The Miao people are an international ethnic group that originated in China and mainly live in South China and Southeast Asia. About 80% of the Miao population live in the southern provinces of China, and there are also sizable Miao populations in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The Miao people have a long history, and the original residents of Nanyue are related to them. In ancient Chinese classics, there are records about the Miao ancestors more than 5,000 years ago. The Miao people's ancestors can be traced back to Chiyou, who was active in the Central Plains during the primitive society. tribe. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Miao ancestors began to establish the "Three Miao Kingdoms" in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to engage in rice farming. The Miao people have migrated many times in history, and the general route is from the Yellow River Basin to Hunan (Hunan), to Guizhou (Guizhou), and to Yunnan (Yunnan). The Miao people have their own language, which belongs to the Miao-Yao branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Religious beliefs
The Miao people used to believe in animism, worship nature, and worship their ancestors. "Guzang Festival" is the largest sacrificial activity among the Miao people. Generally, there is a small sacrifice every seven years and a big sacrifice every thirteen years. It is held on Yihai day from October to November of the lunar calendar. At that time, a Guzi ox will be killed, Lusheng dance will be performed, and ancestors will be sacrificed. Invite relatives and friends to gather together during meals in order to enhance feelings and family harmony.
The main beliefs of the Miao people include nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and other primitive religious forms. In traditional Miao society, ghosts and gods are superstitious and witchcraft is prevalent. There are also some Miao people who believe in Christianity and Catholicism. The Miao people who believe in Buddhism and Taoism mainly speak the eastern dialect of Miao, which is called "Bad deib zhal" (Badai Zhou) in the Miao language.
Clothing Features
There are no less than 200 kinds of Miao costumes. It is the area with the largest variety and the best preservation of Miao costumes in my country and the world. It is called the "Miao Costume Museum". Generally speaking, Miao costumes maintain the traditional Chinese folk craft techniques of weaving, embroidery, picking, and dyeing. They often use one main craft technique while interspersing other craft techniques, either with embroidery or with embroidery. Dyeing with embroidery, or combining weaving and embroidery, makes these costume patterns colorful and colorful, showing distinctive national artistic characteristics.
Girls from the Miao family love to wear pleated skirts. There are more than 500 pleats on a skirt, and there are many layers, some as many as thirty or forty layers. These skirts, from weaving to bleaching, dyeing and sewing, to the final drawing and embroidery, are all done by the girls themselves. Together with the hand-embroidered flower belts and flower breast pockets, they are really colorful and beautiful.
Headwear includes silver horn Miao, silver fan, silver hat, silver kerchief, silver floating headband, silver hairpin, silver pin, silver top flower, silver mesh chain, silver flower comb, silver earrings, Silver boy hat. If the Miao girls in costumes gather together, it will definitely become a beautiful silver world. It is the nature of Miao girls to wear silver ornaments. They put their hair in a bun on the top of their heads and wear exquisite silver corollas about 20 centimeters high. There are 6 uneven silver wings in the front of the corolla, most of which are decorated with silver ornaments. Patterns of two dragons playing with pearls, butterflies exploring flowers, red phoenixes facing the sun, hundreds of birds facing the phoenix, and swimming fish playing in the water.
Festival customs
The Miao people are a nation rich in ancient civilization and pay attention to etiquette. Their festivals are unique and distinctive every year. In chronological order, one year is divided into twelve months, and each month has more than one festival.
The first Yin day of January (Tiger month or Yin month) is a festival for material exchange and socializing between men and women (called March 3 Street Festival in Chinese).
The first day of February (the rabbit month or the Mao month) is the Ox King Festival (called April 8 in Chinese), the social cherry gathering between men and women, and the birthday of Buddha.
The first Chen day and the second Yin day of March (Dragon Moon or Chen Moon) are the Small Dragon Boat Festival and the Big Dragon Boat Festival respectively. The Small Dragon Boat Festival later commemorated the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (Mi). surname), also known as Qu Yuan Festival and Singer Festival.
The first Si day of April (Snake month or Si month) is the Dragon Subduing Festival (known as June 6th and June Festival in Chinese) and the New Eating Festival (barley ripening).
The first sub-day of May (horse month or noon month) is the Xiaonian Festival (called the Seven Sisters in Miao language, namely the Big Dipper).
The second Yin day of June (the sheep month or the last month) is the Duck Festival, and the second Chen day is the Autumn Festival.
The first Shen day of July (Monkey month or Shen month) is the Wine Festival (glutinous rice is harvested to brew sweet wine and rice wine).
August (rooster month or unitary month) is the Festival of Sacrifice (mainly activities such as vertebrate cattle, eating pigs, dancing incense, returning Nuo wishes, and enlivening dragons to worship ancestors and souls).
In the Hunting Festival in September (Dog Month or Xu Month), a day is chosen to worship the three gods of Meishan and start hunting.
October (Pig month or Hai month) Mao day and noon day are the Pig Soup Festival (killing the New Year pig), Kitchen God Festival (sacrifice to the Kitchen God), New Year's Eve (New Year's Eve, called Miao in Chinese) People celebrate the New Year in October).
National Music
Miao music has a simple style and rich content. There are mainly songs such as flying songs, drinking songs, traveling songs (also called Malang songs), Lisu songs, sacrificial songs, and children's songs. The singing is high-pitched, loud and passionate. Its music can be either resolute, straightforward, rough and bold (represented by Fei Ge), or tender, euphemistic, delicate and deep (represented by You Fang Ge). Vocal music includes drinking songs, love songs, Gabaifu songs, etc. Musical instruments include wooden drums, bronze drums, reeds, etc.
Drinking songs include big songs, opening songs, ancestor worship songs, etc. Drinking songs in the Bara River Basin are often recited in a recitation style, usually with the repetition of one phrase. The drinking songs in Kaitang, Diwu and Wengxiang are solemn, deep and solemn.
The Wanshui, Wanchao and Lushan areas to the north of the Qingshui River are mostly recitation styles, and their big songs are rich, rough and unrestrained.
Love songs include four kinds of tunes in four areas: Guoding, Kaitang, Wanshui and Zhouxi. The love song of Guading belongs to the four-note low-pitched form, with a drawl at the end, ups and downs in strength, a gentle low return, and a blend of lyricism. Love songs in Kaitang, Wanshui and Zhouxi areas are generally in the fine-tuned style. Most are solos and duets, and a few are duets.
Fei Ge is a kind of love song that young men and women sing out to show their sincerity to each other and invite tourists when they are separated by mountains and rivers. Fei Ge is sometimes used when welcoming and seeing off guests and having a feast. There are three types of flying songs: Guaiding, Kaitang and Wanshui. Hanging Ding Feige is popular in the Bala River Basin area, with a strong, cheerful, enthusiastic and unrestrained personality. Wanshui Feige is popular in Wanshui, Wanchao and Lushan areas north of Qingshui River.
The wooden drum is the ancestral drum of the Miao people and cannot be used for ancestor worship activities. The Li family in Qinglang Village continues to hold ancestor worship activities once a year, and there are still one pair left. The rest of the area has disappeared due to the loss of large-scale ancestor worship activities. The wooden drum is about 150 cm long and 30 cm in diameter. It is made by cutting a log into a hollow cylinder and stretching cowhide on both sides. When used, it is placed on a wooden stand, struck with drum sticks, and danced to the sound. When the activity is over, it is placed in a cave or drum room.
Miao folk dances include Lusheng dance, Golden Pheasant dance, Bronze drum dance, Wood drum drum and Xiangxi drum dance. Stool dance and ancient ladle dance, etc. Especially Lusheng dance is the most popular. Danzhai, Taijiang, Huangping, Leishan, Kaili, Dafang, Shuicheng in Guizhou, as well as Rongshui in Guangxi and other places hold traditional festivals such as the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the third of the third lunar month and the ninth of the ninth lunar month each year, as well as Chinese New Year, ancestor worship, and making. A house, a good harvest, welcoming a bride, getting married.