In the next few days, the Miao continue to revel in their festival. They sing and dance with the beautiful drum music echoing through the mountains.

One of the most important parts of the festival is beating drums. A Miao drum is crafted with maple wood. People use cowhide to cover both ends of the drum. The Miao think the soul of their ancestors exists in the huge drums. So during the festival, they beat the drum very loudly to wake up their ancestors, who take part in their exciting worshiping ceremony.

A Miao elder presides over an ancestor-worshipping ritual.

The Miao use two different types of drums for their festival: double drums and single drums. The double drums comprise two identical drums which are 170 cm long and 30 cm in diameter. The double drums are usually kept by a couple who has been married for a long time but doesn’t have a child. They believe worshiping the double drums can bring them children. On the day of festival, the double drums are taken out and used for the ceremony.

The Miao make a new single drum for each Guzang Festival. After the festival is over, they put the drum into a cave until it rots.

In August, before a Guzang festival, people take the old single drum out of the cave and hold a praying ceremony. Then they start to make a new single drum.

Miao people watch buffalo fights during Guzang.

Two years before the festival, an elderly and respectable man is selected as the leader who officiates at the worshiping ceremony. The man is in charge of picking up the sacred bulls. The sacred bulls are fed with good food until the ceremony and nobody is allowed to use the bulls for farming.

The most conspicuous person during the festival is the leader in a special costume. He wears a violet shirt with some dried fish tied up around his head. This suggests that their ancestors resided along the Yangtze River in east China and lived on fishing.

Bullfighting is an exciting game held during the festival. The bull killed in the game is considered a hero and will be buried with a big funeral. The bull’s battle story is recorded on its gravestone.