The Hani ethnic minority mostly lives in the southwest part ofYunnanProvince. It is a mountainous race in the Honghe area ofYunnanProvince. The Hanis are mainly engaged in agriculture, and are good at reclaiming terraced land to plant paddy rice, and clearing slopes for tea plants. They cultivated the famous purple rice and Pu'er tea, and created one of the seven field systems in Chinese agricultural history -- terraced field culture. They have many traditional festivals, including October Day (New Year), June Day (taste new food), Botu (to fete the mountain gods), Mother Memorial Day, Recognizing Uncle Day, andAbaduo(love and singing festival). The rich dietetic culture matches well with the colorful festival culture, forming special Hani customs.

The Hanis have two meals a day, with paddy rice as their staple food, supplemented by maize. They like cooked rice, rice cake, rice noodles, rolled noodles, and pea noodles. They also use the purple glutinous rice to make purple rice, purple rice cake, purple porridge, purple rice noodles, purple rice pudding, purple steamer pot chicken, purple wine with eggs, and purple rice-drug-sugar porridge, thus forming a complete medicinal food series, which have the effects of enriching blood, boosting vital energy, warming the spleen, invigorating the brain, and the kidney, and building up the body.

The Hanis are very fond of meat, including pork, beef, mutton, chicken and duck, etc. Plenty of food and bowls of wine are indispensable when people entertain guests. Smoked bacon andGanbaare delicacies for choice of the Hanis.

The Hanis have a special dish calledBaiwang, a kind of food made of fresh blood of pig, sheep and dog, chopped and fried meat, liver and kidney, and added with the mixture of chili powder, aniseed powder, and wild prickly ash powder. The dish is frightening to the eyes, but delicious to the tongue. It tastes strong, thick, hot and delicious.

In the traditional Hani calendar, a year is divided into cold season, warm season and rain season, and a season is divided into 4 months. They have the habit of celebrating two New Year festivals, one being the October Festival, and the other, the June Festival. The October Festival begins with the first dragon day in lunar October, and lasts for 5 or 6 days. Sacrifice will be offered to the gods and ancestors. By then, every family kills a big cock, and cooks it on the spot. People never take it indoors. Each member of the family eats a piece, but not for the married daughters. Since the third day, a grand campaign is held each afternoon where all villagers drink wine together, symbolizing unity and happiness. People in the village are divided into three groups. Each group plays the host for one day. When it is about the time of sunset, the male that rules the roost in each family carries delicacies and broomcorn wine to the street in the music of gongs and drums, and places them in order on the prepared long bamboo mat. The mat in some big villages may be 100 meters long. The male that rules the roost in each family sits around the mat, with his legs crossed. The families offer their best dishes, and drink and dance according to the rules.

The Hanis are fond of liquor, and there are many wine estivals, such as the Mother Memorial Day, Elders' Day, Yellow Rice Day, Naming Day, Dragon Day, Recognizing Uncle Day, and so on. Quality wine is provided for each festival. The most interesting festival isAbaduo, the love party with wine and songs.

Abaduois a wine festival where young Hanis show love, wisdom and cooking techniques. It is usually held in the leisure season. The young men of a village jointly invite the girls of the neighboring village to take part in. The numbers of male and female participants are equivalent, and usually around 20 each. When the night falls, the feast begins in a big house. Men and women get seated in pairs. The dishes are rich, with surely a boiled cock (with two cock testes and a living crab on the top). The pairs propose toasts and sing in antiphonal style, and stay together till dawn. Before parting, the young men will send glutinous rice and meat to their lovers, and set the date for the next gathering.

The Hanis also have the custom of drinking new crop wine. Before each autumn harvest, the Hanis in the Yuanjiang area ofYunnanProvincehold a grand ritual of drinking new crop wine, with the best wishes of harvest, safety and health. Each family reaps a handful of to-be-ripe paddy, hang it upside down to the edge of a small bamboo mat on the upper side of the back wall, praying to the family god to protect the crops. Then, they take dozens of grains, fry them or not, and dip them into bottles containing liquor. Then a propitious date is set, all families prepare rich dishes, and all members of the family drink some new crop wine without exception. And every one should eat and drink enough.

The Hanis take fire as the life of the family. They carefully protect the kindling, and guard the fire. Each family has several fireplaces, which should not only be ever burning, but also be different from each other. The first fireplace is used to cook small pots of rice and cook dishes; the second is specially used to cook rice and so on; in addition, each family has a special fireplace just for the pigs' food.