What are the traditional festivals of Miao nationality?

Miao traditional festivals are mainly divided into four types: sacrificial festivals, commemorative festivals, festivals related to agricultural production, recreational festivals and social festivals.

I. Sacrificial festivals

(1) Year of Seedling

Miao year is the Miao people's own festival, and Miao people in different regions have different Miao years. Most areas are "the first year of the East in March in winter, and each is still one of them". The beginning of a year is the beginning of every year, some in October, some in winter or twelfth month. The year of Miao is the biggest festival, and the food is richer than other festivals, so we should worship our ancestors. Then rest for five to fifteen days and hold various grand entertainment activities. Sacrificial activities, from the crow of chickens to the light of the sky, are represented by firecrackers. At this time, the whole family can eat at the table and refer to the name of the sacrifice. After February 2nd, you need to avoid it again. Treat, after dawn, the host family will kill pigs and chickens and prepare a sumptuous meal. When eating, eat sweet wine first, then soju, then Zongba, and then rice. When the guests came home, the host fired a gun and sent them outside the village.

(2) Drum Festival

In the festival of ancestor worship, Drum Music Festival is the biggest. Drum Club Festival is also called "eating dirty" or "eating drums to save". The main activities in the festival are mainly around wooden drums. When eating drums and storing them, slaughter "cattle" to show respect for ancestors, which means "cobalt". The interval of drum club festivals is thirteen years, but there are also three, five, seven and twenty-five years, which can be divided into two categories: regular or irregular. The drum club festival is rich in content, including the basic procedures of buying and raising drums and hiding cows, selecting drums and hiding cows, collecting drums, bullfighting, killing cows and offering sacrifices.

(3) Jumping section

Jumping field is one of the most popular ethnic customs activities of Miao nationality, with a wide range of popularity and a large number of participants. There are different names for jumping on the field, such as jumping on the factory, jumping on the moon, picking flowers, Lushenghui and so on. Jumping field is a special festival held by Miao nationality during the Spring Festival, which is different from Han nationality and other nationalities. The jumping place is called flower field, big lawn or earth dam. According to traditional customs, the first day of jumping is stepping on the field, the second day is the home field, and the third day is sweeping the field. The main activities of the jumping field, first of all, put a square table in the competition, on which rich sacrifices are offered, and the person in charge lights candles to burn incense and burns money to melt paper, one is to pay homage to ancestors, and the other is to worship the gods of heaven and earth. It is intended to pray for the blessing of the gods, the good weather, the peace of the country and the people, the abundant grain and the prosperity of the six livestock. Every day, Lusheng dance will jump to the western hills at sunset, and the sunset glow will fill the sky. They will meet in nearby villages, and young men and women will talk to each other in small groups. This is an important moment when men and women have agreed for a hundred years.

(D) the significance of sacrificial festivals

Sacrificial activities are held to remember the ancestors, and festivals place the Miao people's thoughts on their ancestors. From this, we can learn from the good morality of our ancestors and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture and morality. Not forgetting the martyrs is conducive to the formation of a good sense of morality.

Second, commemorative festivals.

(1) April 8th

The eighth day of the fourth lunar month is a festival celebrated by Miao people in Guiyang, Ping Huang, Songtao and Xiangxi. April 8 is a commemorative festival. Some Miao areas commemorate national heroes, while others commemorate ancestors. On April 8 every year, Miao people all over the country will play for a day as a souvenir.

(2) Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the morning of the fifth day of May. On this day, some kill chickens, some kill sheep or pigs, and have a meal without jiaozi. Acorus calamus and mugwort leaves are hung outside the door, and some people use mugwort leaves to hang a dog outside the door, which is ominous. In addition, there will be a "flower tread" on the top of the mountain. All the Miao people nearby came to participate, and young men and women took advantage of this opportunity to engage in social activities.

(3) July and a half

July 30 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated on the afternoon of July 13th of the lunar calendar. On this day, every family buys some meat and meals, some money and paper bags to commemorate their ancestors. The deceased ancestors each had two packs and burned them outside the door after dinner. Other than that, there are no other activities.

(4) Wrestling Festival

Wrestling Festival is a folk festival of Miao people in Huishui Kowloon. It is held twice a year, on the third day of March and the sixth day of June in the lunar calendar. According to legend, in ancient times, there was a Miao youth named Yang Shoudai in Mamenzhai, Kowloon, who wrestled and fell in the formal martial arts examination ring. As a result, he was not only unknown on the list, but was beaten and imprisoned. After the first generation of Yang was released from prison, he called on the people to rebel against the government and capture the black evil spirit alive. People sang and danced to celebrate the victory and held wrestling competitions. Because that day happened to be the third day of the third lunar month, it followed this festival.

(v) Significance of commemorating festivals

It is conducive to carrying forward and cultivating the timeless national heroic spirit, inspiring the nation to move forward and constantly enhancing its determination and courage to overcome difficulties.

Three. Festivals related to agricultural production

(1) Land Association

Miao Di will be held twice a year, once on the third day of March and once on the ninth day of September. This land will be dedicated to the "Mountain King and Bodhisattva". The mountain king bodhisattva is in the ravine near the village. It was set up in the hope that it could protect livestock from tigers, leopards and jackals. Sacrifice can be used for pigs, sheep and chickens. Some of them are jointly funded by * * *, and some of them operate exclusively by themselves. Sacrifice is only handled by male parents, not everyone's holiday.

(2) Open the seedling door

The opening of the seedling gate is held in the sowing season. Before spring sowing every year, a ceremony is held on auspicious day to pray for smooth transplanting and a bumper harvest of rice. First, the "signs" will go to the fields at dawn to worship the gods with honorifics such as ducks, wine, rice, fragrant paper, thatch and soaking trees, so as to avoid meeting people or birds on the way and causing bad luck. When the "seedling head" holds a seedling opening ceremony, other families can start transplanting seedlings to celebrate the festival.

(3) Eating New Year's Day

The Chinese New Year Festival is held during the harvest season. Eating New Year's Eve is usually held in June and July of the lunar calendar. This is a festive festival. People worship God and celebrate the harvest by tasting new rice or new corn. Every year after rice or dry valley matures, Miao people choose to eat the new rice in the village. Every household should take the new glutinous rice as the staple food to celebrate the harvest. When eating new corn, new millet and corn are cooked together, ducks, fish, wine, tea and other items are sacrificed to ancestors, and then the whole family eats new corn together to celebrate the harvest.

(4) Fishing Festival

Fishing Festival is a Miao festival along Tumu and Nanming River in central Guizhou. This festival was originally a rain festival for Miao people to pray for rain by the river when they needed water for sowing and transplanting, and later it gradually evolved into a fishing festival.