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| Miao Nian Festival of Langde Village, Guizhou |
| Langde is my village, we spend a few festivals every year . Called “ Ne Niu” in the Miao language by my village accent, Miao Nian Festival is a very important festival of Langde village. The Miao of Langde village spend the Miao Nian festival during the 10th lunar month which is usually at around the middle of November. In the past, the Miao used solar calendar, that’s why we(Miao people)calculate and spend the festivals by lunar month, and one year consists of 10 lunar months, one month has 36.5 days, thus the 10th lunar month is regarded as the end of the year. |
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| While the 10th lunar month arrives, the Miao in my village will spend the Miao Nian Festival, during the festival, we kill sacrifice, make sticky rice cakes, play Lusheng, dance Lusheng and bronze drum dance to worship ancestors and wish for good harvests of crops. The festive ceremony process includes killing pigs and chickens, making glutinous rice cakes, worshipping ancestor, dancing Lusheng(a kind of popular musical instrument made of bamboos) and bronze drum( a kind of ancient musical instrument made of bronze). We believe that tiger can eat pigs, so when the tiger day arrives, we start to spend the Miao Nian festival, this day is said to be an auspicious day to kill pigs. During this day, every family will kill a fat pig for the festival celebration. In the early morning, you will hear the noise of pigs crying, there is a tradition, if the pigs crying noise came earliest from one’s home, his family will be considered to be industrious and wealthy. After killing the pigs, every pieces of meat from all parts of the pig will be cooked together at a big wok, then all the family members, relatives and friends sit together and eat the mixed meat, this type of eating is called “Chi Pao Tang”—eating internal organs with soup. |
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| The second day is the day of the rabbit, during the late afternoon of the rabbit day, every family steams sticky rice and pounds the steamed sticky rice in the wooden trough, thus sticky rice cakes are made. According the old tradition, the meaning of making sticky rice cakes is to stick mice holes with sticky rice cakes as so to prevent mice wasting and eating rice, that means bumper harvests of rice. The dragon day is the third day, when I was a child, I remember, according to the tradition, at the late middle night after cock crowing, my father or my elder brother gets up, he kills chicken, cooks and prepares all the food, my mother and sisters still sleep, they are not allowed to get up to help with the preparation of the food, because women already worked too hard in the past, men particularly prepare this meal for women. Once the all the food is prepared cook well, my father or elder brother will tell my mother, my sisters and me to get up, I(children) put my fireworks close to the fiery pit to dry them in order to let the fire crackers make much bigger noise, setting off fire crackers is the children’s favorite. Then my father tells me to burn some incense and stick them into the cracks of the |
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| house front gates and into bamboo holes on the shrine, we also burn some ghost money and offer some cooked meat, rice wine to ancestors. My father mutters incantations like a shaman, he says :“today is the festival day, and today is a good day, now we are rich, we prepare good food, rice wine, ghost money for you, you eat first, you drink first, you eat the hot food, we eat later, we eat the cold food, we hope to get your protection and help, so we can make money, our children and grand children can have a much better study at high points”, we also hope our domestic animals grow healthy and fast. After that, my father says, ok, now we can eat, thus all my family start to eat the delicious food as tigers. All the food must be meat such as chicken, pork, fish, ect, no vegetables, if there are any vegetables, that means we will get poor the next year. Fish is a must dish for the Mian Nian festival, for the meaning of fish for Han(majority of Chinese), it’s surplus, extra, more, like more money, ect, but for the Miao, fish means more babies, we believe more babies more good fortune. One more thing, this day, we also give some rice to the buffalo to eat, because usually the buffalo only eats grass collected from mountains, he also works hard in the past. |
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| Before, during or after the meal with food and rice wine, it’s not permitted to pour water outside the house or clean the house, if we did, that symbolizes the family will be poor the coming year. Only till around 14:00, some relatives(uncles and cousins, etc, only men) begin to visit each other for drinking more rice wine, thus women can join the banquet with meat and rice wine, after that, we can pour water outside the house and clean the house. The Miao women in my villager are heavy drinkers for rice wine, during the festival, they drink with relatives and friends from one home to another home, a day, they can finish more than 10 homes, if they can’t finish the clan’s homes, they will continue the next day, no one works in the fields during the festival. Monkey is regarded as an animal fond of sports, since the money day, the Miao of my village start to dance with the rhythm of bronze drum and Lusheng, they dress their holiday bests, young girls put on their gorgeous silver jewelry, old woman wear their best hand made embroidered jackets and skirts, then dance together till the night falls, every one smiles and enjoys the nice atmosphere of the festival, the festival lasts for 11 days, the Miao Nian festival is also a nice opportunity for the young to look for their love partners, when the night falls on the 11th day, the sound of bronze drum and Lusheng disappear in the valley of my village(the foot of Leigonghshan Mountain), the Miao Nian festival comes to the end, and we will need to wait till the next year. |
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