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Chinese New Year is almost here! In addition to traditional New Year customs, various ethnic minorities also have their own diverse folk festivals, including fire dragon dances, water splashing festivals, horse racing festivals, and other exciting activities that will truly amaze you!
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🔸Time: The first day of the first lunar month in the Tibetan calendar (February 10, 2024)
Tibetan New Year is a traditional festival for the Tibetan people, roughly the same as the Han Chinese Lunar New Year, lasting 15 days. Local residents purchase New Year's goods, prepare highland barley wine and fried dough sticks, clean the kitchen, and offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God. Starting on the first day of the New Year, Tibetans exchange New Year greetings, go up the mountain to burn incense, and replace prayer flags. Various recreational activities continue for three to five days, before gradually transitioning to Tibetan Buddhist rituals.
🔸Time: The 13th
day of the first lunar month (February 22, 2024) 🌟The Gannan Lunar New Year Dharma Assembly, also known as the "Maolanmu Dharma Assembly," is a prayer ceremony, with the most grand being held at Labrang Monastery. The festival includes the Release of Life Festival on the 8th day of the first lunar month, the Sun-bathing of the Giant Buddha on the 13th day, Dharma Dances on the 14th day, the Butter Lantern Festival on the 15th day, and the Circumambulation of the Shangpa on the 16th day. The most impressive event is the Sun-bathing of the Giant Buddha on the 13th day of the first lunar month, which attracts countless tourists every year. The festival also features unusual Tibetan opera costumes, masks, drums, and trumpets, all on display during the festival.
🔸Time: The 13th to 16th day of the first lunar month (February
12th to 16th, 2024) 🌟The Yangmei Torch Festival typically consists of three parts: a cultural parade, the torch-lighting ceremony, and the torch parade. On the evening of the sixth day of the first lunar month, village elders preside over a torch-lighting ceremony, igniting a pile of straw to symbolize the burning of the sacred fire. Elders then hold torches to draw the flame, and paraders light their own torches, passing them in relays. Under the night sky, the dancing torches resemble a shimmering golden dragon, stretching for kilometers. Yangmei Village becomes a "city that never sleeps," a scene of nationwide revelry.
🔸Date: March 12, 2024, the third day of the second lunar month.
🌟The Maitreya Fire Festival, also known as the Axi Fire Festival, is said to have a thousand-year history. This "Fire Festival" is a grand masquerade. Every year on the third day of the second lunar month, nearly 1,200 local Axi Yi people demonstrate their ancient primitive fire worship, with bonfire revelry, fire jumping, and fire bow shooting. The revelry is revelry in the ethereal glow of the flames and the rich, intoxicating atmosphere.
🔸Time: March 17th of the lunar calendar (April 13, 2024)
🌟The annual Water Splashing Festival is the most important festival of the Dai people. There are various celebrations during the Water Splashing Festival, including dragon boat racing, Buddha bathing, fireworks shows, etc. Dai men, women, young and old will wear festive costumes and splash water on each other. Everyone carries clean water and takes the collected flowers and leaves to dip the water and splash each other, which symbolizes good luck, happiness and health. Foreign tourists can also naturally participate in it.
🔸Time: 15th to 17th day of the third lunar month (2024.4.23-4.25)
🌟During Sisters' Day, young men and women will sing love songs or ancient songs in duets. After singing, they will give each other gifts. If they give gifts voluntarily, they are most likely engagement tokens. There are also bullfighting, drum-beating, horse racing and other activities and celebrations that reflect the love life of young men and women. Therefore, Sisters' Day is also known as the "oldest Eastern Valentine's Day."
🔸Time: The fourth day of the fifth lunar month (June 9, 2024)
🌟The pilgrimage meeting is a grand event for Tibetan compatriots in the Siguniang Mountain in western Sichuan to worship Siguniang Mountain. Legend has it that the day when the girls turned into mountains happened to be the fourth day of the fifth lunar month. On that day, believers will dress in their best clothes and come to the altar with foods such as ghee, barley wine, and glutinous rice cakes to worship, and present Hada and prayer flags to Siguniang Mountain. After the worship, there will be singing, dancing, horse racing, wrestling and other performances and competitions until everyone has a great time.
🔸Date: The fourth day of the sixth lunar month (July 9, 2024)
🌟Nadam, a uniquely ethnic competition of athletics, entertainment, and sports, was created and passed down by the Mongolian people during their long nomadic life. Hulunbuir has rewritten the tradition of Nadam being held solely on lush grasslands, hosting the annual Ice and Snow Nadam. Modern-day Ice and Snow Nadam is no longer simply a grassland athletic event; it is a grassland extravaganza that integrates athletics, folk customs, and ethnic culture.
🔸Time: The sixth day of the sixth lunar month (July 11, 2024)
🌟The Clothes Drying Festival is a grand celebration held by the Yao ethnic group on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month every year. On this day, Yao men, women, young and old from all over the country gather here in their best attire to eat reunion dinners, dry red clothes, hold weddings, carry golden dogs, sing songs, drink fine wine, and comb their hair... This rich and lively scene is even more lively than the Chinese New Year.
🔸Date: The 15th day of the sixth lunar month (July 20, 2024)
🌟 Meaning "worshiping the Thunder Goddess," the local Dong people hold an annual ceremony to pray for rain and a good harvest. They begin with the slaughter of a black pig, burn incense and paper, and then, presided over by a priest, they all shout loudly toward the heavens, hence the name "Heaven Shouting Festival." The ceremony grows in scale each year, attracting tourists from all over the world to witness the rituals.
🔸Time: June 29th to July 1st of the Tibetan calendar (August 3rd to 5th, 2024)
🌟It is one of the most grand, largest and most content-rich festivals of all Tibetan festivals. In Tibetan, "Shoton" means yogurt and "Dun" means "banquet". During the Shoton Festival, there are also grand Tibetan operas and Buddha-drying ceremonies. It is usually held in the Norbulingka in Lhasa, which is surrounded by colorful prayer flags and is the summer garden of the Dalai Lama. On that day, all residents are immersed in singing and dancing, as if this is the most energetic day for the people of Lhasa.
🔸Time: The tenth to twelfth day of the seventh month of the Tibetan calendar (September 13-15, 2024)
🌟Although it is called the Horse Racing Festival, it has rich content and forms. In addition to the large-scale opening ceremony, there are horse racing events such as the 10-kilometer horse long-distance race, the Namtso Lake Race, the horse sprint, and equestrian performances; traditional Tibetan sports such as yak racing, Tibetan weightlifting, men and women tug-of-war, and Yajia; and cultural performances such as ethnic costume performances, Guozhuang dance, four seasons pastoral songs, and folk song duets.
🔸Date: The seventh day of the tenth lunar month (November 7, 2024)
🌟The Miao New Year is the most important festival of the year for the Miao people and a national intangible cultural heritage. It is divided into three consecutive festivals: "Little New Year," "Middle New Year," and "Big New Year." The Miao people celebrate the harvest by worshipping their ancestors, playing the reed pipe, and performing rituals in the hall. The entire village, young and old, including relatives and friends from surrounding villages, don their lavish Miao attire and wear large silver horns, which are rarely worn on ordinary days. Over a thousand gleaming silver horns and glittering silver ornaments create the unique "Silver Sea" of the Xijiang Miao New Year.
🔸Date: December 1-11, 2024.
🌟Dong New Year, known as "Ninggeng" in the Dong language, is a traditional festival of the Dong people. It is the largest and most solemn of all Dong festivals. Like the Han Chinese Spring Festival, it is a time for family reunions and harvest celebrations. The most important Dong New Year ritual is "Dou Sha," or singing ancestral songs. Besides honoring ancestors, it also serves as a way for elders to pass on their traditional culture.
🔸Time: October 25th of the Tibetan calendar (December 25, 2024)
On this day, all temples and pastoralists belonging to this sect, both large and small, and villagers in every village and village light butter lamps on altars inside and outside the temples, as well as in their own scripture halls. That evening, the Jokhang Temple gates were practically packed, and Barkhor Street was also bustling with people. Monks lit butter lamps along the roadsides, around pagodas, on temple roofs, and on steps where they could be lit. They also offered a bowl of pure water in the temple hall. The interplay of the butter lamps and the water created a continuous, luminous glow, resembling stars falling from the sky, illuminating the night sky. At this moment, believers chorused scriptures in commemoration of Lama Tsongkhapa, creating a solemn and dignified scene.
With the changing times, some folk customs in China are disappearing, especially in the sparsely populated western region. There are many ethnic minorities there that we have never come into contact with. They have both faith and culture, and have given rise to many folk activities unique to the locals. If you are interested, you must go and experience the different folk customs.
