The main festivals of the Miao people include New Year's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mountain Hiking Festival, Nationality Field (Miaochang Festival), etc. Eating New Year means celebrating the Spring Festival (New Year), and the Miao people call it "Ndaoxzhab". The time is from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is divided into small year and big year. During the first 4 to 5 days, people are busy sweeping the floor, doing laundry, making noodles, killing New Year pigs, and making bacon and other preparation activities. Three days to celebrate the New Year. On New Year's Eve, every household will set off firecrackers and have a reunion dinner. Before the meal, ancestors must be sacrificed and invited to celebrate the New Year. On the first day of the lunar month, we eat glutinous rice balls in the morning and eat New Year's rice at noon; on the third day of the lunar month, we bake rice cakes to send away our ancestors; from the third to the fourteenth day of the lunar month, we visit relatives and friends and pay New Year greetings to each other; on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, acquaintances play pranks on each other to entertain each other. Stealing pigs, cattle, livestock and large amounts of property; celebrating the Yuanxiao Festival on the 15th day of the year (that is, celebrating the New Year).
Duanyang Festival is called "NaoxDausYangx" in Miao language. The Duanyang River rises once a year, and people take the opportunity to worship the Dragon God. The festival atmosphere is no longer very strong, and the focus is mainly on improving life.
Traveling on Huashan Mountain is called "NGHOUKDaox" in Miao language. It is generally held by the Miao people in the county from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month (i.e. during the Spring Festival). The gathering times in various places are not consistent. Gutterside and Fengyan in Hangcao are from the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year; Gaoqilin in Baila is from the first to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year; Baiyang River in Huangni is from the first to the eighth day of the Lunar New Year; Bao in Hele is from the first to the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. Washan is thirteen to fifteen; Caoba of big trees is fifteen.
Traveling on Huashan originated very early, with the legacy of fertility worship. It is mostly held by Miao families who have no heirs after a few years of marriage. It can also be held jointly by multiple people. Legend has it that a long time ago, God created Miao Zu Gong and Miao Zu Po to have infertile descendants and traveled around the world. The god "OKBuad" showed Miao Zu Gong three rice hexagrams and asked Miao Zu Gong to dance in the flower bed (trotnilndrual); After reading the three egg hexagrams, Po Miao called him the flower pole (zhangtnjexbangx). Because of stepping on the flower mountain, the god "Nzux Nyongs Lous" allowed Miao Zugong and Miao Zupo to have children and prosper like a market. Therefore, if you want a child, you have to step on the flower mountain. At the end of the hike, the priest will make twelve clay eggs and send them to the next organizer's home along with the flower pole. This is because in ancient times, brothers and sisters got married and gave birth to twelve eggs to reproduce the ancestors of various ethnic groups. The above legends or rituals fully illustrate the ancient sexual and reproductive worship functions of mountain climbing. Nowadays, it has developed into a large-scale mass cultural exchange and entertainment event.
On the morning of the first day of trekking on Huashan Mountain, a flower pole setting ceremony was held to mark the beginning of the trekking. On this day, people dressed in the most exquisite costumes go up to the mountain to sing and dance, which is very lively. On the last day, the flower pole inversion ceremony was held, and the trekking ended.
Traveling to Huashan Mountain is a mass spring outing activity of the Miao people. People visit relatives and friends, communicate with each other, and carry out various cultural, entertainment and sports activities. Young men and women can talk and sing to each other freely, which is an excellent opportunity to make friends and fall in love. This is in sharp contrast to the so-called "men and women are not intimate with each other" in feudal society, and it is the beginning of free love.
Ethnic races are held in spring and autumn, and are limited to Hele, Zhendong, Macheng, and Mani. Each race only lasts for one day, and the time varies from place to place. Helechang falls on the 20th day of the sixth lunar month. Third, Zhendong and Macheng are on the second day of February and July, and Mani are on the third of February and July. On the day of the event, people come to the venue early, dress up each other, put on the latest and most beautiful clothes, gather in groups of men and women, old and young, play the reed, hold hands, talk and laugh, and make love. activities on the field. Some engage in family affairs, some exchange production information and life experiences, and unmarried young people pay attention to their special lovers, or have heart-to-heart conversations with their loved ones to express their love. The Miao costumes in Hele Miao Township are mostly women's clothing styles, with the following four main types. Type I clothing: mainly distributed in 14 districts including Fenshui, Huangni, Lianghe, Gaofeng, Baila, Longfeng, Xuyongzhen, Luobu, Houshan, Yingshan, Guanxing, Fengcao, Shiba and Shuiling. Townships. Women in this type of clothing wear green wool on their heads, a green handkerchief or a hoop on their head, and a white handkerchief wrapped with green wool. They wear embroidered back shoulder pads, flower sleeves, flower cards, a short jacket with right hem, a batik embroidered pleated skirt, and flowers. Waistband, flower ribbon, and white leggings. Type II clothing: mainly distributed in the three towns of Mani, Chishui and Macheng.
After death, the corpse is usually placed on the west side of the main hall first. In Hele, Macheng, Mani, Chishui and other places, the body is mortued in the room of the deceased. The priest is asked to use an uncastrated rooster, a bow and a pair of bamboo hexagrams to bury the body. The deceased "shows the way", guiding the souls back to the Yellow River, their hometown in the East, to reunite with their ancestors. Then the deceased is put in a shroud, and the body is moved into the main room and put into the coffin. The coffin is placed horizontally above the main room. A tree is erected in the middle of the main room (the tree should be newly cut, and a leafy branch should be left on the top), a big drum is hung, and the sheng and drums are played in unison to commemorate the occasion. The nephew, nephew, and sister-in-law should take turns holding torches to illuminate the deceased throughout the night, and the priests, family members, and relatives should sing funeral songs to mourn the deceased. Children, relatives and friends have to kill pigs, cows, chickens or sheep for sacrifice, which is called giving animals. Finally, the burial is carried out according to the auspicious date. Before liberation, most people were buried horizontally, that is, head to the east and feet to the west. Most of the Miao people have tombs. They gather and bury many in thousands of tombs, and as few as several hundred. This unique burial method is adopted because the ancestors of the Miao people migrated from the east, so that the souls of the dead can return to their hometown in the east to gather with the spirits of their ancestors. Later, influenced by Han customs, burials were gradually changed to follow the customs, and more people believed in Feng Shui, so they had to choose a place for burial and no longer gather in groups.
A few years later, the children and relatives will "uatvanhb" (fast) for the deceased again to commemorate and pay homage to the deceased. Remove the souls of the dead. "uatvanhb" has completely sent the soul of the deceased home, and the funeral is basically over.