In Yunnan province, a place renowned for its perpetual spring-like climate, the Lisu people in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture are celebrating their most important festival — the Kuoshi Festival.

Lisu people are singing and dancing to celebrate their New Year.

In Lisu language, kuo means “year” and shi means “new.” For the Lisu, the festival is equivalent to the Spring Festival celebrated by China’s majority Han population.

People used to decide the day of celebration by observing natural phenomenon, so they didn’t have a fixed New Year’s Day in different places. The holiday usually falls between the last ten-day period of December and January of the next year in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. In December 1993, the government of the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture decided the Kuoshi Festival would be celebrated from Dec 20 to 22 so the Lisu people can welcome the New Year and celebrate the festival at the same time.

Lisu people are singing and dancing to celebrate their New Year.

Before the festival is celebrated, Lisu people clean their houses with oak branches while singing: “sweep all the diseases, rid all the tribulations, end all the sufferings and finish poor and hungry days.” When the cleaning is done, a pine tree will placed in front of the house and pine needles will pave the floor, which is supposed to invoke longevity for the whole family and to exorcize diseases and calamities.

During the festival, people generally make wine, butcher chicken and pigs and pound cakes. All kinds of foods are prepared. They break pine boughs and insert them on the door, the number of which is the same as that of the men in the house. This implies getting rid of diseases and bringing happiness and good luck.