China Popular Itineraries |
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Guangxi International Folk Song Festival | Guangxi International Folk Song Festival
A Chinese folk song competition is held, with performances by Chinese and foreign folk singers, multi-ethnic gatherings are organized and visitors may also attend trade fairs and participate in various local tours.
Scenery Tourism Festival
The Guilin Scenery Festival, an important festival activity beginning in 1992 in Guilin, has been celebrated every fall when the osmanthus flower is in blossom. The major activities include an exhibition of tourism products, tour itineraries and tourism commodities, large folk performances and business negotiations. The unprecedented festival'97 will be a big event for all Guilin lovers.
Folk customs of Sanjiang
Guests visiting a Dong home in Sanjiang will be invited to partake in oiled tea. In a pot hanging above the main room's fire pit, the woman of the house will pour a little tea oil, dried puffed glutinous rice, soybeans and peanuts. After stirring a while, she places this moisture into each tea bowl. Tea leaves known as "mist tea", are then placed in the pot, and hot water is added. When boiled, this is poured into each bowl. According to custom, each guest should drink three bowls of such tea. It can help aid digestion and increase mental activity.
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March Third Song Festival | March Third Song Festival
March Third (lunar calendar) Song Festival is the traditional song festival of Zhuang Nationality, when people dress up, sing folk songs, cook sticky rice and paint eggs to celebrate the festival. For two or Three days, the smaller singing field will be bustling with one or two thousand people and a larger singing field up to ten thousand.
The Zhuang's Singing Festival
The Zhuang love to sing, a fact known far and wide. They use songs to describe objects and events, and to express their happiness or sorrow. Down through the generations, the Zhuang have developed the tradition of making friends, choosing competent persons, expressing love and selecting spouses through song. Over time, the Singing Festival has taken shape.
On the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, every place in the waterlogged countryside in Guangxi becomes a sea of songs. The country folks, pour into the fair from all directions, bringing with them homemade colorful glutinous rice and eggs. At the fair, they first offer sacrifices to the Singing Goddess, Third Sister Liu, begging her to bestow them with more singing talent. In the minds of the Zhuang, the legendary Sister Liu is the embodiment of beauty and love as well as wisdom and courage. The Singing Festival is in fact held in her honor.
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The Zhuang's Singing Festival |
Having paid homage to the Singing Goddess, the people engage in antiphonal singing, either as duets or in groups. Incredibly, the songs are concocted on the spot, and the singing goes on until one party admits defeat. Many of the songs are witty and humorous, often giving rise to massive laugher in the audience.
In fact, this day has become the Zhuang's "Valentine's Day". Through song, the young man finds his love and the girl secretly gives her beloved a colorful silk ball an accepted token of love, comprising 12 parts like flower petals, each representing one month.
The Yao's King Pan Festival
The Pan in north Guangxi is a major branch of the Yao ethnic group who believe they are the descendants of the Yao King (also known as King Pangu). According to legend, Panwang (King Pan) was a hero of great courage and talent who performed meritorious deeds. After he married the princess, he took his wife to settle down at the foot of a mountain, where he hunted and farmed while she did the weaving. The couple raised six boys and six girls. One day, while hunting in the mountains, Pan was run down the mountain by an antelope and died in the accident. To remember their father, the children made a drum out of the antelope hide, which they beat sharply to express their anger and sorrow in their loss.
This legend is believed to be the origin of the King Pan Festival, held on the 16th day of the 10th lunar month, the day of Pan' birth. Despite its tragic origin, the festival is a holiday of great joy. In the Dayao Mountain area in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, festival celebrations begin the day before when a portrait of King Pan is hung in the memorial hall in each Yao village. Led by the head of the clan, the villagers offer sacrifices to the king and sing songs to recall his good deeds. The next morning, amidst deafening sounds of gongs and drums as well as firecrackers, people gather in the village square to sing and dance, extolling the virtues of King Pan and praying for protection and happiness. The most important is a dance accompanied by the yellow-mud drum, something evolved from the ancient antelope hide drum. The sounds of the drum and the graceful dance render the occasion with a sacred atmosphere.
Since the festival takes place after the autumn harvest, the Yao also regard the event as a celebration of bumper harvests. Consequently, every household partakes in the activities with joy and many also choose this occasion for weddings. |
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