What are the festivals of the Zhuang people?

Spring Festival, "March 3", "July 14", February 2, April 8, Dragon Boat Festival, June 6, July 7, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Winter Solstice, etc. The festival is a relatively grand festival for the Zhuang people.

Introduction to Zhuang’s grand festivals

1. Spring Festival

is the most important festival. After a sumptuous dinner on New Year's Eve, people gather around the firepit to stay up late. When the time comes, people immediately burn incense, light candles, and offer sacrifices on the altar. The children set off firecrackers. In many places, Zhuang women immediately carry buckets or bamboo tubes to springs and rivers to fetch "new water" for good luck. The young people hold singing fairs, lion dances, pounding halls, listen to Zhuang operas, etc. The cultural and entertainment activities are colorful and people are immersed in the festive atmosphere.

2. Gyro Festival

In Guangxi, where the Zhuang people live together, a famous sports event, the Gyro Festival, is held every year. The time is from two or three days before the New Year's Eve of the old calendar year to the 16th day of the first lunar month of the new year, which lasts for more than half a month. Tops are called "Lejiang" in Zhuang language. They are big or small, light or heavy. Some are as big as a Kawada pomelo, weighing about a pound, and some are as small as a goose egg, and some are two or three taels.

3. Longduan Festival

It is a traditional festival of the Zhuang people in Funing County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province and nearby. "Longduan" (Zhuang language, meaning "catch the fields") is a Zhuang transliteration, which means to gather in a wide and flat place. The Longduan Festival starts on the 25th day of the third lunar month and lasts for three days.

4. Eating the Li Festival

It is a unique festival for the Zhuang people in Longzhou County and Pingxiang City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. "Chili" means "celebration" in Zhuang language. During the festival, people perform lion dances, dragon lanterns, sing and dance, making it very lively.

5. Yabai Festival

The Zhuang people in the Zhening and Suowu areas of Peiai Town, Funing County, Yunnan Province, kill a cow and a mouth every year on the day of the rabbit in April. Pigs, two chickens and forty-eight fishes went to Yabai Mountain to pay homage to Yabai, a Zhuang woman (according to legend, she was the mother of Nong Zhigao). On that day, all men, women and children were present, and the ceremony was very solemn.

6. March 3rd

is the Qingming Festival, and it is also the Song Festival of the Zhuang people. As the Qingming Festival, it is influenced by the Han people. However, some Zhuang people visit tombs during the Qingming Festival on March 13th, 14th and 26th, which is very different from the Han people. The Zhuang people attach great importance to sacrificial offerings. At that time, the whole family will go out and bring colorful boards, meat, incense candles, and paper streamers to their ancestors' graves to offer sacrifices and worship. In many places, at the same time as the festivals are held, grand singing fairs are held, which is called the March 3rd Song Festival. In recent years, the People's Government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has designated this day as a Zhuang festival. Young men and women find their partners through song fairs.

7. Ox Soul Festival

Every year on the eighth day of April is the Ox Soul Festival, also called the Unyoked Festival. In the consciousness of strong people, cattle are divine creatures in the sky, not ordinary animals in the world. Every year on the eighth day of April, the Bull Demon King descends from the sky to the earth to protect the cattle from dying of plague. This is because it is a festival for cattle. On this day, both humans and cattle stop working. The owner soaked the glutinous rice in maple leaf water and steamed it, then kneaded a ball and gave it to the cow. Offerings are placed outside the cattle pen, incense and candles are lit to worship the Bull Demon King, and people also sing folk songs to celebrate the birthday of the cow.

8. Mo Yiwang Festival

The second day of June every year is Mo Yiwang Festival, which commemorates the Zhuang hero Mo Yi who dared to resist the feudal emperor. There is a small sacrifice on June 2 every year and a big sacrifice every six years. As a small sacrifice, each family slaughters chickens and ducks, burns incense, and offers sacrifices to pray for the peace of the family. The grand sacrifice is very grand and a grand ceremony will be held at Moyiwang Temple. After the sacrifice, each dish is divided into portions according to the number of households in the village, and one person from each household attends the dinner to complete the ceremony.

9. Hungry Ghost Festival

July 14th to 16th is the Hungry Ghost Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival. This is the most important festival for Zhuang people after the Spring Festival. The festive atmosphere begins on the seventh day of July. Qiqi is the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet. Zhuang people believe that today is the day when fairies bathe. Water is especially good for dyeing cloth, making vinegar, and cooking medicine. At noon, people from every household rush to the river or mountain spring to fetch water. In some places, the seventh day of the lunar month is regarded as Daughter's Day. Instead of crossing the magpie bridge to find a husband like the Weaver Girl, a married daughter leaves her husband's house and returns to her mother's arms.

10. Frost's Descent Festival

It is a festival to commemorate the heroine Cen Yuyin who resisted foreign aggression. It has a history of more than 360 years. This festival is popular in the Xialei, Leiping and Baowei areas of Daxin County, but its influence has expanded to Tiandeng, Jingxi, Debao and other counties. In the early morning of the first day of the new year, people bring glutinous rice cakes, rice, meat, incense and candles to the Yuyin Temple to offer sacrifices. There are people who are acting, there are people who sing folk songs, there are people who are lion dancers, etc.