Cangyuan County Festivals and Events
More than 20 minority groups inhabit there for generations, among which Wa people takes up the largest proportion of the population. The rest of nationalities are Yi, Lahu, Zhuan, Bai, Hui, Lisu, Miao and Han, etc. Wa means "people who live in mountains". Wa people traditionally lived in the isolated mountain, the border region between China and Myanmar.
Here is a list of Festivals in Cangyuan County.
- The Sowing Seeds Festival (March of the solar calendar)
- The "Bengnanni" Festivalor Wa New Year (the last day in the last month of the Wa calendar)
- New Rice Festival (celebrated in the seventh or eighth lunar month of the Chinese calendar)
- Monihei Carnival of Wa Ethnic Minority (May 1st- May 4th)
- Dragging Wooden Drum Festival (April 10th- April 12th)
- New Water Festival of Wa People (lunar December 28th-30th)
- New Fire Festival of Wa People (seventh or eighth lunar month of Wa calendar)
Wa people believe that each object or natural phenomena has its own spirit and through rituals and ceremonies, they can summon these spirits for their own benefit. Here are three main celebrations.
- the service to the water spirit in New Years Day, in which many animals are sacrificed and new bamboo water piper are built for drinking water.
- the "dragging the wooden drum," in which a big tree is cut in the first and dragged to the village to make a drum; The Wa are famous for their wooden drum dance. During the celebration, Wa girls do a "hair-swaying dance."
- the sacrifice of four oxen to guide the spirit of the head to the forest.
