Miao people celebrate Flower Jumping Festival

The Flower Jumping Festival was held in Shanjiang Town, Fenghuang County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture on May 15.

The annual event, held on the eighth day of the fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, is a major traditional festival celebrated by local Miao people.

More than 30,000 domestic and foreign tourists sang and danced to celebrate the most important day of the ethnic group. At the welcoming ceremony, tourists experienced the unique Miao door-blocking wine ceremony. After drinking the sweet and mellow glutinous rice wine, they headed for the main venue in Ma’anshan Miao Village.

On the site, the event kicked off with the Miao flower drum performance. Subsequently, Miao songs, Miao dances, Miao intangible cultural heritage performances, and Miao martial arts were staged in turns, receiving continuous applause and cheers from the audience. The Xiangxi Deep Mountain Band sang a popular Miao song, with thousands of people singing in unison, pushing the event to a climax.

Finally, the audience danced with Miao people to enjoy the traditional Miao festival.

At the Miao Song branch venue, Miao boys and girls, dressed in handmade Miao costumes, sang Miao songs in duet. It is a unique traditional Miao love custom. Every time there is a market, single young men and women will express their love through songs. “The event is amazing. I find the charm of Miao culture from the exquisite ethnic costumes,” said a tourist from Jiangsu Province.

On the day, a local famous streamer in Shanjiang live streamed the festival, allowing friends from all over the country to enjoy the festivity together.

Shanjiang Town, with beautiful natural scenery, rich ethnic customs, and profound cultural heritage, is the experimental and core area for the protection of the Miao culture and ecology in Wuling Mountain. The “Siyueba” Flower Jumping Festival is a national intangible cultural heritage items, and a representative brand of the cultural and tourism industry in Shanjiang Town.

On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month every year, Miao men and women in splendid ethnic costumes sing and dance to celebrate the festival, in a bid to inherit ethnic traditional culture, promote ethnic unity and progress, and advance the rapid development of the cultural and tourism industry.

In recent years, Shanjiang Town has increased efforts to explore the cultural resources with ethnic characteristics such as Miao songs, Miao dances, Miao costumes, silver ornaments, Miao drums, and Miao embroidery, as well as the natural resources such as Miao Valley. It has continued efforts to optimize the Shanjiang Museum-Miao Valley-Laojia Village boutique tourism route to enhance the reputation of the town as a cultural and tourism characteristic town in Hunan.

Fenghuang County, relying on rich cultural and tourism resources, has increased efforts to promote its tourism and deepen the integration of culture and tourism to showcase the rich folk culture of Fenghuang to tourists. It is striving to be a well-known tourism destination at home and abroad, contributing to the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry.