Sending dolls to Xishan is not only a traditional folk festival, but also implies respect for life and yearning for a better future. In the colorful modern civilization, the preservation and inheritance of these folk literature and arts can help us understand the historical customs and people's worship of gods, and at the same time make people think about more profound topics such as human nature, life, love and peace. Sending dolls to Xishan should be regarded as a precious heritage with rich culture and humanistic spirit, which needs everyone's joint efforts to pass on.