Confucius cultural festival to bring tradition to life in Qufu

The 2026 China International Confucius Cultural Festival will be held from Sept 28 to Oct 7 in Qufu, Shandong province, the hometown of Confucius, offering residents and tourists more ways to engage with traditional culture.

A grand memorial ceremony for the legendary philosopher headlines the event, along with a series of public activities, according to Liu Shaohua, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. "This year's festival will uphold the principle of benefiting the people and sharing cultural achievements," Liu said at a news conference held by the Information Office of the Shandong Provincial People's Government on Tuesday.

More than 2,500 years ago, Confucius (551-479 BC) traveled across states, teaching as he went and pioneering an educational philosophy and practice of learning through travel that has been influential ever since.

Last year's festival introduced the "Study Tour with Confucius" study tours, which received more than 10 million participants. This year, the festival will continue to build the brand, launching immersive courses such as the Teacher Respect Ceremony and the Six Arts study program.

The Six Arts, or liu yi in Chinese, are the disciplines of rites, music, archery, chariot racing, calligraphy, and mathematics, the six core skills a gentleman was expected to master in ancient China.

Visitors can "become a student of Confucius" at the Nishan Sacred Land, take part in a task-based exploration program at the Confucius Museum, or learn while walking through the Temple and Mansion of Confucius, said Liu.

They can also join the Study Tour with Mencius. Liu noted that though the two giants of thought were born about 180 years apart, the birthplaces of Confucius and Mencius, being Qufu and Zoucheng, respectively, were only about 30 kilometers apart and shared in the cultural thread that ran through the region.

This year's festival will also host an instrumental folk music exchange and performance featuring cities along the Grand Canal, gathering 13 folk music teams from along the route in Jining, which administers Qufu.

Qufu will also hold a fair, featuring Confucian-themed performances, markets, and folk customs displays. The event will showcase cultural and creative products and specialty foods, and arrange folk parades such as lion dances and stilt walking.