Beijing Niujie Mosque Mawlid Research

Niujie District is one of the famous Muslim communities in Beijing. Hui ethnic group people live around a Mosque in history. Mosque has an important role in Hui ethnic group people’s life and it is a religious, cultural, and political center of a community in history. Niujie Mosque is the oldest and biggest mosque of more than seventy mosques in Beijing. Now Niujie Mosque is not only a religious place, but also a window showing the ethnic group and religious policies. We know that all kinds of folk-customs can be reflected in a festival. So, we can understand a ethnic group’s folk custom life by studying its festivals.Niujie Mosque is chosen as the fieldwork area. The Muhammad’s Birthday and Deathday, called Shengji Festival in Chinese, which is held in Niujie Mosque, is the object of the study. This thesis explains the folklore context of the Festival, the participants, the preparation work, the ritual process and so on. It also analyzes the characters of the Festival and summarizes the function of the Day.Chapter one introduces the general situation of Niujie District and Niujie Mosque. The Muhammad’s Birthday and Deathday held in Niujie Mosque appears along with the form of Niujie Muslim community and the birth of Niujie Mosque. We looks back the history of Niujie Muslim community and Muslim’s historical life in the first part of Chapter one in order to understand the folklore context of the Festival. The second part of Chapter one mainly introduces the constructions in Mosque and the Mosque’s functions.Chapter two shows the origin of the Festival, the exactly date and the participants. The participants concludes Muslim and government officials.The third chapter tells the preparation work of the government, the workers of the Mosque, and Muslim. The government helps maintain the order outside mosque environment. The workers of the Mosque mainly clean the environment and prepare Festival food. Muslim mainly donate money, take a shower and put on clean clothes on the Festival.The fourth chapter describes the ritual process. Usually, Akhond makes a speech on the Festival. The process is divided into three parts:before the lecture and after the lecture. The fifth chapter summarizes the characters of the Festival and analyzes some functions of the Festival.