At the onset of spring, fishermen in Zhouggezhuang village in Tianheng town, East China`s Shandong province, hold a ceremony to worship the sea and seek blessings for another new fishing season.

It is a ceremony that lasts three days and falls around March 18. The ritual was originally called "Pulling in Fishing Net Festival in Zhougezhuang Village".

According to folklore, this ceremony dates back to the end of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The story is that shoals of fish swim to the shore when it is Gu Yu or Grain Rain (one of the 24 solar terms used in the Chinese agricultural calendar). It falls on the 18th day of the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and is considered the best timing for growing grains as also the best time for fishermen to pull in their nets.

On that day, fishermen move their fishing nets and tools onto their boat, and go to the temple of Dragon King, to pray for a safe trip and a fruitful fishing season. The next day, they set out into the seas.

The ceremony is usually held on the shores of Zhougezhuang and Huanglongzhuang villages where more than 1,800 households live with at least 400 fishing boats. According to one old man living in Zhougezhuang village, in the past there was no fixed date or group ceremony to mark the festival. The fishermen would only burn incense in the temple of Dragon King, and offer worship by burning paper money.

The group ceremony was first held on March 18, 1986 in Zhougezhuang, and named Shang Wang Festival or Pulling in the Fishing Net Festival. In order to attract more tourists, the municipal government in Tianheng began to combine the tradition with folk culture tourism in 2004, and held a grand ceremony called the Zhougezhuang Village Cultural Festival for Worshipping the Sea.

This event was officially named the Tianheng Ceremony for Sea Worshipping in 2006. It is an annual three-day event, which is currently one of the most important cultural and tourism events in the Qingdao area.

At this time, the local women get busy with preparing bobo, a dough made of flour, two days before the ceremony. Each lump of dough weighs 2kg and is used for the worship. Vivid pictures of flying dragons, swallows, magpies etc are carved on to the bobo. They are then filled with colors after the bobo is steamed. The delicate bobo figures are given names such as The Eight Fairies and Two Dragons Frolicking with a Pearl.

Three days before the ceremony, the atmosphere turns as festive as on New Year`s eve. The fishermen prepare the main sacrifices of boar, rooster and fish. Usually, the black boar is used for the sacrifice - the bigger, the better. The black hair of the boar is kept aside and cleaned. After the sacrifice, the boar`s face is painted red and flowers stuck into its ears. Then, a four-m long red silk scarf is knotted into a flower shape and placed on the head of boar. Meanwhile, a big rooster and a fresh weaver are also prepared.

On the day of the festival, the fishermen take their children to hang dragon flags, lanterns and couplets that say, "plain sailing, safety and harvest", on the boats. They decorate their boats to make them look like brand new, just as on New Year`s day.

The ritual begins in the morning with men carrying square tables with the boars on it and the bobo in bamboo baskets. Kids follows their parents, holding roosters, fruits and firecrackers in their arms.

Each boat holds its own ceremony. All the offerings are laid on a table and women stand around discussing who made the best offerings. Men hang strings of firecrackers on wires. On a signal, thousands of strings of firecrackers explode at the same time and everyone breaks into a dance. After this, a grand launch of boats is held in Huanglongzhuang Bay. Hundreds of fishing boats decorated with the lanterns and dragon flags assemble in the bay, waiting for the signal to head out into the sea, for yet another fishing season.