Peony Festival
Peony Festival (mudan huahui) is an important flower festival, which is held in Luoyang every year on April 10–25 and which attracts large crowds to the city and the White Horse Temple. The legend linked to this festival is that Peony flower did not follow the orders of the queen Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty to bloom during winter and she became enraged that it did not obey her command. As a result, she ordered that Peony Flower be banished from Xi'an to Luoyang. It is this banishment which is celebrated as the Peony Festival in Luoyang.
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Famous quotes containing the word festival:
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)