The tea festival originated in the Xia Dynasty. It is said that Princess Yi Di, the daughter of Emperor Yu, and her husband Situ Xiang were ordered to guard the mausoleum in Kuaiji. They occasionally found more than a dozen tea trees with creamy yellow and creamy white flowers around the mausoleum of King Yu. At that time, there was no habit of drinking tea. Tea was only a relatively precious medicinal material that was valued by people. The couple picked some tea buds on the spot and put them together. Although it was Mid-Autumn Festival, the fragrance was still fragrant. The couple respectfully placed the tea buds on the altar and respectfully performed the ceremony of three bows and nine kowtows. This is the earliest legend about the tea festival. The tea festival in Xinchang began on the day when Guangfu Temple in Tianmu Mountain was built. It is said that Tianmu Mountain is the palace of the Queen Mother of the West, and Tianmu tea was discovered and used long before Yi Di discovered Yuwang tea. It is said that Guangfu, a disciple of Queen Mother of the West, eliminated harm for the people everywhere and used pills made of tea to relieve people's diseases, so he was deeply loved by the people. After Guangfu ascended to heaven, people built Guangfu Temple at the foot of Tianmu Mountain in order to commemorate him, and the annual tea festival activity began from then on. During the Gengshen year of Tianxi of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, tea festivals were quite popular in the Tianmu Mountain area. A typical example is the tea festival of the Xu family in Dongshan Village on the eastern foot of Tianmu Mountain. The prosperity of the Xu family is related to tea. The ancestor of the Xu family, Wu Zhonggong, came to Tianmu to get married because of tea. Later, he bought land in Dongshan Village, picked wild tea, and planted new tea. Tea became an important source of income and was passed down from generation to generation. Later, the Xu family flourished and became a prosperous family in Tianmu. In order to commemorate Wu Zhonggong, every year before the Grain Rain, the patriarch of the village's main ancestral hall presided over the "Tea Festival" activity and personally planned it. Every year, three days before the tea festival, all chaste boys and girls over the age of 18 who have never married go to the tea mountains of each family to pick tea by themselves at the time of Chen. No matter how many tea buds they pick, they will spread the tea buds on the new mat in the hall of Yongsi Hall to dry. The tea frying master is selected by the chief patriarch himself. Once selected as an expert in frying "tea for sacrifice", he must live in the wing room of the patriarchal hall with his wife three days in advance. This is called purification before he can fry tea. On the day of the tea festival, after careful arrangements, the Yongsi Hall is decorated with lights and is very lively. The six doors of the patriarchal hall are opened, and the patriarchs of each family, the gentry, and the abbots of the two temples of Tianmu and Dongshan flock to Yongsi Hall to participate in the tea festival. In the central hall, the red candle high platform is in front, the special tea saucer is held first, the silver wine pot stands on both sides, and the three animals are placed at the back (pig head, carp, whole chicken). With the order of the chief patriarch "start the festival", salutes are fired everywhere and gongs and drums are loud. After that, the manager read the sacrificial text. After the announcement, the chief clan leader, the manager, and the clan leaders of each family worshiped one by one according to their generation. After the ceremony, everyone sat on both sides to taste tea. Tea was provided by a special person. Tianmu Peak tea was placed in a celadon bowl and poured into the bowl with the unique blackened purple copper pot of Xu's family in Laodong. The soup was clear and bright, and the fragrance of tea was overflowing. People talked about the past and the present, and they were free and easy. After the tea ceremony, spring tea was picked in full. The tea ceremony lasted for a thousand years until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. At that time, due to the interruption of trade routes, tea gardens were abandoned, and the tea ceremony activities stopped. After liberation, although tea production was restored and developed, the tea ceremony activities were regarded as "four olds" and eliminated. After the reform and opening up, with the development of tea production in our county, tea, as the leading industry of our county's agriculture, has become an important source of income for farmers. Tea culture activities have become increasingly active, and tea ceremony activities have been restored. Xinchang County Tea Culture Research Association, on the basis of inheriting the tea ceremony of the Xu family and retaining the main procedures and basic contents of the tea ceremony, has innovated some contents of the tea ceremony such as the objects of worship and participants together with relevant personnel. First, the tea ceremony of the family has been changed into a tea ceremony of the whole society, so that people related to tea from the whole society can participate. Second, the objects of the tea ceremony have been changed from the original creator of the family to historical figures who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Xinchang tea industry and tea culture, such as the eminent monks Zhi Dun and Tan Guang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who established Xiaoling Temple in Wozhou Mountain, Xinchang, advocated tea planting and drinking, and introduced tea into Zen, starting the trend of Zen tea. Third, the time of the tea ceremony was adjusted from before the original tea harvest to the period when the tea was on the market, and from before Grain Rain to after Qingming; fourth, the procedures of the tea ceremony were re-arranged, and the sacrificial dance and other contents were added; fifth, the tribute was changed from the original pork, fish and whole chicken to vegetarian sacrifice. The procedures of the tea ceremony are divided into 12 agendas, including standing in silence, firing cannons, offering tributes, burning incense, beating drums and ringing bells, playing music, offering tea, serving tea, reading sacrificial texts, performing rituals, sacrificial dances, and the end of the ceremony. The tea ceremony is a precious cultural heritage and spiritual wealth of the people of Xinchang, and an important part of tea culture. We must not forget the predecessors who have contributed to the development of Xinchang tea. More importantly, through the tea ceremony, we can learn from the ancestors' spirit of perseverance, hard work, pioneering and innovation, build consensus, mobilize and integrate the forces of all parties, set higher goals, and lead the people of Xinchang to continue to expand and strengthen the tea industry, make tea production more culturally meaningful, and have higher added value, thereby bringing greater welfare to the people of Xinchang. "Xinchang Tea Festival" was selected into the sixth batch of Shaoxing City's intangible cultural heritage list in November 2015. Information source: Shaoxing Cultural Center Information source: Shaoxing Cultural Center