The Birthday of Confucius Celebrated in China
2562nd birthday of Confucius celebrated in China: September 28th 2011
Confucius (551-479 BCE) was a great Chinese scholar and social philosopher, whose thoughts and teachings have profoundly influenced Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese thoughts and life. His preaching’s have guided millions for over 2500 years. Confucius' birthday falls in September this year on the 27th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar.
Confucius' principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children (and, according to later interpreters, of husbands by their wives), and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", one of the earlier versions of the Golden Rule.
Confucius' left a legacy of teachings and ethics that stress self-enlightenment through the Five Virtues of charity, justice, propriety, wisdom and loyalty. Filial devotion and ancestral worship, observed during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, continue to be a cornerstone of Confucian practice today, in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia.
