Various Festivals of the Yao Nationality

Danu Festival

Danu is a name from the Yao language meaning never forget. This festival comes on May 29th. It is believed that this day is the birthday of Zuniang, an ancestor of the Yao people. As a result, it is also name named Zuniang Festival.

It is said that Zuniang was actually known as Miluotuo by the ancient Yao people.　Once she asked her third daughter to go to the mountains to reclaim the land. Before her daughter left, she gave her a precious item---the bronze drum. The drum helped the young girl dispel birds and make a good harvest. The third daughter of Zuniang got married with a local Yao man and lived happily in the mountains. Their lives flourished and created more and more descendants, who were the early ancestors of today's Yao nationality. To commemorate Zuniang, the Yao people celebrated her birthday and named it Danu Festival.

On this day, all the Yao people from different villages clean their houses and streets; they also make offerings of rice wines and sticky rice cakes to worship Zuniang. According to traditional customs, all families have to sacrifice some chickens and sheep. Young men and women wear special clothes and assemble at one place; they celebrate the birthday of Zuniang by hitting a big drum which symbolizes the bronze drum that Zuniang had given to her daughter. All of them worship Zuniang piously and pray to her for a good harvest every year as well as a happy and prosperous life to both man and livestock. While enjoying the performance of hitting the drum, all the people will try their best to propose a toast to the best drummer and deem him King of Drum. In addition, they will sing the traditional Miluotuo songs accompanied by dance and music as a tribute to Zuniang and what she had done for the Yao people.

Ox Festival

The Ox Festival of the Yao nationality deals with agriculture production. In the areas where the Yao ethnic group live, ox is a very important source of animal power for in farming. People need ox to plough and harrow their farmland. In the past, some of the Yao people also used oxen to pull their carts when transporting goods. Because of the reliance on oxen for labor, it has gradually become a cherished and loved symbol and tradition to the Yao nationality as well as the creation of The Ox Festival. According to the folk legends of the Yao nationality, April 8th every year is the birthday of ox; therefore, the Yao people make this day the Ox Festival, during which all oxen have a rest. People are not allowed to shout or scream to oxen or even beat them with whips or sticks. In today's Lucheng area of Tianlin County, Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, all the Yao families kill chickens and ducks, pick up mud-snails, and catch loaches to prepare sacrifices for worshipping the byres. They take off the ring from an ox’s neck and put it into a bamboo basket together with three stones, three peaches and one scarecrow ( symbolize a shepherd ), and then hang the bamboo basket on the byre. This job has been known as Protecting the Soul of the Ox.

In today's Fuchuan Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi, the Yao people make fodders mixed with wines and eggs to feed the ox, and then take them to a place abundant with water and green grass for the ox to enjoy. The people just sit down on the grass and enjoy the delicious food they have brought with them from home. When night falls, they wash their ox to make them look as clean as a penny before taking them back home. After the ox enter their byres, people burn incense and light fireworks to worship the God of Ox and pray for their ox’s safety and peace. In today's Guiping City of Guangxi, on this day colorful sticky rice wrapped with fresh mango leaves are made in each Yao family, and brought to the byre as sacrifices to worship the God of Ox and pray for peace and safety for all livestock as well as a good harvest. At last, they feed the ox the delicious sticky rice.

Source: www.chinatravel.com

Editor: Yang Yi