For the Zhuang people, dancing chickens and cows during the Spring Festival is an auspicious event. The chickens and cows here are not real cows. China's fifty-six ethnic groups all have fifty-six customs during the Spring Festival. The Zhuang people may pay more attention to the Spring Festival than the Han people. The Zhuang people are simple and kind-hearted. They believe that dancing chickens and cows can bring good luck and pray for the prosperity of livestock. They will go to fetch water on the Spring Festival because they believe that the Spring Festival is the first day of the new year and the first day of the new year. The water is the cleanest, and picking it back will bring good luck to your family.
The chicken in the chicken dance is made of wood, not a real chicken. The young man who dances the chicken takes it and sends New Year blessings from door to door. The young people who perform the chicken dance will sing festive songs, and the blessed family will pluck a few chicken feathers from the wooden chicken and put them in their own chicken coop. This process is to hope that the livestock will prosper in the new year. It is indeed a very interesting and meaningful custom. I think what is rare is not that the young man dancing the chicken can send blessings from door to door, but that the Zhuang people have continued this custom.
The cow in the cow dance is made of bamboo, and then wrapped in cloth to look like a cow. Someone also leads it from house to house to greet the New Year. Cow dancing is not something that can be done by one person. It is usually held by one person and driven by the cow. Several people are singing songs around. It is very lively. Wherever the cow goes, it brings good luck. Such a custom It indeed adds a lot of excitement and joy to the Spring Festival. On the day of the Spring Festival, Zhuang people will eat rice dumplings and make colorful New Year's Eve rice, which heralds a bumper harvest in the coming year and every family will have surplus food.
On New Year's Day, Zhuang people will also go to fetch water. Zhuang women will add brown sugar to the water they fetch on this day, which becomes "Lingli Water". Drinking it can make you smarter, which will be said in the coming year. Maybe you can even meet someone destined to be there. In short, the Zhuang people did have a happy Spring Festival, and the Spring Festival day was fully arranged, which also showed the diligent and good quality of the Zhuang people. I hope the beautiful customs can be passed down forever.