What are the main customs and festivals of Miao nationality?

The traditional festivals of Miao nationality include Miao Year, April 8th, Dragon Boat Festival, Eating Year Festival and Autumn Festival. Among them, the year of Miao is the most grand. Miao year is equivalent to the Spring Festival of Han nationality, which is usually held after autumn. On the morning of the festival, people put the prepared delicious food on the stove near the fire pit to worship their ancestors, and put wine on the noses of cows to show their gratitude for their hard work for a year. Dressed young men and women are dancing in the hall.

Hmong

Miao Year is a traditional festival for Miao people in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province and Rongshui Miao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to celebrate the bumper harvest and pray for good weather in the coming year. Generally, after the harvest season, some are held on the tenth day of October in the lunar calendar, and some are held on the ninth day, tenth day, ninth day of November, rabbit day or ugly day in the lunar calendar. It is equivalent to the Spring Festival of the Han nationality.

On the morning of the festival, the younger generation will prepare delicious food and put it on the stove beside the fireplace to worship their ancestors. Put some wine on the nose of the cow as a reward for a year's hard work. The girls are dressed in batik underwear or long and short pleated skirts with bright colors and different styles, and wearing eye-catching earrings, cymbals and other silver ornaments, dancing with handsome boys (men play lusheng, women dance in an arc). At night, the sound of big bronze drums spread throughout the village. Young men from other villages came to the "oil mill" near the village with lanterns (also called "sitting elder sister", "sitting in the village" and "stepping on the moon", that is, the social love activities of young men and women), and the village sang constantly. Through the duet, the men and women who love each other will be connected by the brocade ribbon embroidered with Yuanyang, the thing of love.

If the year of Miao meets the year of "eating drums and hiding", it will be a more solemn expression of "big family" "Drum Tibetan" is a ancestral worship ceremony held by family members, which is held every few years, ranging from 78 years to 10 years. Before the "drum-hiding", the "drum-hiding" cows (the big cows who have been feeding the drum-hiding gods for three years) lined up to fight. At that time, the "drum hidden head" recommended by everyone will preside over the ceremony, killing cattle to worship ancestors and killing chickens and ducks. All relatives of the drum will come to participate, and the activity will last for more than ten days.

Eating New Year's Day

Also called "Xinhe Festival". "Eating New" is one of the Miao festivals living in the middle and upper reaches of Qingshui River and Duliujiang River. There is no uniform date. According to the custom, in the harvest season, find a field where rice grows best, and everyone will celebrate the "Eating New Festival" here. According to legend, in ancient times, there was no millet in the world, only the millet in charge of the heaven (Leigong) was state-owned, so people had to hunt for a living. In order to get millet seeds, Miao ancestors told Lao to take 9999 kinds of rare birds and animals to Suguo to get nine bowls of millet seeds with nine buckets and nine liters, and put them in the warehouse for sowing in the next spring. But one night, Ah Wu had a long arm, grabbed the horizon with his hand, stepped on a stone by the light of the sky lamp, and accidentally knocked it over, just falling to the top of the wooden barn. As a result, a fire broke out, and the fire was getting bigger and bigger. The seed cried in the warehouse, and finally flew into the sky in the smoke and ran home. Gao Lao went to Gao Hu and asked him to persuade Gu Zhong to go back, but Gao Hu insisted that Gu Zhong didn't go to heaven. No way, Gao Lao discussed with Gao Hu to exchange 9999 kinds of rare birds and animals for food seeds. His mouth was worn out with nine layers of skin, and his voice said that he had dried nine jars of water, but he refused. After nine days' hard thinking, I finally came up with a plan: when Xiaomi is ripe, send a dog to roll around in the rice field, so that Xiaomi can be brought back to Mao Mao. On the morning of July 13th in the ancient Chinese calendar, the dog was going to set out, and he was told to bring seeds with stalks five feet high and ears five feet long. But because the dog was in a hurry, when he got to the south gate, he accidentally tripped and wrote a confession. As a result, I ran to a rice field only five inches long and soon rolled back. The defendant Hu Hu saw through the plan. When the dog reached the overpass, HuHu sent ninety-nine strong warriors to guard the bridge. They crashed the dog into the Tianhe River. They thought that the Tianhe River was wide and deep, and the dog had to die. However, they never expected that after the dog fell into the Tianhe River, it quickly held its tail high on the water and swam across the Tianhe River with great efforts. When it came back, it still had nine grains on its tail. I told the old man that I had a seed, so I plowed the field and took it out. On June 6th in the ancient calendar, a string of ears of grain like a dog's tail were pulled out from the seedling tips, and a month later, the ears of grain in Jin Shanshan were ripe. July 13 in the ancient calendar is a day to plant food for one year. On this day, I picked nine liters of millet and cooked a large pot of delicious white rice. He first scooped three bowls for the dog to eat, and then tasted them himself. The remaining seeds are sown every year to make people eat white rice. In order to remember the date of picking grain seeds, July 13 was designated as a new festival and passed down from generation to generation. On the festival day, every family will cook in the new valley. At dawn, people bring new rice, wine, chickens, ducks, fish and meat to the fields. After the ancestors were sacrificed, the banquet began. Everyone forms a circle, and everyone raises the glass to the next person's mouth. At the old man's command, everyone cheered three times in succession, and then drank a toast to each other. Suddenly, laughter echoed in the fields, and traditional cultural and sports activities such as singing, stepping on the pond and dancing the lusheng began and continued until dusk.

April 8(th)

The eighth day of the fourth lunar month is a traditional festival for Miao people near Guiyang, Guizhou Province to commemorate the ancient hero "Yanu". According to legend, a long time ago, Miao people rested in the rich Ge Sang (now near Guiyang) and lived a happy, satisfied and well-fed life. The resourceful leader "Yanu" led the people to fight bravely and dealt a heavy blow to the invaders in order to resist the attack of the rulers' officers and soldiers, but he died unfortunately on the eighth day of April and was buried in "Jiajiawei" (now near Guiyang fountain). To commemorate the heroic spirit of the Yanu people, so far, on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, Miao people dressed in festive costumes have gathered in front of the fountain in Guiyang from all directions.

At that time, the red flag fluttered by the fountain and the crowd flocked. Blowing sheng plays the flute, sings, plays lions, plays dragon lanterns, plays ball games and competitions. The Lusheng competition for boys is interesting. While playing the lusheng, they do techniques such as fast rotation, small steps and handstand. At night, Guiyang city and fountain area are brightly lit, just like daytime, singing and dancing everywhere, which is a happy scene.

The activity on April 8 is also very popular among Miao people in Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou.

Zhou Xi Lusheng Festival

Miao people living in Zhou Xi, Kaili. Lusheng Festival is from the 16th to 20th day of the first lunar month. Lushengtang is located on the river sand dam near Zhouxi well. In the early morning of the 16th day of the first month, several old people who presided over Lusheng Hall came to Jingkan with Lusheng, and read an inscription saying, "Picking the Moon in blowing sheng is an entertainment activity spread by Miao people for thousands of years. On the first day of the first month, all localities followed suit and celebrated the New Year with entertainment, which was the free wedding ceremony of the Miao people ... "After reading it, I poured out the rice wine in the gourd, sprayed a few mouthfuls of wine on the stele and in the middle of Lusheng Hall, and everyone took another sip and blew the first" Luzhu Qu "; At this time, girls and boys wearing silver jewelry and colorful holiday costumes danced with sweet tunes. Boys ask for ribbons from the right people, and girls tie ribbons on the reeds of the right boys. Three days passed, and the young man and woman found their partners. At this time, the old man who presided over Lushengtang still carried rice wine and sprayed rice wine on the stone tablet and Lushengtang. Put a straw sign in the middle of the hall. Since then, the Lusheng has been hung high until the grain is returned to the warehouse, and the "Miao Year" of the lunar calendar can be taken down and the Lusheng Festival can be played directly. On the fourth day, spring came, and young couples chatted and sang freely, blended their feelings and gave each other tokens.

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is from May 24th to 27th of the lunar calendar every year. At this time, thousands of people gathered in costumes by the river to participate in the sacrificial activities before the dragon boat set off. At the beginning of the competition, dozens of dragon boats broke through the waves, gongs and drums on both sides of the strait roared, salutes rang, and the audience shouted earth-shattering. On the shore, there are activities such as singing and dancing Lusheng. In the evening, young men and women get together to sing and pour out their true feelings.

Fishing festival

Fishing Festival is a Miao festival on both sides of Tumu and Nanming River in central Guizhou. Du Mu originated in Wuyunshan, flowed northward into Nanming River in Guizhou, joined at the junction of Yuri and Fulai, and then flowed northward into Wujiang River. This festival was originally a rain festival where Miao people prayed for rain by the river when they needed water for sowing and transplanting, but it gradually evolved into a fishing festival after a long time.

The holiday period varies from place to place. From March to June, it is decided by the prestigious "fishermen" who are good at fishing in each village. At that time, young and strong men will go to the mountains to collect leaves "medicine" and fish in the river, while women will prepare bacon, sausages, glutinous rice and wine at home. At noon, the whole family, old and young, dressed in costumes, took wine and meat to the river for dinner. After eating, the man blew the lusheng. The women sang folk songs and had a good time. When the sun goes down, I will take fresh fish home, hold a party for my relatives and friends or give them fish as gifts.

Letter eating festival

The letter-eating Festival is a festival for Miao people in Baozhai, Hejiang County, Guizhou Province. It lasts for four days, and the time is on the "Xin" (e) day in June of the lunar calendar (calculated by calendar year). At that time, Miao girls who have married far away will try their best to dress up, put on flowered skirts and silver ornaments, and "carry" holiday gifts to visit their parents and villagers. During the festival, the whole village was jubilant, drums and music were ringing, reeds were dancing and everywhere was filled with festive joy. At the foot of Baijiya Mountain, on the banks of Wengya River, people are buzzing. Bullfighting, sparrows, lusheng dancing, tug-of-war and playing ball games are cheering one after another. Young men and women who love each other are invited to the Woods to sing folk songs by the stream and pour out their love to each other.

Huashan Festival

Huashan Festival, also known as "stepping on Huashan", "beating Huashan" or. "Treading on the Mountain", also known as "jumping over the fields" or "peach blossom", is a grand festival for Miao people in western and central Guizhou Province, southeastern Yunnan Province and southern Sichuan Province. The dates are different, some are in the first month of the lunar calendar, and some are in late May, June and August. Before the festival, several Miao villages jointly formed a three-person leading group of Huashan Club, and the flower field was re-elected for three years, seven years and twelve years, from a flat land with abundant geomantic omen.