The festival of the city god is the greatest event of the year in most cities, and generally extends over one month, when theatricals are acted in honour of the event; and probably many hundreds of taels squandered in every city. In many of the market towns on the Ch'eng tu plain, city gods' temples are still to be found, and the explanation is that these towns were formerly district cities with resident magistrates; they still keep their festivals on the old dates, which vary in almost every place. When the date approaches the residents and shopkeepers are visited by the heads of a society, and every house is asked to contribute to the expenses of the festival. The streets are decorated with coloured and embroidered cloth called p‘êng ts‘ai. A coolie wheels a barrow through the streets with a fire tub on which are burning the branches of the cedar tree or pai chih (柏枝) (these branches are widely used for disinfecting houses after disease). Following the wheelbarrow come the p‘an kuan and the t‘u ti; these go round on a tour of inspection to see that the streets are fit for the idol procession on the following day. This is spoken of as sao chieh, sweeping the streets.
Cho (捉) han lin, to seize the wild spirits. This is done by dressing a beggar as a demon, and placing him at a fixed point in the country. Certain persons dressed as runners of the city god go out and apprehend this person, put a chain round his neck and lead him into the city in triumph. Great crowds of people stand round to see this performance. The belief is that unless this is done trouble will break out at the theatricals during the month.
Ch‘êng huang ch‘u chia (城隍出駕), the city god goes for a ride. In front of this procession the following may be seen:
Ta chu (燭) hui, the big candle society, which provides a huge candle carried in front of the idol.
Ta hsiang (香) hui, the big incense society, which provides a large stick of incense to be carried between two men in the procession.
Yin ch‘ai (陰差) hui, for providing runners, or men dressed as demons, to go before the idol. Those who act
