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Southeast Guizhou Travel Tips
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- Updated:
- Sep 28, 2009;
- by:
- China Highlights;
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Festivals
Lusheng Festival
The original purpose of the Lusheng Festival was to provide an opportunity for courtship among young people, but today the Lusheng Festival has become a much more general annual celebration, though the courtship ritual is still at the heart of the Lusheng Festival.
Mothers accompany their daughters to the festival, the daughters done up in their very best Lusheng costumes, which is a festival costume ornately embroidered and adorned with much silver jewelry (a hip-hopper would be envious of this much bling-bling!).
Dong New Year
Dong New Year is a traditional festival for the Dong Ethnic People living in southeast Guizhou. The date for that occasion varies according to regions but it commonly falls on the period from 1st day of the eleventh lunar month to the 11th day. However, there are exceptions and in some particular villages, the festival takes place in the tenth month. The reason for beginning the year at that time is that it is the time after autumn harvest. In another word, this is the time for rest and relaxation after a year’s toil.
The Dong New Year is a very important occasion for the Dong Ethnic people as the New Year Festival to the Han Chinese. Days before the New Year, Dong people make new clothes, clean their houses, make glutinous rice cakes, slaughter pigs, cattle for feasts. On the even of the New Year, the Dong ethnic people usually prepare a course of dish called” cold dish”, which is cooked with bean curd and home mage vinegar. People expose the cooked dish to the cold air and let it frozen. The “cold dish” is the sacrifice to ancestors.
Dong New Year in Dong Villages in 72 Villages Area of Rongjiang Region
Date: between the late tenth month to the early eleventh month
Celebrations: Lushen show and Bull Fighting
Northern Dong Singing Parties
Singing parties are important occasions for young Dong people to get to know each other and to date their lovers. Dong people have several singing parties throughout the year. The Northern Dong Singing Parties are the ones mainly attended by young Dong people from the northern Miao and Dong Prefecture in Southeastern Guizhou.
Miao New Year
According to Miao custom, the tenth lunar month is the beginning of a new year. Therefore the Miao New Year festival, the most important festival for Miao people, is usually celebrated around this time. However, the exact date varies each year and is only disclosed one or two months in advance. Regular updates can be found on our website as the festival approaches.
The celebration of the Miao New Year in Leishan, Guizhou Province is the grandest among Miao festivities. During the event tourists can enjoy watching enchanting Miao customs come alive through various kinds of ethnic activities. These include the festival parade that features Miao girls and women in traditional Miao dress, the traditional music of the Lusheng (a kind of musical instrument made of bamboo), bullfights, horseracing, and of course, lots of singing and dancing.
Bullfight
Lots of Villages in the Miao & Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Southeastern Guizhou (southeastern Guizhou for short) regularly hold bullfight competition every year. The bulls for the bullfight do not take part in the plough or some other work in fields.
New Harvest Festival
The New Harvest Festival is an important festival that Miao and Dong people celebrate at the end of summer and beginning of autumn (different villages celebrate the day at different time). People use bud seeds or the new harvested glutinous rice as sacrifice to worship their ancestors. On the day of the festival, people get dressed up, take their presents along and lead their bulls to go to the host village (the village which is celebrating the festival). After the host worships the ancestors, they have a big harvest dinner. On the second day, people watch bullfight and bird fight and race horses. They have Lusheng dance. At dusk, young people will sing musical dialogues in antiphonal style. The celebration will last until the dusk of the third day.
Gushe Festival
Gushe Festival, also called Guzang Festival, is one of the most ceremonious traditional festivals among the Miao people in the region of Leigong and Moon (yueliang in Chinese) mountains. It is held once every 13 years in the tiger year and it usually lasts for seven days. People kill ox to worship their ancestors during the festival.
Local Custom of Southeast Guizhou
Cockfight
Before the cockfight people will cover the cock with a piece of red cloth and then hold it to worship and sacrifice to the Heaven and the Earth. The cock-owner drinks the first two glasses of alcohols and pour the third one on the cock. There is no time limit or game limits during the cockfight. They only fight once to make the champion. The Miao nationality is famous for their animals-imitation dancing such as cockfight dancing.
Wine Custom
There is a rule among the Miao and Dong Villages in the autonomous counties in southeastern Guizhou Province—no wine no etiquette, no wine no feast. Every family has one or two jars of rice wine made of sticky rice, spirit containing 20%-30% of alcohol.
Tai Guanren (Carrying the Government Official in a Sedan Chair)
Tai Guanren is a festival ethnic show in the Dong nationality villages in Liping and Congjiang, such as Jitang in Liping and Longtu in Congjiang. Tai Guanren in Chinese menas carrying the government official in a sedan chair. Usually, a boy will act as a rich and powerful government official, and another boy will act as his chamberlain or private adviser. The government official takes the sedan chair, while the chamberlain takes a wooden bucket, with a band ahead to clear the way and followed by clowns. They give the funny performance together until they reach the drum tower. Tai guanren gives us a vivid picture of the Dongs customs.
Singing in the Moonlight
Singing in the moonlight is a usual social activity among the young Dong people. Usually, girls who often work together have their own singing group. They gather together at a singing hall at night, which is also called Moon Hall (get the name from the moon at night). It is also an entertaining place for boys. In Dongs, the Singing hall just like the KTV, bars, cafes in the city, is a wonderful place for the young people to communicate with each other.
Block the Way Wine
"Block-the-way" wine is a Miao tradition of greeting guests. Before the arrival of the guests, the villagers will lay twelve tables in a line in the middle of the path to the village. On each table places two empty bowls and on both sides stand young men and girls dressing up in holiday clothing. As guests arrive, Young men and girls will fill the two bowls with homemade alcohol and require guests to drink up. On the last table, a big ox horn will replace the bowl to hold the liquid. It is impolite to simply decline an offer. If you do not drink or not want to drink, just put your hands at the back, bend forward a little and touch the cup with your lips, and say " Thank You".
Welcome the Guests in the Way
It is the warmest welcome in the Dongs to receive the guests in the way. Actually, it happens when the Dongs invite guests to have a meal or invite a friend-singing group to come to give performances.When the host hears the Lusheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument used by Miao, Yao and Dong nationalities) from the guest, the host will get ready for the welcome ceremony.
Exorcising Dance
Exorcising Dance originated from the ancient sacrifice and pray-for-blessings actions, which is now popular in Cengong and Zhenyuan counties etc. The exorcising dance in Cengong is the most famous.
