To simplify the process and show reverence to their ancestors, a small-scale festival is celebrated every year in early spring or late autumn, lasting for three to five days.

On the first day, the elected committee in charge of the festival climbs the mountains to search for the soul of the dragon, a symbol of good luck. The shaman guides the dragon soul into a duck. In the evening, a pig is ceremonially killed and shared among all participants during a great celebratory feast. Families feast with friends and relatives from other villages late into the night.

Sharing the meat symbolizes sharing in the community and is the preservation of old traditions that are linked with the good fortune, prosperity and fertility of the whole village.

The next day, young girls and their mothers from surrounding villages flock to the village dressed in their best festival costumes and silver ornaments. In the center courtyard, where the festival takes place, a bronze drum hangs from a green bough symbolizing life and fertility. The shaman and the organizing committee beat and circle the drum. Young girls, sumptuously attired, join the circle.

People of the Miao ethnic group perform traditional dance during the closingcelebration of the Guzang Festival.

As the afternoon progresses, a huge circle of dancers form, swaying slowly to the beat of the drum and the sound of the Lusheng pipes. Everyone drinks alcohol. Peasants from the surrounding area hang colored ribbons on the bough where the drum is hanging. The music and dancing continues for four to six hours until the girls gradually drop out.

Feasting and more drinking then begins in the village. The shaman chants, lights incense and burns paper money before the organizing committee prepares its own meal and sits to eat and discuss the festival. Meanwhile, the young once again gather in the courtyard. An entertainment troupe is invited from anther village to perform. They dances and sings to the tunes of the 1900s with the most up-to-date routines while the young people look on.