Participants attend the ceremony commemorating the 2,577th anniversary of Confucius' birth in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: quzhoufb]

A ceremony commemorating the 2,577th anniversary of the birth of Confucius was held at the Family Temple of Confucius in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, on Sept 28 as part of the 2026 China International Confucius Cultural Festival.

Nearly 200 participants from across China, including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, as well as from overseas, attended the ceremony.

Kong Zi (551–479 BC), better known as Confucius, was a prominent Chinese educator and philosopher who lived during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC). He is known as the first person in the country to set up private schools.

Performers in traditional-style attire take part in the commemoration ceremony at the Family Temple of Confucius in Quzhou. [Photo/WeChat account: quzhoufb]

Quzhou later became home to the southern branch of the Kong family after Kong Duanyou, a 48th-generation descendant of Confucius, moved south and settled in the city during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279).

The Family Temple of Confucius in Quzhou is one of only two ancestral temples of the Kong family in China. The other is in Qufu, Shandong province, where Confucius was born.

In 2011, Quzhou's commemoration ceremony was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. In 2024, it was held for the first time as a sub-venue event of the China International Confucius Cultural Festival.