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==Worship in Temples==
The holy birthday of the Jade Emperor is the 9th of the first month of the lunar calendar. On this day, Daoist temples hold a Golden Register Ritual Offering ( 金籙齋儀 Jinlu Zhaiyi ) called 'Jade Emperor Ritual' ( 玉皇會 Yuhuang Hui ). The attendants, Daoist or laymen, worship the Jade Emperor with the "Offering to Heaven" ( 齋天大禮 Qitian Dadi ) rite, to pray for Luck and Longevity. Folk people in Taiwan and Fujian, calling the Jade Emperor "Grandpa Heaven" ( 天公 Tiangong ), worship him on the 9th of the first lunar month. All members of the family, after fasting and bathing, burn incense, prostrate, offer food, and recite scriptures. In some places, operas are performed to please the deity. In north China, sacrifices to the Jade Emperor were held in the past, where an image of the Jade Emperor was paraded around the village. The 25th of the twelfth month is the legendary day when the Jade Emperor descends and inspects the human world; folk people and temples all welcome and see off the Jade Emperor by burning incense and reciting scriptures.
===Welcoming the Jade Emperor===
The Great Jade Emperor( 玉皇大帝 Yuhuang Dadi ) is one of the major Daoist deities. According to the ''Original Deeds of the Lofty Jade Emperor'' ( 高上玉皇本行集經 Gaoshang Yuhuang Benxing Jijing ), after the Supreme Sovereign of the Great Dao ( 太上大道君 Taishang Dadaojun ) gave an infant to the Empress of Precious Moonlight ( 寶月光皇后 Baoyueguang Huanghou ), the latter bore a son. When he grew up, he declined the throne and renounced his family for cultivation. Having cultivated for 3,200 kalpas, he attained Golden Immortality ( 金仙 Jinxian ). He taught various Buddhas to understand the orthodox Great Vehicle and approach the empty sublime Dao. After cultivating for another 100 million kalpas, he was ranked as the Jade Emperor. In the Daoist pantheon of Immortals, the Jade Emperor is inferior to the Three Pristine Ones ( 三清 Sanqing ) and leads [[the Four Heavenly Ministers]] ( 四御 Siyu ) (consisting of the Jade Emperor, the Great Heavenly Emperor Gou Chen ( 勾陳天皇大帝 Gouchen Tianhuang Dadi ), the North Pole Emperor of Purple Subtlety ( 北極紫微大帝 Beiji Ziwei Dadi ), and the Earth Emperor ( 后土皇地 Houtu Huangdi )), or is superior to the Four Heavenly Ministers (consisting of Gou Chen, the Purple Subtlety Constellation ( 紫微 Ziwei ), [[the God of Earth]] ( 后土 Houtu ) and the Great South Pole Emperor of Longevity ( 南極長生大帝 Nanji Changsheng Dadi )). The common people do not quite know the origin of the Jade Emperor. They just regard him as the dominator of Heaven and a most honorable spirit, so worshipping him is indispensable.
The ninth day of the first lunar month is said to be the birthday of the Jade Emperor. Usually in temples a grand Ritual Assembly ( 法會 Fahui ) is held to celebrate it while the people gather to burn incense. This ceremony is called the Jade Emperor Assembly. It can be very lively, since the Jade Emperor holds a very high position in Heaven, and therefore a large number of other divinities can be worshiped while worshipping him. One year before the Opium War started, Gong Zizhen, the well-known writer of the Qing dynasty, passed Zhejiang on his trip to the south. There he witnessed the local cult of the Jade Emperor and of the Wind Spirit ( 風神 Fengshen ) and Thunder Spirit ( 雷神 Leishen ), and saw ten thousand worshiping temples. Some Daoists asked him for petitions (documents for the worship of major lofty spirits, a special Daoist literary style in fixed form). Inspired, he wrote the Miscellaneous Poems of the Jihai Year ( 己亥雜詩 Jihai Zashi ), a masterpiece in the history of modern literature. It says, "Only in wind and thunder can the country show its vitality. Alas, the ten thousand horses are all muted! O Heaven! Bestir yourself, I beseech you, and send down men of all talents." "Send down men of all talents" is no doubt the call of the time, but it is also an inspiration from the magnificent spectacle of worshiping the Jade Emperor.
Though spectacular and extremely lively, the Jade Emperor Assembly is usually held at the hall of the Jade Emperor, and can hardly become a national festival. As for most of the people, they welcome the Jade Emperor once a year on Chinese New Year's Eve. It is said that the Great Jade Emperor makes an inspection tour every New Year's Eve and rewards or punishes people who do good or evil. Hence on that day, all families place incense tables and give offerings of vegetarian food to welcome the Jade Emperor's carriage. This custom is called Welcoming the Jade Emperor. As the people regard the Jade Emperor as the supreme venerable divinity in Heaven and some even directly call him Heavenly Grandpa ( 天公 Tiangong ), this activity is called Offering to Heaven ( 齋天 Zhaitian ) in the south of Jiangsu.
Concurrently with the folk activities of welcoming the Jade Emperor, there are conventional rituals of welcome and worship in Daoist temples. For example, in the White Cloud Temple ( 白雲觀 Baiyun Guan ) of Beijing, there is the Ritual to Welcome the Lord of Heaven ( 接天尊板 Jie Tianzun Ban ), which is a ritual for welcoming the Jade Emperor on New Year's Eve.
[[zh:玉皇大帝]]