The origins and customs of March 3rd for the Zhuang people in Guangxi are as follows:
Origin:
According to historical records, March 3rd for the Zhuang people comes from the worship of Zhenwu God, the great emperor of the north. Sacrifice, March 3rd of the Zhuang people is the inheritance of the ancient Chinese "Shangsi Festival". Nowadays, the "March 3rd" festival has gradually declined in the Central Plains. However, the Zhuang people have infiltrated the culture with national characteristics into the Zhuang March 3rd festival in history, so that the Zhuang nationality's March 3rd festival continues to be inherited in the national culture.
There is a record in ancient China of "March 3, Shangsi Festival". During the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu described the customs of the Tang Dynasty in his poem "Beautiful People's Journey": "The weather is fresh on March 3rd, and there are many tourists by the waterfront in Chang'an." Song Zhiwen described the area around Guilin today in "March 3rd in Guizhou" Scenes during March 3rd: "The prosperous old customs are beginning, and the city is drinking in the tents and the river is boiling."
Customs:
In the ancestral temple, an altar is set up to offer pigs, cows, sheep and colorful glutinous rice. Teachers and Daogongban are invited to perform rituals and worship the ancestral gods. "Yapu", the flags sent from various villages were hung high around the altar. Before the sacrifice, the master first sets up an altar or mourning hall, lights incense and candles, and the ceremony begins. The master who presides over the sacrifice wears a robe.
Wearing a dharma hat, a dharma belt, and law enforcement tools (yahut and altar-holding wood), while chanting mantras and chanting sutras, they sing and dance, and open the altar to invite gods. In the middle of the ceremony, two boys wore red and black wooden masks respectively and held two-ring sticks (i.e. ghost-driving sticks) to perform double stick dances and double ribbon dances. Then the boys and other teachers and masters performed together to pray. A bumper harvest.
Cultural characteristics:
March 3rd of the Zhuang people has the characteristics of history, inheritance, mass, extensiveness, richness, systematicness, inclusiveness and innovation. March 3rd of the Zhuang people in Wuming District is a traditional cultural form of the Zhuang people, which depends on certain political, economic, geographical, religious, aesthetic and other factors and conditions.
The cultural phenomenon (including marriage culture) formed has become a spiritual link connecting this human body. The third day of the third lunar month of the Zhuang people embodies the beliefs, cultural psychology, aesthetic concepts and life pursuits of the Zhuang people, and reflects the traditional cultural characteristics and historical life style of the Zhuang people from all aspects.