The Taijiang Miao Sisters Festival, also known as the "Sisters' Rice Festival", is a traditional ethnic festival of the Miao people in Laotun and Shidong, Taijiang County. It is held from the 15th to the 17th day of the third lunar month every year. The festival center is mainly located in Shidong Town, 40 kilometers north of Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and also covers Laotun Township, Mahao Township of Shibing County, etc. Shidong Town, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, located on the bank of the Qingshui River, is a Miao settlement nurtured by the Qingshui River. "Shidong" is a Miao language, meaning stone cave, also known as Langxi, with an area of 99 square kilometers and a population of 16,000, of which the Miao population accounts for 98%. Shidong is an important ferry and post station connecting the upper and lower reaches of the Qingshui River. Due to its convenient transportation, it has been prosperous and lively since ancient times. It is an important gathering place for the Miao people. There are as many as 19 festivals every year: such as the Fishing Festival on the first day of the first lunar month, the Bridge Respecting Festival on the second day of the second lunar month, the Sisters Festival on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month, the Cow Respecting Festival on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the Dragon Boat Festival on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and the New Food Festival in July. Although it has undergone several changes and the society is constantly developing, the Miao community in this area still maintains a complete Miao cultural ecological zone. Among them, the Miao Sisters Festival is the most influential and representative. The Miao Sisters Festival is called "Longgaliang" in the local Miao dialect. "Long" means to eat, "Ga" means rice, and "Liang" means to realize the wish of sisters and friends to gather together. As for the origin of the Miao Sisters' Day, there is a local folk song that roughly describes it as follows: "We originally lived in the east, where the water and the sky are connected, and there are so many girls that we eat sister meals every year. In order to escape, we moved westward, and we were separated from our married sisters for a long time, and we don't know when we will return. When we come to a new place, we will invite them together to eat sister meals every year, and never forget our sisterhood." In addition, a local folk legend says: "Originally, the Miao people lived in the east where the water and the sky were connected. Later, the population increased, life became difficult, and some people had to migrate to the west. However, the married girls could not come back, so they were brought back to catch fish and shrimps with their sisters for a meal. After a few days of reunion, the married ones returned to their husband's family, the unmarried ones also got married, and those who were going to migrate also left." This shows that the Miao people had the custom of eating sister meals (Sisters' Day) a long time ago, and it has been passed down to this day. During the annual Sisters' Festival of the Miao ethnic group, parents of girls who do not have silver jewelry and formal attire will be busy for several months or even longer before the festival. Fathers are busy raising money to make or buy silver jewelry for girls, and mothers are anxious to embroider flowery clothes for girls. As the festival approaches, girls prepare colorful sister meals. The green color represents their beautiful hometown, the red symbolizes prosperity, the yellow symbolizes a good harvest, the purple symbolizes the coming of purple air, and the white symbolizes pure love. Catching and eating fish during the festival is an important etiquette of the Sisters' Festival. The Sisters' Festival is on the 15th day of the third lunar month. As soon as the sky gets light, girls dress up and go to the fields with young men to catch fish and play in the water, talking or singing, and joking with each other. At noon, with the help of their mothers, the girls also wore silver crowns, silver rings in their ears, necklaces around their necks, flowery clothes with silver pieces, silver bracelets on their hands, and embroidered shoes on their feet. They came from dozens of miles away to Laotun Village to participate in the first day of drumming. On the second day (March 16), they went to Yangjia Village in Shidong to step on the drum. On the third day (March 17), they gathered in Pianzhai. During the Sisters' Festival, when night falls, young men from afar come to the fixed "youfang" field in the girls' village, blow wooden leaves or whistle to send signals, and invite the girls to gather. The two sides communicate with each other through love songs, singing and answering each other. When the festival is about to end, the girls, with all kinds of wishes, put the colorful sister rice in bamboo baskets or towels, and put meaningful tokens in them to give to young men. For example, pine leaves are hidden in the rice, representing needles and thread, implying that the young men should give the girls embroidery needles and thread in return in the future; bamboo hooks are hung, implying umbrellas as a reward, and if several hooks are hung, several umbrellas are given. If two bamboo hooks are put inside each other, it means that the girls hope to have more contact with the girls in the future; toona sinensis buds are put, indicating that the girls are willing to marry the young men; cotton is put, implying that the girls miss the young men very much; coriander has the same meaning and implication as toona sprouts; cotton and coriander are put, indicating an eagerness to get married; hanging a live duck means the hope to give back a piglet to the girl to raise in the future, so that it can be killed for everyone to eat when eating sister rice next year and have a party again; putting chili or garlic implies that they do not want to have contact or break up in the future. During the Miao Sisters' Festival, every girl participates in various collective activities with unique decorations, clever lyrics, sentimental tokens and elegant dance moves, attracting the opposite sex to seek satisfactory love, thus establishing her lifelong marriage and love life. The Miao Sisters' Festival, with its unique content and unique way, shows the evolution of the marriage and love system in human society and reflects the progress of social history. Through it, it reflects the historical pictures of matriarchal clan, matriarchal society, feudal society and modern society, and interprets the concepts, behaviors and attitudes of human beings towards natural attributes and social attributes in various periods of social history. From the various etiquette and customs of the Sisters' Festival, it is mainly sisters who are the planners and organizers of this festival, and men must act according to the opinions of the girls. Its origin can be traced back to the primitive matriarchal clan and matriarchal society. The Miao Sisters' Festival is collectively planned, hosted, participated in and inherited by women. It is passed down orally and mentally from mothers to girls, and is passed down from generation to generation in the form of fixed gatherings. Although Sisters' Day has a wide range of influence and appeal, it also faces severe challenges and tests in the tide of modern market economy: first, many people work outside the village to make a living, and the number of people celebrating Sisters' Day has greatly decreased; second, in order to adapt to market demand, some embroidery varieties and techniques have lost the style of traditional techniques; third, the influence of foreign culture. Due to the rapid development and popularization of rural radio and television, many young people have focused their energy on modern culture and fashion, and have weakened their attention to their own traditional culture. Many people do not like to sing Miao songs, and the cohesion of their own culture has gradually faded.