Rukai Harvest Festival of the Harvest of the Year

The Rukai, whose main crop is millet, hold a harvest festival around the middle of the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year to mark the end of the year and usher in the new year. Rukai people who have been away from home return to their hometowns*** to celebrate the event, thank the gods for the bountiful crops and pray for peace. Before the festival, a strong festive atmosphere envelops the village, and families are busy sewing traditional dance clothes and brewing sweet wine from rice mixed with millet. On the day of the festival, traditional folk activities such as welcoming the spirits, offering sacrifices, mountain songs and dances, swing competitions, and throwing contests are held in turn until late at night. In the Harvest Festival, the baking of millet pancakes ("baked pancake divination") is an important event. Millet dough is brought to a specific place (usually in a wild area outside of the village), where a stone slab is laid on the ground, heated up, and then the millet dough is placed on top of it, covered with banana leaves, and pressed against the stone slab again, and after thirty minutes or so, it is removed. After thirty minutes or so, the stone and banana leaves are removed, and the millet cakes are baked as an indication of the year's farming and hunting. For example, if it is baked too dry, there may be little rainfall that year, and if it is baked warm, it means that there will be plenty of rainfall that year. The ceremony of baking millet cakes is restricted to men only. In addition, there are rituals such as the "spirit-guiding ceremony," the "soul-blessing ceremony," the "men's prayer for wealth ceremony," and the "sprinkling of holy water ceremony," which are all performed by men. There are also other rituals such as the "Matsuri of blessing the soul," "Matsuri of praying for wealth for men," and "Matsuri of sprinkling holy water.

In the past, the harvest festival lasted seven to fifteen days, but later it was mostly concentrated on one day, and most of the tribes held it in mid-August. Later, only a few tribes still kept the traditional "baked cake divination", and most of the tribes changed to singing and dancing competitions and other activities.