The GuZang Festival is a great occasion for the Miao people to worship their ancestors. They sacrifice bulls, beat drums, and hold other exciting ceremonies. In the Chinese language, the word Gu means a bull, while Zang means viscera of an animal. The festival only happens once every 13 years, at end of September or November.

One of the most important part of the festival is beating drums. A Miao drum is crafted with maple wood. People use cowhide to cover both ends of the drum. The Miao think the soul of their ancestors exists in this huge drum. So during the festival, they beat the drum very loudly to wake up their ancestors, who take part in their exciting worshiping ceremony.

Two different kinds of drums are used in the festival. One is the double drum, which includes two identical drums. All together they reach 170 cm in length and 30 cm in diameter. The double drums are usually put in a couple’s home, who has been married for a long time but doesn’t have a child. They worship the double drums to expect that the drums can give them children. On the day of festival, people take the double drums out for the ceremony.

For each Guzang Festival, the Miao have a new single drum. After the festival is over, they place the drum in a cave until it decays. The single drum is quite smaller than the double drums.

In the August before a Guzang festival, the Miao drag the old single drum out of the cave, then they will hold a praying ceremony. After that a new single drum is ready to be made.

An elderly man is selected as the leader, who presides over the worshiping ceremony a full two years before the festival! This man is in charge of choosing the sacred bulls. The sacred bulls can’t be used for farming, and they are fed carefully until the ceremony.

The most conspicuous person during the festival is the leader in a special costume. He wears violet shirt, with some dried fish tied up around his head. This suggests that their ancestors ever resided along the Yangtze river in east China and lived on fishing.

On the first few days of the festival, people sing, dance, and hold numerous banquets to feast friends, neighbors, and relatives. Anyone who visits their village is warmly welcomed! They have meat and bean curd, but they can’t eat vegetables. The festival lasts 13 days.

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The Miao minority in southern China celebrates the all-important GuZang festival every 13 years. They wear literally pounds of silver jewelry and take part in activities that date back thousands of years!

During the festival, the Miao always use good words to describe any detail of the occasion. For butchering a pig, they say kiss the big official; for taking a butcher knife, they say give me the leaf; for heating the stove with some straw to cook the pork, they say use the quilt to cover the official. By doing this, they try to avoid any unhappy feelings.

On the 5th day of the GuZang festival, the sacred bulls are led around the village, with firecrackers exploding all around. The bulls are adorned with colorful decorations.

The bulls are slaughtered just before dawn the next day. Their heads are put together facing east, which suggests the ancestors of the Miao come from east China. A ceremony is then held to release souls of these bulls from purgatory. At last people sing the old sacrificial songs together.

After the ceremony, the meat of bulls is divided and distributed for people to hold feasts at home.

In the next few days, the Miao continue to revel in their festival. They sing and dance with the beautiful drum music echoing through the mountains.

Bullfighting is an exciting game held during the festival. Bullfighting means two bulls fighting with each other. The bull killed in the game is considered a hero and will be buried with a big funeral. On the gravestone, his battle story is recorded.

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