Birthday of Lord Lao

The story behind the day

Daoists keep the second lunar month's fifteenth day as the birthday of Laozi, honoured in religious Daoism as Lord Lao and as one of the three highest gods. The date is traditional: some modern scholars regard Laozi himself as legendary. Taoist organisations in Singapore hold celebrations on the day, and the old shrine at Luyi in Henan, held to be his birthplace, received sacrifices from a Han emperor in the second century.^[1–6]

Origins

The historian Sima Qian gave Laozi the name Li Er and made him a keeper of the archives at the Zhou court, who left the kingdom through its western pass, where the border official Yin Xi asked him to write down his teachings; after that, his fate was unknown. The Encyclopedia of Religion calls the second lunar month's fifteenth day his putative birthday. Some modern scholars go further and hold that there was never a historical Laozi, so the date belongs to tradition and not to record.^{[1, 3, 7]}

What it marks

Religious Daoism reveres Laozi as a supreme god and sees him as the embodiment of the Dao. Daoists know the deified Laozi as Laojun, Lord Lao, and as Daode Tianzun, one of the three highest gods, the Three Clarities. Lord Lao is believed to return in successive forms to give teachings to humankind, above all to rulers, and to hand down newly revealed scriptures.^{[2, 4, 8]}

How it came to be

Worship of Laozi as a god is old. The Han emperor Huan authorised sacrifices to him in 165 and 166, and rites were celebrated in that period at his supposed birthplace, the district of Hu, modern Luyi in Henan, where the Taiqing Gong, the Palace of Grand Clarity, stands. The first great Daoist movement, the Celestial Masters, knew him as Lord Lao the Most High, and by the traditional account he appeared to its founder, Zhang Daoling, around 142. Under the Tang, the imperial house, surnamed Li, claimed descent from Laozi; by then many images and shrines to him had been made, and for most of the dynasty he was treated as the state's protector.^{[6, 9–11]}

How it is kept

incense at Louguantai — Incense at LouguantaiIllustration · AI-generated

In Singapore, Taoist organisations keep the day. The Taoist Federation held a celebration for the birthday of Tai Shang Lao Jun, Lord Lao, on the second lunar month's fifteenth day, and the Taoist Mission holds an annual celebration of Laozi's birthday, which it calls Taoist Day.^[5]

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.