Miao Style
About 1.9 million people of the Miao ethnic group live in the province, making it one of the major Miao hubs in the country.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Miao people.
Normally, the Miao begin to butcher pigs and make ciba from the 23rd day of the last month in the lunar calendar. On the lunar New Year's Eve, people will stay awake for the eldest person in the village and sing folk songs throughout the night.
On the first day of the lunar New Year, they will play firecrackers and compete to carry the first barren of water home, a sign of hope for more wealth in the coming year.
The Huayuan county has a deep bond with ox and land. On the New Year's Day of lunar calendar, they will feed ox with ciba to show gratitude and respect to these animals' labor.
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The straw dragon dance is a traditional routine in the province's ancient city Hongjiang.
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Tujia's New Year
The Tujia ethnic group in Hunan usually spends the Spring Festival one day in advance of the Han people. The time is the 29th or 28th day of the lunar December.
On this day, every family will put cypress branches and plum blossoms in shrines, front doors, windows and pigpens. They will also paste spiritual banknotes on the furniture and fruit trees near the house to wish for a prosperous year. The spiritual banknotes will not be removed until the 15th day of the lunar New Year.
The Tujia people also stay awake on the last lunar day of a year.
When the rooster crows at the crack of the dawn, people rush up to set off firecrackers because it is believed that the one who can set off the first firecracker right after the crow might have an extraordinarily wonderful year.
The Dianfang town of the Longshan county still keeps the original Tujia cultures alive. During the Festival, the Tujia people will celebrate through dance, theatre performance and sports games.
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