The fifth cultural festival commemorating the mother of Mencius, a famous Confucian philosopher who lived 2,400 years ago, opens on May 8 in Taigu county. [Photo b Yan Yan/Xinhua]

The fifth cultural festival commemorating the mother of Mencius, a famous Confucian philosopher who lived 2,400 years ago, opened on May 8 in Taigu county, North China's Shanxi province.

The cultural festival holds educational seminars and traditional Chinese operas to promote family education.

The mother of Mencius, surnamed Zhang, was a native of Taigu county. She moved home three times to find a better place to raise her son. At the third move, she relocated from a noisy and money-grubbing marketplace and settled her family near the academy where Mencius received the education that helped him become a great scholar.