The Zhuang are a nation of many festivals, including the Spring Festival, the Song Wei Festival "March 3", and the Festival of Sending Stoves, etc.
-, Spring Festival ?
The Zhuang New Year ? That is, the Zhuang New Year. The time is one month earlier than the Han Chinese. In the past, every year on the 30th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar, every family kills pigs and goats, sacrifices their ancestors, and worships the community, welcoming the New Year. In the past, there was also the August Youzhi festival to welcome the new year. Song Dynasty music history "Taiping Huan Yu Ji" records: "Vine State custom does not know the year, only with the August You Day (i.e., before and after October) for the wax, young and old congratulate each other as the year." The Zhuang people harvested rice in August as a New Year's festival, which is different from the Han Chinese New Year and is said to be "a common practice that does not know the year".
Nowadays, although the festival of the Spring Festival of the Zhuang people is influenced by the Spring Festival of the Han people, the form and content of its activities have the characteristics of their own people. Before the Song Dynasty, the festivals in all parts of the Zhuang people were based on the cycle of agricultural production, and since the Ming Dynasty most areas have gradually adopted the lunar calendar festival. The activities of the Zhuang people to welcome the new year, and the Han people are more or less the same, from the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day, to the fifteenth day of the family ate for the ancestral god of the "mother zongzi" (oversized zongzi) that is after the "loose year", meaning that the new year festival period of the termination of the gathering and celebrating. There are also some areas of the New Year's festivities extended to the end of the first month, picking the white head of Weng or mugwort and glutinous rice patties (commonly known as "Ai Ba") small sacrifices for the end of the year celebrations, and some extended to the end of the February 2 social festival. Therefore, the entire first month of the year is usually celebrated as the Spring Festival period, known as the "first month of the year", "eat the first month of the year". The Zhuang language Cieng ("first month" for short) for the Spring Festival.
Two, Song Wei Festival
March Song Wei Festival: March 3 of the lunar calendar, also known as "March 3 Song Festival" or "March Song Wei", is the traditional song festival of the Zhuang people. The Zhuang people have several regular folk song gatherings each year, such as the first month of the 15th, March 3rd, April 8th, August 15th, etc., of which March 3rd is the most grand. On this day, families make five-color glutinous rice, dye colorful eggs and celebrate the festival. The song festival usually lasts two or three days each time, and is held in an open space not far from the village, where bamboo and cloth are used to build a singing hut to receive singers from other villages. Singing to unmarried young men and women as the main, but the old and children have to come to the spectators to help. Small song dike has one or two thousand people, the big song dike up to tens of thousands of people. Next to the song dike, vendors gathered, active civil trade, the nearby masses to catch the song dike people to provide housing and food, whether they know each other or not, are warmly received. A larger song dike, dozens of miles around the young men and women come to participate in the sea of people, singing one after another, very lively. Tianyang County's Qiaoye are traditionally larger song dike. People to the song dike on the race song, enjoy the song; male and female youth through the song, if the two sides of the love for each other, will give each other tokens, thought the love. In addition, there are interesting activities such as embroidery ball tossing and colorful egg touching. Throwing embroidered balls is mainly for entertainment, but also as a token of love. When a girl has a crush on a young man, she throws the ball to him. Touching colored eggs is to make fun of each other and also has the meaning of betrothal. The Song Festival is an event for the people's trade and the promotion of national culture. 1985, the People's Government of the region will be March 3 as Guangxi's national arts festival.
Three, send stove Festival, the year 30
Send stove Festival: December 23 is the Zhuang traditional festival of sacrifices to the God of the stove, aims to send the king of the stove to heaven. People think, Zaowang master all year round for the farmhouse stove tube fire, that is, hard, and nasty, from Lunar month 23 to the first day of the first month of the following year, the farmhouse to the Zaowang master to rest for seven days, Chen offerings to the farewell, and in the mouth of the stove to paste a small couplet: "good things to the sky, down to the ground drop auspicious". The idea is to ask Mr. Zaowang to say good things for the family in the sky and pray for abundance and well-being.
Nianxian: also known as Nianxian, or Lunar New Year's Eve, this is the busiest and most vivid festival of the year for the Zhuang people. Each family slaughtered the New Year pig, wrapping dumplings, making rice cakes, sewing new clothes, posting Spring Festival couplets and so on. At night, pig heads, castrated chickens and fruits are offered to the ancestors in a grand ceremony. Adults around the fire, New Year's Eve vigil; children enjoy the game, sleepless all night. Households in front of the door hanging firecrackers, to be burned when the cock crows to the first sound of the cock crows the first firecrackers for the most auspicious, commonly known as the "pressure chicken mouth gun". And in the fire stove side Chen offerings to welcome the return of Zaowang. After that, every chicken crow once, a burst of firecrackers, until dawn.