The Taichung City Government celebrated the 2560th birthday of Confucius by holding the Confucius Ceremony at Taichung City Confucius Temple. Mayor Jason Hu hosted the ceremony. Wang Chiu-Tung, Director of Civil Affairs, was the co-host and other top executives of other departments of the Taichung City Government witnessed the ceremony. The students from Li Sing Elementary School performed a Ba-Yi Dance during the ceremony.

The ceremony started on time by the host, Jason Hu, with an ancient ritual, at 7 AM. The students from Li Sing Elementary School performed a Ba-Yi Dance during the ceremony with the music played by an orchestra of ancient Chinese musical instruments. This ceremony attracted many domestic and foreign visitors. They stood in the east and west wind to witness the ceremony. Many students took pictures during the process. For better understanding for the foreigners, the master of ceremonies announced each process in Mandarin, English and Japanese. Also, the flyers were bi-lingual (Chinese and English).

Hu told the press that it was the 9th year for him to host the ceremony. In order to leave the student more time to sleep, he postponed the time of the ceremony to 7 o’clock. Thus the students only had to arrive at the temple at around 6 o’clock. He said that we were responsible for passing on the good cultural tradition of respecting teachers and educating the young generations to learn more about Confucianism. Teaching the students the Ba-yi Dance in the majestic ceremony was one of the best ways to educate them.

After the ceremony, the Confucius Temple Office sent the audience “Wisdom Cake” and “Long Life Noodles” to replace the process of the traditional “pulling out the hair of wisdom” from the sacrificed buffalo.