Customs of the Miao Nationality Introduction to the customs and habits of the Miao Nationality

The Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, western Hunan, Hainan Island and Rongshui in Guangxi eat rice as their staple food, as well as corn, sweet potatoes, millet and other miscellaneous grains; the Miao people in northwestern Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and northeastern Yunnan eat corn, potatoes, buckwheat, etc. Staple foods such as seeds and oats. The Miao people in southeastern Guizhou seal the glutinous rice and vegetables in jars and eat them after one or two months. The fermented fermented vegetables are a kind of pickled vegetables with a special flavor. The habit of drinking is very common. Whenever there are weddings, funerals, festivals or visits by relatives and friends, wine is used to entertain guests.

Miao architecture also varies greatly from place to place. Residents in southeastern Guizhou live in wooden bungalows and buildings. Buildings are generally two-story, mostly built in the form of "stilted buildings" (that is, piles are erected according to the slope of the hillside and built on piles), and the roofs are double-sloped. Food and sundries are stored on the upper floor of the ceiling, while sundries are piled or livestock are kept on stilts downstairs. In places such as Xiangxi Hunan and Guizhou Songtao, bungalows with wooden structures, double-sloping tile roofs or thatched roofs are used, with 3 to 5 rooms in each building, and the "side buildings" are used as kitchen houses or livestock pens. In the past, landlords or wealthy families also built courtyards and built high walls or stone blockhouses to protect them. The walls of Miao residents' houses in Wenshan area of ??Yunnan are mostly built with bamboo strips woven and covered with mud, and the roofs are flat thatched roofs. Miao residents in Zhaotong area mostly live in "quanquan houses", which are houses made of several tree trunks crossed with paste, covered with thatch, braided with branches or bamboo, and made of mud walls. It is usually divided into two rooms, one for people and animals. The Miao people in Hainan Island live in long and narrow thatched houses, three rooms in a building, with long eaves, and the corridor under the eaves is a place to rest. The Miao people in southern Sichuan and northwest Guizhou mostly live in houses with thatched roofs or tile roofs.

The Miao people are generally small families with one husband and one wife. Property is inherited by the man, and the housewife enjoys more power and status in the family. Elderly parents are generally supported by their young sons. In some areas, it is customary for father and son to be named together, with the son's name first and the father's name last. Usually, only the birth name is used without the father's name. Due to the influence of Han patriarchal feudalism, some people formulated generation lines, established ancestral halls, and compiled family trees. Marriage is relatively free for young men and women of the Miao ethnic group. Young men and women can choose to go through the process of "youfang" (dongnan of Guizhou), "sitting in the village" (Rongshui, Guangxi), "stepping on the moon" (Wenshan, Chuxiong, Yunnan), and "tiaohua" (in central and western Guizhou). ), "Meeting Girls" (Western Hunan) and other social activities, free singing, love and marriage. Chuxiong, Yunnan and other places have a "girls' room" system to facilitate the selection of good spouses. There are also marriages arranged by parents, usually through relatives and friends to match the marriage. Miao women have the custom of "not leaving their husband's family" after marriage, which is still preserved especially in southeastern Guizhou. In some areas, the Miao people also have customs such as "returning girls", "transferring houses", and "marriage between wives and sisters".

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