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Introduction to the Ancestral Worship Festival at the Great Locust Tree
2018-01-30
As the tide of reform has surged, “root‑ancestor culture” events—centered around the historic site of the ancient Great Locust Tree migration—have flourished as never before. Across the land of Jiuzhou and throughout the world, descendants of the Great Locust Tree are increasingly driven by nostalgia and a yearning to trace their roots, with a growing wave of pilgrimages back to their ancestral homeland to pay homage to their forebears. To align with this historic trend, in 1991, the Hongtong County Party Committee and County Government, adopting the approach of “culture as the stage, economy as the main act,” organized the first Hongtong Great Locust Tree “Root‑Seeking and Ancestral Worship” Festival, scheduled annually from April 1 to 10, with the principal ceremony held on Qingming Festival—the traditional Han Chinese tomb‑sweeping day. On the eve of the inaugural Root‑Seeking and Ancestral Worship Festival, tens of thousands of small birds descended from the sky, first alighting in the courtyard of the Hongtong County Party Committee and County Government, then swarming en masse into the Great Locust Tree Ancestral Worship Park. By day they circled above the park; by night they roosted among its trees, lending the scene an air of legend. Within the worship park, the birds’ song rang out in a symphony of sound, creating an extraordinary spectacle that the people of Hongtong regarded as a marvel, drawing nearly the entire town to flock to the site. There, perched upon second‑ and third‑generation locust trees and other foliage, the birds filled the branches, rising and settling, their heads close together—as if long‑lost friends reunited, sharing tales of past partings and expressing the homesickness that now binds them to distant lands. Moved deeply by this scene, locals remarked: “If the descendants of the migrants come to honor their ancestors, then these birds, too, must possess a spirit, embodying the generations of descendants who have returned home to visit their kin.” Each evening, these birds arrived; at dawn, they took flight once more toward the northeast. Resembling sparrows yet slightly larger, they were grayish‑black in color; their arrival was heralded by loud, cheerful chirps, while their departure was marked by plaintive, mournful calls. The people of Hongtong came to call them “homesick birds” or “auspicious birds.” Some even believed they were the transformed spirits of those who had migrated under the Great Locust Tree—unable to return to their native lands in life, they had become birds, flying back to see how their hometown had changed. This spectacular phenomenon persisted until after Qingming Festival, when it finally faded away. All the descendants of the Locust Tree, whether from home or abroad, who attended the ancestral rites were awestruck by this wondrous sight. Since that first event, the spectacle has reappeared at every annual festival. In response, Hongtong County Television produced a special documentary, which was broadcast on Hongtong TV, Linfen Regional TV, and Shanxi TV.
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Hongtong Great Locust Tree
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