Most of the Zhuang men and women meet each other by singing songs to each other.
The songs are held regularly and are called "Song Market". Before the Song Market, girls dressed in full costume are invited to go out and sing songs. At night, the songs come to a climax, and under the moonlight, you sing and I answer, using love songs to express their love or using a flashlight in their hands to make fun of them and to look for the person of their choice.
If the two sides are willing to exchange tokens, they will tell their parents and ask the matchmakers to go and talk about marriage. If the woman's family agrees, the daughter's birthdate will be handed over to the matchmaker to bring to the man's home. If the eight characters match, the man's family to the woman's family bride price, said engaged. Once the wedding date arrives, the man's family invites female singers to pick up the bride, and the woman's family prepares several female singers to the groom's home. As soon as the feast begins, the two sides will begin to sing. According to custom, the day after the wedding, the bride to return to her mother's home with the singers to send the bride, on the way to have a duet.
Red Rice Festival
Every year on the first day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month and the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, compatriots of the Zhuang people in Wenshan Prefecture have to celebrate the "Red Rice Festival".
The "red rice" of the Red Rice Festival is dyed with the juice of a plant called red rice leaves. On the first day of the festival, the red rice leaves will be washed and put in a pot with water and boiled until the juice becomes crimson, remove the slag, the soaked glutinous rice into the juice soaked for three or four hours and then dried, steamed in a retort that is into the red rice. Red rice color is bright and attractive, installed in a bowl, as if a red rose in full bloom, fragrant, refreshing, eaten with sugar or brown sugar, tasty and delicious. Later, red rice gradually became red, yellow, purple, black, white (the original color of the rice) and other "colored rice". These colorful foods, are with red rice leaves, Yang Mimi flowers, purple vine, rice stalks and other plants dyed in the pulp, without any side effects on the human body.
About the origin of the Red Rice Festival, Zhuang folklore, in the Northern Song Dynasty Huangyou period (1050 years), Zhuang chief Nong Zhigao dissatisfaction with the Song dynasty's oppression of the rule of the people led the people to revolt, attacked the city to seize the fortress, robbing the rich to help the poor, two or three years time, the establishment of the regime and claimed the title of emperor. Upon learning of this, the imperial court sent troops to besiege him. Nong Zhigao was outnumbered in a fierce battle with the soldiers and was besieged by them on a mountain in Malipo County (also known as Guangnan County). Nong Zhigao held out on the mountain for several months. Due to the lack of water on the mountain, Nong Zhigao had to kill a few war horses and used their blood to cook the little rice he had. The generals ate the red rice with horse blood, refreshed, high spirit, ready to fight with the soldiers to the death. Dawn of the first day of the sixth lunar month, Nong Zhigao led all the men and horses desperately rushed to kill, and finally protruded from the siege. Transfer on the way, through the Zhuang village, by the Zhuang people's hospitality. The Zhuang men, women and children gathered at the end of the village, to give the generals to eat rice, drink rice sprinkles, send food. The generals said that without that red rice, there would be no victory. Later, in order to honor Nong Zhigao, the Zhuang people set the beginning of June as a day of remembrance. On the day of the festival, every family would make red rice to honor Nong Zhigao.
The time of the Red Rice Festival of the Zhuang people is not uniform, there is the first day of June, there is the 24th of June, and there is the first day of July, which is determined by the time when Nong Zhigao's procession passes through the place. The Zhuang Red Rice Festival usually lasts 2-3 days. During the festival, old people and women visit relatives and guests; men go up to the mountains to play with their friends, or play basketball and chess than the village; girls compete to wear festival dress, and groups of young men to sing songs. The boys also clean up and dress up, to find the girls sing. Singing in love with each other, with the consent of both parents, will choose a day to get married. In some places, children and teenagers, carrying a small red rice bucket, loaded with red rice and chicken legs, to play outside, while playing and eating red rice and chicken legs.
The Red Packet Festival is the second most popular festival among the Zhuang people throughout the year, and even the poorest people have to find a few kilograms of glutinous rice and a rooster to make it a good festival. During the festival, villages and hamlets are full of joy, wine and laughter.