What is the origin of the ceremony of lighting the sacred fire in the Olympic Games?

As early as 776 BC in the first ancient Olympic Games, the ceremony of lighting the "sacred fire". It originated in ancient Greek mythology. Legend has it that a man named Prometheus once teased the overbearing god Zeus. Zeus was so angry that he refused to give fire to mankind. Prometheus, in order to fetch fire for mankind, disregarded his own safety and stretched a fennel branch up into the sky to draw fire from the sun. Zeus was furious when he learned of this and hung Prometheus on the cliffs of the Caucasus Mountains, letting him be beaten by the wind and rain, exposed to the scorching sun, and pecked by the ducks and eagles. Prometheus suffered a lot. Later, in order to commemorate this brave fire-bringer who brought warmth and light to mankind, people made torches to pass them on, and took the torch as a symbol of light, bravery and might. In order to spread the Olympic spirit forever, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Coubertin, put forward the proposal of lighting the sacred fire at the Olympic Games, which was officially implemented at the 11th Olympic Games in 1936.

So where did the Olympic flame get its spark? It was taken from Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. Next to the temple of the Greek goddess Hera, a woman dressed as a goddess lit the torch by focusing it with a concave mirror, and then the torch was transmitted in a relay to reach the host city the day before the Games opened.

China held its first "torch relay" at the first National Games in 1959.

The 7th Olympic Games were held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920. In order to commemorate the sacrifice of the Allied soldiers in World War I, the organizing committee discussed and approved the lighting of fireworks in the venue to symbolize peace.