The Revived Ceremony--The Ethnography Of The Memorial Ceremony For Confucius In An Old Village

Ceremony is one of the outer expressions of historical and cultural venation in a community. It is also the way to inherit and enhance the tradition. In the long period of years, some ceremonies lose the original function and significance. Then it began to decline and finally dies out. Now, with the background of the tourism development, some ceremonies are recreated from our memory and back to our daily life. It is a common and important social-cultural phenomenon.The author studies a case which is an old village, describe the entire proceeding for resuming the ceremony which aims to worship Confucius. The paper depicted the background, the mode, the significance and the reason why the ceremony was stopped 60 years ago. Analyzed the connotation behind the ceremony resuming, and thus explain that the change of the ceremony during the social developing.In the field of modern tourism development, ceremony advanced by inner and external factors is reviving developing. So the symbolic meaning of the ceremony and the interaction between the tourism and ceremony are both the content of this paper.The ceremonies of worship Confucius in the traditional Nuodeng community based on salt industry, its social basis are Confucianism and Imperial Civil Examination System. It has the important symbolic meaning and high grade in the community. During the social changes, the salt economy was in ruins, all the social basis have changed. Therefore the ceremony was stopped holding with these changes.During the tourism developing, the Ceremony of Worship Confucius received the full support from the government, local elites and villagers. It finally revived after 60 years interruption. The ceremony which revived depends on the different social basis. The government offers the financial support and the elites lead villagers step into'culture consciousness'gradually. The passion of the tourism takes the social basis. Under the circumstances, the essence and function of the ceremony has changed.The author emphasizes the ceremony is an important carrier of local culture and historical memory. It can make the local cultural venation clear and also need by the tourism development. The reviving of the Confucius Worship Ceremony is an important culture reconstruction, it should be integrated into tourism development and finally make tourism industry interact well with culture protection.