 Headdress of the Long-horn Miao—one of the small branches of Miao living in the 12 villages near Zhijin County, Guizhou | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
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 China | 9,426,007 (2010)[1] |
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| Chinese | 苗族节日 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese Miao Festivals are included many special activities. There are so many festivals in Miao minority for different reasons.[2]
The Miao is a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, which are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 official ethnic groups. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia.[3][4]
There are many traditional festivals of the Miao people, including the New Year of the Miao, the 8th of April, the Dragon Boat Festival, the New Year's Eating Festival, and the Autumn Festival, among which the Miao New Year is the most solemn. The Miao Year is equivalent to the Spring Festival of the Han nationality, which is usually held after the autumn.[5][6]
On the morning of the festival, people put the prepared delicacies on the stove beside the fire to worship their ancestors and smear wine on the nose of the cow to show their reward for their hard work for a year. Young men and women in full costumes danced.[5]
Miao minority in China edit
The Miao live primarily in southern China's mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan.[5]
Miao is a Chinese term, while the component groups of people have their own autonyms, such as (with some variant spellings) Hmong, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong) and A-Hmao. These people (except those in Hainan) speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong–Mien languages including many mutually unintelligible languages such as the Hmong, Hmub, Xong and A-Hmao.[7]
The Kem Di Mun people in Hainan, despite being officially designated as Miao people, are linguistically and culturally identical to the Kim Mun people in continental China who are classified as a subgroup of the Yao.[3]
Festivals of Miao minority in China edit
There are so many festivals for Miao minority in China. Some of them are celebrated per year, and some are different.[2]
Miao New Year edit
The New Year of the Miao is the New Year of the Miao people, which is usually held when the autumn harvest is over and the agricultural work of the year is basically over. The first is to mourn Chiyou, the ancestor of the Miao nationality who died in the tribal war more than 5,000 years ago, the second is to celebrate the harvest of a year's work, and the third is to worship the ancestral spirits and the maple, bamboo, and rocks that the Miao nationality regards as the protector.[8]
Since ancient times, the Miao people have taken the lunar month as the beginning of the year, and have traditional customs of the Miao Year. Since modern times, the Miao people in some areas began to celebrate the Spring Festival instead of celebrating the Miao New Year. But in many Miao areas, both the Spring Festival and the Miao Year are celebrated, and the Miao Year is more important. The date of the Miao New Year varies from place to place. Most of them are still in October of the lunar calendar, and some are in November or the first month of the lunar calendar. The content and form are similar in different places.[8]
March 3th Festival edit
"March 3th" Miao Love Song Festival is a traditional festival for local Miao compatriots. During the event, villagers who work outside, women who marry outside, and young men and women from dozens of nearby villages will gather here for a party. Therefore, on "March 3th" the Love Song Festival is not only a festival for villagers to worship ancestors and reunite with relatives and friends but also a beautiful day for village youth to talk about love.[9]
Sisters' Meal Festival edit
The Miao Sisters Festival, a traditional festival of the Miao people in Laotun and Shidong, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, is one of the national intangible cultural heritages.[10]
The Miao Sisters Festival is centered on young women, with the main activities of displaying songs and dances, costumes, traveling parties, eating sisters' meals, and exchanging tokens between young men and women. The festival is large in scale and rich in unique content. Eating sister's meal is an important ceremonial matter on the Miao Sisters' Day.[8] The sister meal is also a token given by the girls to couples to express their affection, and it is the most important symbol of the festival. Catching fish and shrimp in Shimoda is one of the sister rice events, and drumming is an important way for the entire community to participate in the festival. Under the elaborate dress of their parents, the girls dressed in festive costumes gathered at the drum field to step on the drums, and the Miao people showed their clothing culture in this way. In the evening, young men and women sing songs, talk about love, men ask women for sister meals, and girls hide tokens in sister meals to express their different feelings for men.[10]
Dragon Boat Festival edit
Held on the Qingshui River between the 24th and 27th of the fifth lunar month, the Dragon Boat Festival in Guizhou Province is worth seeing. The Miao people come from Taijiang, Zhenyuan and Shibing come to take part in this festival.[11]
The Guizhou Miao Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional folk event held every year by the Miao people in the Shibingtai River Basin of the Qingshui River in the southeastern part of Guizhou, China on the 25th day of the fifth lunar month after the Dragon Boat Festival. The local Miao people will row a canoe dragon boat on this day. In addition to dragon boat racing, there are other activities such as dancing and dancing, singing folk songs and so on. In the Miao language, the dragon is called "urn", and the dragon boat is called "lou urn". The Miao people in Guizhou have unique dragon boat shapes and competition rules. Compared with dragon boats in other regions, the Miao dragon boat competition is not during the Dragon Boat Festival, but after the Dragon Boat Festival. It is hollowed out of fir wood, and a canoe in the middle is the mother boat. The child boat and the mother boat are tied in a row with bamboo strips.[11]
Lusheng Festival edit
The Lusheng Festival is the most common and grand traditional festival in the Miao ethnic area. The festival takes the reeds stepping on the hall and the reeds competition as the main activities. The Lusheng Festival is generally named after the Pohui (such as Shisanpo and Gulongpo).[12] The time of the Lusheng Festival varies from place to place. The reason is that some originate from ancient auspicious days, some originate from celebrating a bumper harvest, and some originate from myths and legends. Usually, a ceremony is held before the festival, and a respected old man from a certain village presides over the ancestor worship. Afterward, the girls from all villages and villages wore costumes and silver ornaments. The young men brought Lusheng to the reed field from all directions. The men and young people of each village formed a circle, played the Lusheng, and danced for four or five days. The atmosphere was very lively.[8]
Ku-Tibetan Festival edit
"Ku-Tibetan Festival", also known as "Eat Ku-Tibetan", "Eat Ku's Dirty" and "Thorn Bull", is the most solemn ancestor worship ceremony for the Miao and Dong ethnic groups in southeastern Guizhou and northwestern Guangxi. The festival is organized by the Miao people with various surnames, Gu Zangtou. Generally, it is carried out between villages with a close relationship in history. Xiaogu is held once a year, mostly in the slack season in the early spring and late autumn, where the village eats pigs and slaughters cattle and invites relatives and friends to gather, during which they hold bullfights and blowing Lusheng; Dagu is usually held once every 13 years, and the village is the host. The important content of the "Kuzang Festival" is to kill cattle to worship ancestors.[13]
Cultural value of festivals edit
The contemporary value of Miao traditional culture mainly reflects two aspects.
The first level is to improve national cohesion. The Miao people often live in mountainous areas with poor traffic, and communication is hindered. The emergence of the excellent traditional culture of the Miao people creates a way for the Miao people to communicate. In traditional festivals, the Miao people can get together to celebrate, shorten the distance between each other, and facilitate the improvement of national cohesion.[14]
The second level is to promote the construction of a harmonious society. For the Miao festivals, many of them are related to labor and production. People define production plans according to the festival time to speed up the pace of social development. And during traditional festivals, Miao people will concentrate on preparing for the festival. Young men and women mainly show their attractiveness with singing and dancing. People communicate with each other, which promotes traditional culture to play an important role in the construction of a harmonious society. Culture should be fully developed by people.[14]
Reference edit
- Citations
- ^ "China National Bureau of Statistics".
- ^ a b "国务院关于公布第四批国家级 非物质文化遗产代表性项目名录的通知" [The state council on the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects list notification (information network of China's state council)] (in Chinese). 2014. "New list of intangible cultural heritage released". Retrieved June 29, 2022.
- ^ a b "Miao people", Wikipedia, 2022-06-12, retrieved June 29, 2022
- ^ Schein, Louisa (1986). "The Miao in Contemporary China". In Hendricks, Glenn L.; Downing, Bruce T.; Deinard, Amos S. (eds.). The Hmong in Transition (PDF). Staten Island, New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York. pp. 73–85. ISBN 0-913256-94-3 – via ERIC.
- ^ a b c "Chinese Miao Festival". baike.baidu.com. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
- ^ Tapp, Nicholas (2002). "Cultural Accommodations in Southwest China: The "Han Miao" and Problems in the Ethnography of the Hmong". Asian Folklore Studies (1): 77–104. doi:10.2307/1178678. JSTOR 1178678.
- ^ Ratliff, Martha. "Hmong-Mien Languages". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2021-04-17. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
- ^ a b c d "The Festivals of Miao Ethnic Minority". Retrieved 29 June 2022.
- ^ "March 3th Festival". Retrieved 29 June 2022.
- ^ a b "Sister's Meal Festival". Retrieved 29 June 2022.
- ^ a b "Dragon Boat Festival". Retrieved 29 June 2022.
- ^ "Lusheng Festival". Retrieved 29 June 2022.
- ^ "Ku-Tibetan Festival". Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ a b Stephan Feuchtwang (2004). Making Place: State Projects, Globalisation and Local Responses in China. Psychology Press. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-1-84472-010-1.
- General references
- Enwall, Jaokim. Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter, No. 17, Department of Anthropology, Australian National University, June 1992.
- Schein, Louisa (2000). Minority Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China's Cultural Politics (illustrated, reprint ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 082232444X. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- Gina Corrigan (2001). Miao textiles from China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98137-7.
- Nicholas Tapp (2002). The Hmong of China: Context, Agency, and the Imaginary. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-391-04187-8.
- Nicholas Tapp; Jean Michaud; Christian Culas; Gary Yia Lee, eds. (2004). Hmong/Miao in Asia. Silkworm Books. ISBN 974-9575-01-6.
- David Deal & Laura Hostetler (2006). The Art of Ethnography: a Chinese "Miao Album". Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0295985435.
- Jin Dan; Xueliang Ma (2006). Miao (Hmong) Creation Epics from Guizhou, China. Translated by Mark Bender. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0872208490.
- Thomas Vang (2008). A History of The Hmong: From Ancient Times to the Modern Diaspora. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1435709324.[self-published source?]
- Feng, Xianghong. (2013). Women's Work, Men's Work: Gender and Tourism among the Miao in Rural China. Anthropology of Work Review. 34. p. 4–10.
External links edit
