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The festival is celebrated in a manner of like what calligraphers would do in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

The 38th China Orchid Pavilion International Calligraphy Festival opened in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province on April 28.

The event is held each year on the third day of the third lunar month, attracting calligraphy lovers from home and abroad. Its name comes from a gathering of 42 calligraphers at Shaoxing's Orchid Pavilion, or Lanting Pavilion, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420).

Young calligraphy lovers in traditional clothing. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

The gathering was where Wang Xizhi, the most prominent figure in the history of Chinese calligraphy, created Lanting Xu (Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion) and made the pavilion a sacred place for calligraphy lovers.

Sitting by a flowing stream was a little cup filled with liquor. Whenever it passed in front of someone, that person was obliged to improvise a poem, or drink the liquor if he failed to come up with one. At the end of the day, 37 poems were composed by 25 scholars.