The Miao people live mainly in southeastern Guizhou Province, the Damiao Mountains of Guangxi, Hainan Island, and the border areas of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces and regions. In the ancient Chinese canon, there have long been about five thousand years ago Miao ancestors recorded, which is from the Yellow River Basin until the middle reaches of the Yangtze River south of the clans and tribes known as the "southern barbarians". The Hmong have migrated many times throughout history, roughly from the Yellow River basin to Hunan, to Guizhou and to Yunnan.
The Miao have their own language, which belongs to the Miao branch of the Miao-Yao language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Originally, there was no national script, but in the late 1950s, they created the Latinized Pinyin script. Nowadays, most people use Chinese as their common language.
The Miao people used to believe in the spirit of all things, worship nature, and worship their ancestors. The "Drum Festival" is the biggest festival of the Miao people. Generally, it is a small festival for seven years and a large festival for thirteen years. In the lunar calendar from October to November of the B Ohio Day, when to kill a bullock cattle, jumping Lusheng dance, sacrifices to see the ancestors. Food time to invite friends and relatives *** get together, in order to enhance the relationship, family harmony. Miao music and dance has a long history, the crowd favorite Lusheng dance, high skill. The Miao's arts and crafts, such as flower picking, embroidery, brocade weaving, batik, jewelry making, etc., are magnificent and colorful, enjoying international fame. There are many festivals for the Miao, and some of the more important ones are the "Year of the Miao", "April 8" and "Dragon Boat" festivals.
The Hmong eat three meals a day in most areas, with rice as the main food. Deep-fried food is most common in the form of deep-fried poi. If you add some fresh meat and pickles as filling, the flavor is even more delicious.
Much of the meat comes from livestock, poultry raising, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places of the Miao people like to eat dog meat, there are "Miao dog, Yi wine," said. Miao cooking oil in addition to animal oil, mostly tea oil and vegetable oil.
The Miao pay great attention to etiquette. Guests visit, must kill chickens and ducks hospitality, if it is a long way to the guests, the Miao people used to invite guests to drink horn wine. Eat chicken, chicken head to honor the guests in the elders, chicken legs should be given to the youngest guests. In some places, there is also the custom of sharing the heart of the chicken, that is, the oldest master of the family uses chopsticks to flick the heart of the chicken or duck to the guest, but the guest can not eat it himself, and must share the heart of the chicken equally with the old people in the audience. If the guests have a small capacity for alcohol and do not like to eat fat meat, they can explain the situation and the host will not force them to do so, but if they do not eat and drink enough, they will be regarded as looking down on the host. The Miao people pay attention to the true feelings, very enthusiastic, the most taboo pomposity and hypocrisy. The hosts do not take the first step to meet the guests and do not walk in front of them; they use honorific terms to address the guests in conversation; they should wear festive costumes to welcome the guests; they should set up wine outside the walled village to welcome the guests; when the guests arrive at the door of the house, the male host should call out the door to inform the mistress at home, and the mistress should open the door to welcome the guests with songs; in front of the guests, the mistress does not ascend to the top of the stairs. Miao taboos
Birth taboo: maternity birth, taboo outsiders into the room. Accidentally enter the wrong person, go out to wash their feet, and drink a bowl of cold water, in order to prevent the maternal milk "step dry". Maternity avoid eating old female yellow beef, female pork, rooster meat, small fish, vegetables, chili peppers and so on. Some Miao areas, taboo pregnant women and pregnant women meeting, also taboo to go to other women's homes, otherwise it is believed that will prolong the period of labor.
Agricultural taboos: the first time each year, the Miao people return to the field to send manure taboo to see outsiders, if encountered, taboo greeting. Planting rice seedlings if you see the rice field with fish, avoid saying fish, otherwise the fish will eat the roots of rice seedlings. Some villages, when harvesting millet to leave a small spike is not collected, if the child asked, avoid saying "do not want", to say "they have not grown", otherwise the millet because of sadness in the future and refused to grow again. In the field, avoid mentioning the rats, for fear that they will hear to come to spoil the crops, only to "their father and son" to call it. Jealous of the E day, after the first month of spring, where the E day is not moving soil and water.
Funeral taboos: some Miao areas, taboo male died in the daytime, women died at night, that the time is not right, the deceased must then be a different sex dead companion. Therefore, the death of discomfort, the mourners often ask the sorcerer to read a spell "change", while doing a palm-sized wooden coffin with the burial, show that there is a companion. Jealousy coffin put iron, copper and other non-silver metal and cotton and coated with tung oil things, such as the deceased on the way back to the East can not buy water to drink, iron, copper will also be tossed to death only. In some Hmong areas, the day of the death of the village, can be on the labor, but avoid going down to the field. Is the day, the same village people avoid picking firewood home, otherwise picking firewood will have a disaster. During the bier, family members avoid eating vegetables. Within 1 month after the burial, nothing in the home shall not be sold or borrowed.
Life customs taboos: some Miao areas, taboo at any time to scrub drinking pots, rice packets, rice pots, can only be washed when eating new rice to show that the old rice to meet the new rice. Scrubbing at any time will wash away the family wealth, rice is not enough to eat. Drinking raw water in the mountains is not to be drunk directly, must first hit the grass mark to show that kills the sick ghosts. Do not move the clothes of others put on the roadside, so as not to infect leprosy. Avoid children playing with small bows and arrows at home for fear of hitting their ancestors. It is forbidden to cross a child's head, otherwise the child will not grow tall. It is forbidden for women to sit on the same bench with their elders.
Guests should not call the host "Miao", they like to call themselves "Meng"; forbidden to kill the dog, dog, do not eat dog meat; can not sit on the place of the ancestors of the Miao God, the tripod on the kang can not be stepped on; not allowed to whistle at home or at night; can not be photographed to eat the ash patties roasted on the fire; not allowed to use the band to tie the Miao people; meet the door to hang straw hats, tree branches, or the wedding and funeral festivities, do not go into the house; the road meets the newly-wedded couple, do not pass through the middle. The first thing you need to do is to go through the middle of the road and not to go into the house.
In the process of marriage between young men and women is also essential food is glutinous rice. Hunan Chengbu Miao painted with mandarin ducks of glutinous rice as a token to give each other; held a wedding, the bride and groom to drink a cup of wine, the bridegroom also invited the bride and groom to eat painted with the dragon and phoenix and Feng doll pattern of glutinous rice.