Miao Drum Festival

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Miao Drum Festival

Applicant: Leishan County, Guizhou Province

Item No.: 467

Project No.: Ⅹ - 19

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Guizhou Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Leishan County, Guizhou Province

Protection unit: Leishan County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

A brief introduction to the Miao Drum Festival:

Applicant: Leishan County, Guizhou Province

Leishan County, located in the southwest of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province, is one of the main gathering places of Miao people after the great migrations. According to the ancient song of Miao nationality, guzang festival had existed in the ancient Sanmiao state before the pre Qin period. The three Miao states disintegrated in the war with the Xia Dynasty, and the Miao people still had the guzang festival in the process of their migration to the southwest. After the Miao moved to Leigongshan area to settle down, the guzang festival became more popular. The guzang Festival, called "gunu jianglue" in Miao language, means the drum society Festival, which is a drum worship activity based on blood clan. The origin of the guzang Festival is recorded in the Miao classic ancient song, which says that Jiang Yang, the ancestor of human beings, went through the guzang festival to offer sacrifices to the mother butterfly who created the world. It is said that mother butterfly was born of maple, so Miao people worship maple. Since the ancestral home is in the heart of maple, the wooden drum made of maple has become the resting place of ancestors, and ancestor worship has become the drum sacrifice. The highest gods of the Miao nationality are ancestors, maple and mother butterfly. Guzang Festival is to offer sacrifices to maple and mother butterfly.

The festival is held once every 12 years and lasts for four years. Now it lasts for three years instead. Miao people live together, and Leishan Miao people maintain their survival and development with the regional organization "drum society" formed by lineage. "Drum" is the symbol of ancestral gods, so the ritual activities of guzang Festival are carried out with "drum" as the core. The ceremony of guzang Festival is conducted by the leader of the drum club, guzang head, who is elected by the masses.

In February of the first year of guzang Festival, a "dragon recruiting" ceremony was held. All the men, women and children of the drum Club gathered at the foot of the maple tree in Yinglong field, and "gucangtou" presided over the "dragon recruiting" ceremony under the colorful chariot. The first year's July Yin held a "wake up drum" ceremony. In the following year, a drum welcoming ceremony was held on October. On the auspicious day of April in the third year, a "cattle examination" ceremony was held. In October of the fourth year, a ceremony of killing pigs and sacrificing drums was held, known as "white Drum Festival", which is the ending ceremony of "guzang Festival".

The Miao nationality's guzang Festival has a distinctive national traditional cultural connotation, which is the manifestation of the Miao people's life values. The prayer themes of the festival include remembering their ancestors, respecting the old and loving the young, getting along well with each other, being industrious and frugal, and being rich and healthy. Miao Drum Festival is an encyclopedia of Miao history and culture, which has important value.