Qiang New Year Festival
01 · Historical Records
The two alternative names of the Qiang New Year each speak of one side: the name Rimei coincides with the head of the year in the Qiang Pingyang calendar, while "Minor New Year" and "Harvest Festival" point out its place in the year — not the opening of the year, but a day of settlement after the year's farm work has been wound up. The Pingyang calendar is not synchronized with the Han lunar calendar, so the festival mostly falls on the first day of the tenth lunar month and lasts three to five days; both calendars, however, place this day at the turn from late autumn into early winter, and the same climatic transition was felt simultaneously in the mountains of Li County and in the interior. Three aims stand side by side — celebrating the harvest, sending blessings, and praying for peace: the former is a fact already in hand, the latter a hope not yet certain, precisely matching the psychology of settling accounts at year's end. The survivals of nomadic and hunting culture and the worship of the spirits of all things revealed in the festival show that beneath its agrarian content an earlier way of life is still carried on; looking at this displacement in Qiang society through the annual festival is more concrete than looking at it through documents.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Rimei Festival (the Qiang New Year) is also called the "Qiang New Year", the "Minor New Year", and the "Harvest Festival". It is a grand festival of the Qiang people, its activities centering on celebrating the harvest, sending blessings, and praying for peace. It is mainly prevalent in the broad Qiang settlement areas of the 23 townships of Mao County, Sichuan Province, and it is also transmitted in Qiang-distributed areas such as Wenchuan County, Li County, Songpan County, and Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County. The Rimei Festival takes its name from the Qiang Pingyang calendar; it is generally fixed on the first day of the tenth lunar month and lasts three to five days. In content, Qiang New Year activities mainly reflect the state of the early farming culture of the Qiang people, but in their forms of expression many survivals of nomadic and hunting culture and of the worship of the spirits of all things (animism) still appear. Whenever the Qiang New Year approaches, every village stockade holds grand celebrations presided over by a highly respected elder. Men and women, young and old, form circles on the lawn; first they sing and dance — popularly called "dancing the festive shalang" (a Qiang group dance) — then they open the zajiu (wine sipped through straws) and exchange delicacies with one another, jointly wishing a happy new year and reveling without restraint until deep night before going home fully satisfied.
The first day of the tenth month on the Qiang calendar
Also called the Qiang new year, the small new year and the harvest festival, it opens on the first of the tenth lunar month and runs three to five days.
A village celebration led by its elders
Each village celebrates under the direction of a respected elder, showing that the ritual order rests on personal standing rather than written rules.
Circle dancing on the grass
All ages form circles on the grass to sing and dance the salang, the ring being its basic formation and its fullest sound.
Passing the jar and the new year wishes
After the dance the jar is opened and passed hand to hand, food exchanged, and the village celebrates into the night.
Lixian and the north-west Sichuan new year belt
The festival ranges across the Maoxian townships and neighbouring counties of Wenchuan, Lixian, Songpan and Beichuan, with each village cooking from its own jars and neighbours coming to watch.
Agrarian content with older survivals
Agrarian in substance yet pastoral and animist in manner, the festival provides a ready example of how layers of life ways coexist in one observance.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Li County is one of the transmission sites of the Qiang New Year; together with the Qiang communities of the 23 townships of Mao County and of Wenchuan, Songpan, and Beichuan, it links into one stretch, and these counties jointly form a New Year festival belt in northwestern Sichuan. Here Qiang villages cluster along river valleys and mountainsides, and in front of each village there is usually level ground that can serve as an arena, so dancing in circles and drinking seated on the ground need no separate site; the festival customs and the spatial conditions of the settlements fit together closely. The Qiang New Year in the Li County area is mostly presided over by elders elected by each village: the whole village divides the wine by pot and the food by jar, never mixing them with those of other villages; when one village holds the festival, neighboring villages come to observe the rites, and the intercourse between villages is fixed by this shared date. The content of the Qiang New Year mainly reflects the conditions of the early farming culture of the Qiang people, yet its forms of expression still show many survivals of nomadic and hunting culture and of animist worship; this mismatch between content and bearing is especially evident in the mountain settlements of Li County.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qiang New Year Festival · Qiang New Year Festival · Qiang New Year Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Qiang New Year is a precious cultural heritage of the Qiang people. It integrates belief, history, song and dance, and food and drink into one, and through its festival activities it expresses the Qiang people's national character of worshipping nature and their ancestors. It has research value in many fields, including ethnology, folklore studies, sociology, history, and cultural studies.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xiao Yongqing 03-1476
- Wang Zhisheng 03-1477
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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