When is the new festival?

There is no specified date for the "Eating New Year Festival", which falls on the seventh day of July and the sixth day of June in the lunar calendar every year. The "Eating New Year Festival", also known as the Taste New Year Festival, is a traditional festival for the Gelao, Miao, Buyi, Bai and Zhuang people in Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. On the day of "Eating New Festival", nearly 10,000 Miao compatriots from surrounding villages gathered in Paimo Village in festive costumes to celebrate the festival with cultural activities such as dancing Lusheng, singing Miao songs and bullfighting.

"Eating New Year Festival" is a traditional agricultural festival held in the southern minority areas of China to celebrate the harvest and pray for the harvest in the coming year. Most of them are held from June to September in the lunar calendar when crops are ripe or about to be harvested.

Generally, Xijiang, Yao Tao, Danjiang and other places of Miao nationality are on the first and middle days of the sixth lunar month (rabbit raising day), so they are also called "eating wool". That means the first day of the sixth lunar month, or "Nugexi", which means new rice. Lund, Baode and other places will be held in July, and it will be held in 50 days from the day when the seedling gate is opened. Lotus, Qiaogang, Taojiang, Zhanglei and other places are "Mausoleum Day" in the first ten days of August of the lunar calendar.

Every year in July and August of the lunar calendar, when the new valley of the Gelao nationality is about to be harvested, the Gelao nationality chooses a day to eat new food (also called tasting new food). Villages with early summer harvest are mostly held on the first day of the seventh lunar month (the dragon) or the fifth day (the dog), while villages with late summer harvest are held on the auspicious day (the snake) in August.