What are the traditional festivals of Maonan nationality?

The festival of Maonan nationality is a temple fair (also called Dragon Boat Festival) in May of the lunar calendar. Tomb-Sweeping Day's "going to the market to worship ancestors" and the "flying birds" in the Lantern Festival are also their unique commemorative activities.

The biggest festival of Maonan nationality is Dragon Boat Festival from summer to the future every year. "Dragon Boat Festival", also known as "May Temple Fair", is a unique festival of Maonan nationality. It is held two days before the "Dragon Boat Festival" in the lunar calendar, mainly to worship gods and ancestors. Men and women in the village, married women and relatives and friends from afar all came to attend, which was grand and warm.

Maonan people also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, but the significance of the festival is different from that of Han people, which is called "Medicine Festival" by the people. During the festival, people are used to collecting herbs such as Artemisia argyi, Acorus calamus, Dioscorea zingiberensis, rattan and so on, boiling water to drink turbid water, or chopping these herbs and wrapping them in jiaozi, which can detoxify and cure diseases.

The "pumpkin festival" of Maonan nationality is on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, which is the Double Ninth Festival. The shape of each harvest is different, and orange pumpkins are all over the floor, one by one.

Many ethnic groups in China regard the Double Ninth Festival as the festival for the elderly, and have the traditional custom of respecting the elderly. Maonan nationality is no exception, but the fashion is different. For the frail elderly who are over 60 years old, Maonan people generally "add meals to make up their lives" on the Double Ninth Festival. On this day, children will set up several tables at home and invite friends and relatives to come. Tourists should bring a few kilograms of flour and rice or fresh fruit.

Among the many festivals and customs of Maonan nationality, "flying birds" on the 15th day of the first month is the most distinctive and interesting. Spring Festival is coming, and every household picks calamus leaves in advance. On New Year's Eve, "Hundred Birds" is woven with calamus leaves. The empty belly of "Hundred Birds" is stuffed with soaked sweet glutinous rice, Mi Dou and sesame seeds, and then steamed or boiled in a pot. After cooking, tie the "Hundred Birds" to a long cane with a string and hang it in front of the incense in the main room. "Hundred Birds" include partridges, pheasants, swallows, cormorants and thrushes. On this day, give every child in the family a "bird" to satisfy their hunger; The daughter-in-law who got married and gave birth to a child went back to her family to get a "bird", hoping that the child would be as lively and lovely as a bird in the future. There are also offerings in front of the incense hall, such as Redmi and fruits, which are intended to pray for birds not to eat crops and ensure a bumper harvest in Fulai. Until the fifteenth day of the first month, the "Hundred Birds" were picked and cooked in a pot. Eating "hundred birds" at night is called "flying birds". When "Let Birds Fly", Maonan people will never forget to relive the legend of "Let Birds Fly".