Qiang New Year Festival
01 · Historical Records
The name Qiang New Year carries three layers of meaning: Rimei is an old name that coincides with the head of the year in the Qiang Pingyang calendar; "Qiang Calendar New Year" makes clear that it is the start of the year; and "Minor New Year" and "Harvest Festival" point out its place in the agricultural cycle — a day of settlement after the year's labor 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 place this day at the turn from late autumn into early winter, and the same climatic transition was felt simultaneously in the mountains of Beichuan and in the interior, so the festival remains stable across the different calendars. Three aims stand side by side — celebrating the harvest, sending blessings, and praying for peace: the harvest is a fact already in hand, peace a hope not yet certain, and putting the two together precisely suits the psychology of a year-end settlement. The survivals of nomadic and hunting culture and the worship of the spirits of all things shown in the festival demonstrate that an earlier way of life is still carried on beneath its agrarian content.
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 Qiang new year in Beichuan
The new year is kept across Maoxian and neighbouring counties including Beichuan, where steep valleys leave level ground in front of each village for the gatherings.
Rite, then dance, then the shared meal
Over three to five days the sequence moves from ritual to circle dancing to shared wine and food, joining solemnity with the ease of a feast.
Cooking and drinking village by village
Each village cooks and drinks from its own pots and jars while neighbours come to join, a loose convention that keeps the festival going at very low cost.
Authority resting with the respected elder
Every village celebrates under a respected elder, so the completeness of the ritual depends on whether a figure of standing is still present.
Traces of animist belief
The festival is agrarian in content yet older in gesture, with pastoral and animist survivals coexisting rather than being replaced.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Beichuan Qiang Autonomous 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, Li County, and Songpan, it forms a New Year festival belt in northwestern Sichuan. Within Beichuan the mountains are high and the valleys deep; villages are mostly sited on level ground following the lie of the slopes, and the open space in front of a village serves as the festival arena, where dancing in circles and drinking seated on the ground all take place. The pattern in which each village holds the festival dividing wine by pot and food by jar, while neighboring villages come and go to observe the rites, still obtains here. The Qiang New Year in Beichuan is presided over by a highly respected elder of the village, and the proceedings run in order from sacrifices through song, dance, food, and drink; the officiant acts on personal prestige rather than a written program, so transmission relies more on concrete individuals than on texts. 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 seen most clearly in the festivals of the mountain settlements.
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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