Miao Siyuebaguniang Festival
01 · Historical Records
The name of the Fourth Day of the Eighth Month Maidens' Festival is linked to a figure in Miao legend: the legendary story of Yang Jinhua recurs repeatedly in the festival's sung content, from which it may be inferred that this festival gradually took shape through the commemoration of some female ancestor or heroine. Dogs and oxen are included among the objects of sacrifice, showing that the Miao have preserved here the ancient idea of regarding domestic animals as sacred companions; thus, although the festival centers on women, its rites still carry the coloring of a primitive belief in which humans and animals are interchangeable. That the worship of the female ancestor and the eating of black rice stand side by side among the festival's principal items also shows that the choice of date was not arbitrary but followed the day on which, according to legend, a certain woman suffered or was saved.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Miao Fourth Day of the Eighth Month Maidens' Festival is also called the 'Black Rice Festival' and the 'Flower-Hop and Moon-Hop Festival'. On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month each year, women in Suining County, Hunan Province, and the surrounding Miao areas celebrate the 'Fourth Day of the Eighth Month Maidens' Festival'. The Maidens' Festival has a long history and diverse forms; it integrates sacrificial activities, dietary customs, song and dance performance, love and marriage customs, and costume display, displaying a strong ethnic character. The principal activities during the festival include bringing married daughters back to their natal home, brothers carrying their sisters into the main hall, sacrificing to ancestral spirits, sacrificing to dogs and oxen, eating black rice, gathering greens, pounding ciba glutinous rice cakes, performing dragon and lion dances, singing mountain songs in antiphony, playing the leaf whistle, climbing vines, teasing the spring ox, carrying story tableaux, performing Nuo dances, and flower-hopping and moon-hopping, with the eating of black rice and the worship of the female ancestor as the main contents, highlighting the Miao people's distinctive custom of honoring women. The content of the singing mainly praises the merits of ancestors, extols love between men and women, marvels at the power of nature, and recounts the legendary story of Yang Jinhua. The bronze gongs, oxhide drums, snake-skin fiddles, lusheng pipes, suona horns, tupi pipa, bamboo flutes, and Dong xiao flutes used in the activities are mostly made from materials at hand by the Miao people themselves. In addition, the Maidens' Festival activities also make use of paper flowers, five-colored lions, straw rain capes, oxen, Nuo masks, Nuo sabers, and other items. The Maidens' Festival preserves a great quantity of ancient Miao sacrificial rites, folk customs, and oral culture, displaying the wisdom of the Miao people, and it can play a positive role in inspiring the national spirit, promoting cultural identity, strengthening ethnic cohesion, and safeguarding ethnic unity.
Married daughters returning home
On the eighth of the fourth month married women are brought back to their natal homes, where brothers carry their sisters into the hall, temporarily inverting the usual order of the household.
Offering to the female ancestor and eating black rice
The core of the day is a rite to a female ancestor and the eating of black rice, a plant-tinted dish shared by the whole village, joining worship and eating into one act.
Offerings to dog and ox
Dogs and oxen are worshipped alongside the ancestors, acknowledging the animal kin through whom another order of beings is addressed.
Climbing vines, the sedan of tales and nuo dancing
Beyond cooking, the day includes vine climbing, ox teasing, a story-teller carried on shoulders, and masked nuo dancing, all of which have to be taught by an experienced hand.
Black rice and the Girls' Festival
Also called the Black Rice Festival and the Flower-Jumping Moon Festival, the day layers an agrarian observance, a courtship gathering and a women's leading role into one name.
The legend of Yang Jinhua in festival song
Festival songs narrate ancestral deeds, love affairs, the power of nature and the story of Yang Jinhua, making the day a channel for oral history as well as pleasure.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Suining and the Miao settlement areas of southwestern Hunan are the central belt of transmission for the Fourth Day of the Eighth Month Maidens' Festival. The festival is organized by village and stockade as units; on the eighth day of the fourth month each stockade brings married daughters back to their natal home, and brothers carry their sisters into the main hall, so that the place of women within the family is set in the most prominent position. Gathering greens, pounding ciba, performing dragon and lion dances, singing mountain songs in antiphony, playing the leaf whistle, climbing vines, teasing the spring ox, carrying story tableaux, performing Nuo dances, and flower-hopping and moon-hopping are arranged in sequence, mostly taking place in the stockade's drying grounds, main halls, and field edges; participants move across stockades, and neighboring villages often come in groups. Instruments and articles are mostly made locally by each stockade itself: bronze gongs, oxhide drums, snake-skin fiddles, lusheng pipes, suona horns, tupi pipa, bamboo flutes, and Dong xiao flutes are self-supplied and self-sounded, and paper flowers, five-colored lions, straw rain capes, oxen, Nuo masks, Nuo sabers, and other props are also needed; the market fairs before the festival thus double as distribution centers for materials and musical instruments.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Siyueba.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The festival preserves in one body the ancient sacrificial procedures, oral legends, dietary practices, songs and dances, and bodily contests; it is a rare complete sample for the study of Miao folklore and ethnomusicology. The plants used for black rice and the methods of dyeing it, as well as bodily skills such as vine-climbing and story-tableau carrying, can only be sustained with living practitioners present. Nowadays the performative element of the festival has gradually increased, and the market fairs and antiphonal singing are more readily accepted by outside audiences, while the parts that depend on particular village elders to preside over complete sung texts and ceremonies have relatively contracted. The focus of protection should fall on those who can still recite the full procedure.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Niuzhen 05-3015
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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