Guangxi Festival

Every nation and ethnic group has its festivals and celebrations to pray for what people need, to show their achievements, to pay respects to great people and to celebrate their happy life. Guangxi people have many festivals, some of them are national festivals, and some of them are special to the Guangxi people. As a province of many ethnic groups, it has some festivals of ethnic minorities.

Sanyuesan Festival

Sanyuesan Festival is a grand festival of the Zhuang people, and it becomes an official festival in Guangxi.  It is not only a holiday to the Zhuang people, but also a holiday to other ethnic minorities, like Yao, Dong and Miao. This festival is very important, and it is almost of the same level as the Spring Festival. During this festival, people have two days off from work.

In this festival, there would be a big singing party for people to entertain themselves. People would dress up for the singing party, and they would have singing competition. And there are activities like tossing Xiuqiu and bumping colorful egg. It is festival for singing, but more for offering sacrifice to ancestors and tomb-sweeping. To the Zhuang people, this festival is the most important festival, for it links them with their ancestors. on that day, people would repair tomb by adding earth and weeding grass, offer sacrifice, burn hell money and incense sticks, and light firecrackers. By paying respect to ancestors and offering sacrifice, people thank their ancestors for their hard efforts to provide better conditions for offspring’s existence, and people also do  introspection about their life and themselves.

In this festival, the Dong people of Sanjiang county have an activiy for fireworks competition, which is a traditional activity and it has been held for more than three hundred  years. Except this, there would be other entertainments, like dragon and lion dance, Caitang dance, and local opera performance (Caidiao and Guiju). The Yao people would make sacrifice to Shanshen, a god guarding mountains, and Sheshen, a god protecting a village, and eat sticky rice. This festival is also a day for collective fishing and hunting, and the fish and animals would be allocated to every family to share their harvest. Activities of singing and dancing are held to celebrate this special day.

Changha Festival

Changha Festival is a grand traditional festival of the Jing people, and the celebration of it is to show their respects to the sea god and their ancestor, which is popular in Fangchenggang city where the Jing people live. The celebration day of Changha festival is not fixed, which varies from place to place, and it may be on the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, the tenth day of the eighth lunar month and the fifeenth day of the first lunar month. At 3:00 pm of the celebration day, people would make sacrifices to god. After that, people would have a feast and watch singing performance. Chang and ha both have the meaning of singing, and this festival is a grand singing performance. The performance is played by one man who plays an musical instrument, Sanxianqin and two woman who sing in turn and play bamboo chips, which lasts for three days and three nights, or seven days and seven nights. The singing is about folk legends, love stories and so on. Except singing, there is dance performance. The Jing people has  a special dance,  young girls dance with a china bowl on their heads and two glasses in their hands, and on the bowl, there is a plate.  In the plate and glasses, there is a lighted candle.

Chixin Festival

Chixin Festival is a festival for eating newly-reaped rice to the Gelao people, the Yao and Miao people. It is celebrated after people reap their rice crop, and it is usually in the sixth lunar month. On the celebration day, people would cook newly-reaped rice, and sacrifice it to Gods and ancestors. then people cook  delicious food and enjoy their meals.

Duanjie Festival

Duanjie Festival is the biggest festival to the Shui people, as important as the Spring Festival to the Han people. The day of this festival is not fixed, and it may be a day from the eighth lunar month to the tenth lunar month. The picking of the day has its own rules. Duanjie festival is used to  celebrate agricultural harvest, welcome new year and make wishes for the next year. On that day, people would clean their houses and people would be a vegetarian in two meals, and no meat but fish is allowed. Fish is special to the Shui people, which is one of the sacrificial offerings. The fish is specially  cooked : first, stuff it with Chinese chives, chestnut kernel and so on, then stew or steam it, and after the sacrifice ritual, people would eat it. Two important activities on this festival is sacrifice ritual and horse racing. The sacrifice ritual is solemn, and it has presbyter to host the ritual, and there are some display things in the ritual: copper drum, sticky rice cake, clothing and jewelry, and farming tools, which are used to express their gratitude to their ancestors.

Fenlong Festival

Fenlong Festival is the oldest and the most important festival to the Maonan People, and it occurs on the fifth lunar month. This festival is grandly celebrated in Huanjiang Maonan autonomous prefecture. On this major day, people would cook sticky rice of five colors and fenzhengrou. During this festival, the Maonan people would dress up, make sacrifices to gods and ancestors, and pay visits to friends and relatives.

Panwang Festival

Panwang Festival is a festival to make sacrifices to Pangu who is the ancestor of the Yao people. It is celebrated on the sixteenth day of the tenth lunar month for three days and nights or seven days and nights. The festival has regular procedure, including a solemn sacrificial ritual and entertaining activities. The ritual is complex and has two parts, which is hosted by specialized people. The entertaining activities include singing Panwang songs and have Panwang dances.