What are the customs of the Miao people?

The Miao is one of the oldest ethnic groups in China, with a large population and a vast distribution, of which the Miao in western Hunan is one. In the process of long-term historical development, the Miao people in dress, festivals, marriage, funeral, entertainment, etiquette, taboos, food and other aspects of the formation of their own unique customs.

One, clothing

The ancient dress of the Miao people in western Hunan, the difference between men and women is very small, and all are "colorful"; they wear flowery clothes on top and pleated skirts underneath, and their heads are covered with long hair, wrapped in ochre-colored flower handkerchiefs, and their feet are covered with boat-shaped flower shoes, and they wear various kinds of silver ornaments.

The Qing Dynasty, the Yongzheng years, "land reclassification", the government directive, "clothing should be divided into men and women," after the larger changes, and even a lot of people all changed into Han Chinese clothing. Such as today's Yongshun, Longshan and other counties of the Miao, their costumes and Han have no difference. But in Huayuan, Baojing, Phoenix, Jishou, Guzhang, Luxi and other counties within the territory of the Miao dress is still characterized.

Miao men's clothing is relatively simple; head wrapped in cloth, wearing a lapel coat, long and small sleeves, pants short and large, like to wrap the green foot. There are two kinds of headpa: green and flower, and the length of the headpa is more than one zhang, and there are as many as three zhang. Wrapped wear more into a diagonal cross, as big as a bucket hat, the color of the clothes are lattice, all green, all blue, etc., which is the most characteristic lattice cloth. Clothing buttons are generally seven. Some young men, in order to make people envy their own rich and bold, wearing clothes to seven. The outermost layer of clothing only buckle the bottom pair of buttons, the second layer of clothing buckle the following two pairs of buttons ...... And so on, until the seven pairs of buttons on the innermost layer are buttoned. In this way, the layers of new clothes all the way from the outside to see, there is a kind of fun.

In contrast to the simple clothing of Miao men, Miao women's clothing is very fine and complex.

Headkerchiefs: The headkerchiefs of Miao women vary from place to place. Phoenix County within the territory of the Miao women more than a short package of a dove, more than three feet long, by the forehead package to the back of the head, even the ears are wrapped in the inner surface. Hua Yuan and other counties within the territory of the Miao women like to use the black pas (parents who have died to wear white pas), folded neatly, wrapped flat and square, not biased, not slanted, the end of the pull together, just Qi forehead eyebrow. Jishou County within the territory of the Miao women's head of more mixed, and Phoenix County, the area adjacent to the package of flowers, and Huayuan County adjacent to the area of the package of black. Miao women in Luxi, Guzhang and the eastern part of Jishou County wear white headgear. Four pairs of green flowers and butterflies are embroidered on the headgear, which is simple, beautiful and unique. The so-called "four corners of the head of the four corners of the embroidered moths", said this white handkerchief.

Jewelry: Miao women's jewelry, beautifully shaped, a wide variety. To make raw materials, there are gold, silver, copper, aluminum, jade, etc., and silver is the most common. From wearing parts: there are silver caps, silver pots, phoenix crowns, Su Shan earrings, collars, bracelets, rings, toothpicks, buckle trips, etc., and bracelets and rings must be often worn. From the modeling points, only earrings, there are melon hanging earrings, pomegranate earrings, plum blossom needle earrings, circle earrings, dragon earrings, plum hanging melon earrings, rake earrings, dragon head melon hanging earrings, and so on.

Clothes and pants and other: Miao women's clothes, over the waist large and long, large and short sleeves, no collar. The cuffs of the large, about a foot or more. Chest and cuffs, it is customary to piping, embroidered flowers or wisps of yarn, and to add railing petals in its ask. In some cases, the edges of the front and back sides of the openings and hemlines were embroidered with a hook for digging out clouds. The dresses are all full-breasted, with no lapels. It takes dozens of days of work to make a set of Hmong women's clothes and pants with exquisite sewing and embroidery. The pants are shorter and have larger legs. The edges of the pants are piped, embroidered or yarned in the same way as the clothes. Gift skirt long and wide, the lower leg along the edge of the full embroidery pattern, and rolled railing and the size of the petals, colorful, blanch dazzling. Shoes full of embroidered flowers, head pointed mouth, heel on the ear, in order to wear.

After the liberation, in some Miao and Han mixed areas, the Miao dress by the Han's influence is greater, some young people have changed to wear Han.

II. Festivals and Celebrations

There are many festivals and large-scale activities for the Miao in western Hunan. The most representative ones are:

1. Catch the New Year's Eve. In the first month of the lunar calendar, the most enthusiastic Miao people in western Hunan is to catch the New Year's Eve, the date of which is agreed upon by the local community. Catch the New Year's Eve. On that day, men and women, young and old, dressed in festive attire, invite each other and go to the market in groups. On the New Year's Eve, people flow like a tide, bustling, exceptionally lively. People can not only exchange materials, but also to participate in or watch the swing, lion dance, play dragon lanterns, on the knife and ladder and other activities, young men and women also take advantage of this opportunity, things * couple, talk about love. Song Lang singer is a great show of skill, three or five companions, said the ancient and modern, singing at the top of their voices, singing and each other, or Pangen, or congratulations, or recounting traditional stories, or improvised singing of new words. The more people sing, the higher the interest, the more people listen to the spirit of the more invigorating. Even if the snow is heavy and the sky is freezing, the festival will be held as scheduled.

2. March 3rd. This is the traditional song and dance festival of the Miao people in western Hunan. On this day, the Miao people automatically concentrate on the agreed-upon song field to take part in singing, listening to songs, dancing, watching dances and having fun.

3. Catching up with Qingming. This is a large-scale song festival unique to the Miao people in western Hunan, also known as the "Qingming Song Festival". Legend has it that because the Miao are scattered in the remote mountains, all daily necessities must be exchanged to the more distant Han District, often cheated*. Therefore, the Miao people will agree to the day of the Qingming Festival as their own field period, exchanging supplies with each other, while meeting friends and relatives. In this way. Over time, the formation of today's "Qingming song will".

There is a traditional central venue for the Qingming Song Festival. The Miao people in the eastern part of Jishou City rush to the Qingming, and its central meeting place is on the Qingming field in Danqing every year. When the time comes, the Miao singers put their hands on their cheeks and sing at the top of their voices, singing with me and you in a joyful manner. Some sing until nightfall and still refuse to break up the meeting, and keep singing until all night long.

4. See the dragon field. Every year from the day of the rain in March of the lunar calendar, is to see the Dragon El, customarily referred to as the head of the Dragon after twelve days and then rotate to the day of the Dragon, and then see the Dragon day, men and women, young and old, are resting for a day, enthusiastic participation. If you do farm work on this day, it is taboo. Therefore, the Miao people for "see the dragon" thing, very important.

5. April 8th." April 8" is the name of a small hill in Phoenix County Luchao well township. Legend has it that in ancient times there was a Miao chief named "Yayi", leading the Miao people to the ruler of the struggle. He had organized various cottage Miao chiefs in the current "drink blood pass" place to drink chicken blood, vowed *** with the United, fighting to the end. And agreed to April 8 in a hilltop gathering of the uprising. After the uprising, the volunteers won successive victories, has been to Sichuan, Guizhou. On April 8 of the next year, Yayi Buxin died in Guiyang City, near the fountain. Miao people in order to commemorate the national hero, to facilitate the day of April 8 every year, to hold commemorative activities to memorialize the performance of the Yayi, for the war dead to sweep the tomb. After the uprising of the Miao people in Qianjia of the Qing Dynasty, the rulers forbade the Miao people in western Hunan to hold this activity, which resulted in the loss of an extremely meaningful traditional festival for the Miao people. After the liberation of the State People's Committee approved, the "April 8" as a unified festival of the Miao people.

6. June 6th. This is an ancient custom, is the Miao people to commemorate the six male and female ancestors, hope that they can also have six men and six women, reproduction of offspring ancestor worship activities. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, Phoenix County, the Miao people around the Chao wells to hold a grand song in the hook Liang mountain. The neighboring counties of Huayuan and Jishou and the Miao people of Songtao and Tongren in Guizhou also come to participate. The number of attendees often reaches as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people.

7. July 7th. This is the traditional drum meeting of the Miao people, most popular in Jishou, Zhuzai slope, Guzhang through the hole area. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Miao people will be dressed up, gathered in the drum field, beat the drums, dancing and enjoying themselves.

8. Catch the fall. Catching the fall is one of the large-scale festivals of the Miao people in western Hunan. Every year on the day of "Autumn", the Miao people have to stop farming, dressed in festive costumes, invite friends and companions, excitedly and colorfully from all directions to the autumn field, to participate in or watch a variety of recreational activities. The traditional autumn field has Jishou County's Shouzhai field, Huayuan County's Mali field, Phoenix County's Gouliang Mountain, Lushi County's Tanxi and Liangjiatan, etc. On this day, the crowd on the autumn field is very large. On this day, the crowd of autumn field shoulder to shoulder, the surrounding slopes, silhouettes swaying, flower clusters, singing curls, laughter, very lively.

Catch the origin of the fall, some say is to catch the "Autumn Day", some say is "to catch the swing". Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a Miao village named Ba Gui. Dajia's youth, upright, martial arts good shooting, by the admiration of the people. One day, he went out hunting, see a mountain eagle swept through the air, then spit hand bow, an arrow hit the eagle, while falling down a flower shoes. This flower shoes, embroidery is extremely exquisite, a look know is from the smart and beautiful Miao girl's hand. Ba Gui Dajia determined to find the owner of the shoes, with the help of the townspeople, he designed and manufactured a windmill-shaped swing that can sit eight people at the same time, named "eight people autumn". On the day of Autumn, he invited men and women from villages near and far to come and play autumn for fun. Playing the swing is the favorite activity of the Miao girls, Ba Gui Dajia thought, the girl who made the flower shoes, will definitely come. Sure enough, Ba Gui Dajia's wish came true. He found the owner of the flower shoes, the beautiful girl Qiniang, in the autumn field. The two of them built up a relationship through singing Miao songs and became husband and wife, leading a very happy life. Since then, people have been holding this event once a year to choose a good match, forming the "Catching Autumn" event.

9. The Cherry Festival. Miao more cherry trees, whenever the spring cherry ripe, Miao young men and women will meet in the cherry forest singing and songs, social activities. This kind of activity, the Miao language is called "LiuBiWa", with Chinese direct translation means "cherry picking". Some Miao villages in Huayuan and Baojing counties are the most prevalent.

10. Jumping incense will. Jumping incense will be popular in jishou, guzhang, luxi and yuangling area, held this meeting, to dance, and other amusement activities.

The Miao is an ancient and colorful people, calling themselves "wood", "Mon", "Damu", "Daji". There are several cases of his name, one is to dress color and called "red Miao", "flower Miao", "white Miao", "black Miao", etc.; the second is to live or planted crops and called "highland Miao", "eight Zhai Miao", "planted ginger Miao", etc.; the third is the ruler of the old times to their insults, such as "raw Miao", "ripe Miao," "Mabu Miao," and so on. After the founding of new China, they are collectively called "Miao". The Miao in Guangxi account for 5.5% of the national Miao population and 1% of the Guangxi population, ranking fourth after the Han, Zhuang and Yao in the population of all ethnic groups in Guangxi. The main distribution areas of the Miao are in Guizhou and Hunan, while the Miao of Guangxi live mainly in the mountainous regions of northern, northwestern and western Guangxi bordering Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan. The greatest characteristic of the Miao is that they are rich in various kinds of timber and local specialties, and they maintain a splendid and simple traditional national culture

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