Thousands of people gathered on Sunday at the tomb of Fu Xi in Huaiyang in Henan province to pay homage to the prehistoric legendary figure. Only one person, however, could traditionally burn the first joss stick.
Fu Xi was born 5,000 years ago and was the first of ancient China's three sovereigns or "god-kings". Huaiyang was the centre of his clan.
He is believed to have invented fishing and hunting and the "eight trigrams", which represent elements like heaven, lake, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain and earth.
The Henan Zhengyin Real Estate Co. and the Henan Yuxintai Investment and Guaranty Co. jointly paid 1.18 million yuan for the joss stick, Shanghai Daily reported.
The first cup of holy wine for the worship ceremony was purchased for 80,000 yuan by Luzhoulaojiao, a liquor giant from Hebei province.