Miao New Year Festival

Guizhou
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Every year on the 13th day of the seventh lunar month, the Miao people celebrate the harvest festival, Chixin Festival. Before the festival, people carefully feed their cattle and horses to be fat and strong; girls embroider beautiful dresses and ribbons, and prepare silver flower jewelry; boys are busy repairing and adding reed pipes. Chixin Festival is actually a festival for Miao youth to talk about love. Girls and boys invite each other in groups of three or five, either to go to the market or to watch bullfighting competitions. Early in the morning, the girls in the village walked out of their homes one after another and rushed to the nearby reed pipe field to dance the reed pipe dance. The Miao people have a proverb that "when the reed pipe sounds, the feet will itch." The Miao people believe that the reed pipe was created by the first grandmother, and the sound of the reed pipe is the mother's voice. On the reed pipe field, the boy who plays the reed pipe well will win the favor of the girls. After repeated duets and drinking, the bullfighting field began to become lively. Bullfighting is also the main activity of the New Year Festival. Each sleek buffalo, with glaring eyes, is led by three or five people and stands at their respective "posts". People gather like a tide, and the sound of reed pipes, the sound of awn tubes and the shouts of bullfighting form a deafening symphony. At this time, a prestigious old man carries a gourd of wine and sprays it on the bullfighting ring, announcing the start of the bullfight. When four or five big men lead the bull with a head-protecting straw bag, red and green paper flowers on its horns and a flag on its neck around the ring, and stand firm in the middle of the ring, a bull dressed in the same way on the opposite side comes running from more than ten feet away, and the two strong bulls fight each other desperately, and the two head-protecting straw bags are quickly smashed and splashed, and the crowd cheers from time to time. The Miao people like bullfighting, especially advocating strong and sturdy bulls. On the day of the competition, relatives of both sides of the bull owner will come to cheer and shout, with great style.

Intangible culture related to the heritage

China tourist attractions related to the heritage