Chinese forms of worship

Yesterday we went to the Temple of Heaven and Earth. It was an amazing tour really. I enjoyed so many different aspects of the history and the architecture. First of all it is important to note that it was never used as a temple in the Chinese sense of temples. It was used only for special ceremonies including the current Emperor of China, and his desire to worship the un-named god of heaven and earth. There were so many cross-overs between the ceremonies and the biblical festivals of Passover, First Fruits , Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Way too many to write about today, but I will revisit the topic in the next few weeks, as I get a better understanding of it all. The lay out also closely resembled the Mishkan and then the temple of Solomon in different areas. The inner court, the inner most room, the altar, lavers, incense table and table of bread, and of course lots of gold.

In modern times this site is used as a recreational park. People gather here just like they do in the bessourough park at home. Main differnce is that they majority of people you will see inthis park are seniors. The age of retirement inBeijing is 55 for men and 50 for women. So they are spending all their free time socializing in the parks around this Temple. The main activities you see them engaging in are, Tai Chi, Calligraphy, playing instruments, ballroom dancing, belly dancing, ribbon dancing, playing all sorts of musical instruments,hacky sac and Chinese chess. Did I mention these are the seniors???

I took so many pictures and some great video, but we are blocked from uploading them here due to the civil unrest occuring in other parts of the country right now.

We are just heading out to the Forbidden City so I will have too fill you in on the rest of it later!