Mao Festival of Shui Ethnic Minority
Overview of The Festival
- Chinese Name: 水族卯节
- English Name: Mao Festival of Shui Ethnic Minority
- Also known as: Eastern Valentine’s Day or Song Festival
- Festival time: 9th and 10th months of the Shui calendar
Festival Introduction
The “Mao Festival” of the Shui ethnic group is called “Jie Mao” in the Shui language. It is known as the “Eastern Valentine’s Day,” also referred to as the “Song Festival,” and is held annually on the Xin Mao day of the tenth month in the Shui calendar (equivalent to the sixth month of the lunar calendar). The Shui people believe that the day of the Mao Festival is related to the thriving of adults as well as livestock, which is why they avoid celebrating on the Ding Mao day when fire is lit.
The date of the Mao Festival is calculated based on the Shui calendar and is popular in certain villages in Sandu County and Libo County, Guizhou Province. The festival lasts for four days. Following ancient customs, the festival starts on Mao day in the ninth and tenth months of the Shui calendar (equivalent to the fifth and sixth months of the lunar calendar), with different regions celebrating on Mao days in a staggered manner.
On the day of the festival, young men and women carry umbrellas and hold flower handkerchiefs to sing, dance, and have fun at Mao Po. In the evening, people gather in the village square to beat copper drums, strike skin drums, blow suona (a type of Chinese horn), and perform traditional lantern dramas. They also invite guests to feast.
In the tenth month of the Shui calendar, this time is referred to as “the season when green life is most vigorous.” The Xin Mao day is regarded as “the most auspicious day,” making it the ideal day for celebration. The Shui people believe that celebrating on Xin Mao day signifies good weather and abundant harvests. Conversely, Ding Mao day is considered inauspicious and avoided for celebrations, as celebrating on this day would invite droughts, pestilence, and plagues. The scheduling of the festival has been a customary practice since ancient times.
The Shui people’s festive song goes: “The first Mao: the Mao of water benefits, the second Mao: the Mao of Dongtu, the third Mao: the Mao of Shuoba Po, the fourth Mao: the Mao of Jiuqian. Jiuqian is broad: eat after the Mao feast.” The first three batches of the Mao Festival are celebrated within Libo, while in the fourth batch, in addition to the Shui people of Jiuqian, Shuigao, and Zhouqian in Sandu, the Shui people of Ba Xian, Shui Wei, and Yong Kang in Libo also celebrate during this final batch of Mao days.
Traditional Customs
In the three or four days leading up to the Mao Festival, Shui families prepare for the celebration much like the Han people do for the Lunar New Year. They start cleaning their homes and yards, sweeping away dirt and dust, and scattering this dust in the rice fields (as the Shui people believe that this dust can kill pests). The Day of the Tiger (Yin Day) is considered New Year’s Eve; on this day, they carefully clean the rooms and yards and prepare offerings of fish, meat, wine, rice, and more for worshipping heaven and honoring ancestors. They also prepare a lavish feast to welcome guests. During this time, in all the villages celebrating the Mao Festival, copper drums and skin drums are beaten, and songs are sung, continuing through the night.
The Mao Day marks the climax of the festival activities. On the first day of the new year, the Mao Day is characterized by the custom of young men and women singing duet songs at Mao Po. Mao Po is a place that has been selected over many years of custom as a venue for young men and women to engage in social activities through singing duets. It is typically chosen on a wide, flat area near mountains and water that can accommodate tens of thousands of people. On this day, not only the youth from the villages celebrating the Mao Festival gather at Mao Po to sing, but also men and women of all ages from neighboring villages and counties come to participate in the festivities. Some merchants set up stalls to sell various foods and everyday items, creating a lively and bustling atmosphere in Mao Po.
Before the singing begins, a respected elder announces the rules for the duet singing: only unmarried young men and women are allowed to participate. He also wishes the participants the chance to find their beloved through the singing. Amidst the sounds of calls and laughter, young men and women group into threes and fives to each look for their singing partners. They spread out in the groves, fields, and by the rocks at Mao Po, either standing or sitting under colorful umbrellas, singing duets while hiding their faces.
The festival is a time that promotes marriages among young men and women. In the past, the Shui people were deeply constrained by feudal morals, resulting in limited opportunities for social interactions between young men and women, even if they had feelings for each other; they could not freely meet. They could only discreetly pass messages through acquaintances, such as sisters at home. However, during the Mao Festival, these restrictions do not apply, and young men and women can freely choose their beloveds to sing duets with. As long as they sing well together, the man can later visit the woman’s family with gifts like pigs, wine, and glutinous rice to formally propose, and upon setting a wedding date, they can marry, as families generally do not interfere much.
On the evening before the festival, laughter can be heard in every household, and the sound of clinking cups is constant. The resonant sound of copper drums and deep drumbeats fills the Shui village. The Shui people sip fragrant glutinous rice wine while singing the “Auntie Song,” which is said to be even more fragrant than the rice wine itself. Each Shui village has a “Song Hall” where female singers and accompanying women sit in one room, while male singers, companions, and audiences sit in the main hall, singing joyfully through the night, sometimes lasting for days on end.
Among the Shui community, there is a traditional distinction: “If you celebrate the Duan Festival, you won’t celebrate the Mao Festival, and vice versa.” Villages that celebrate the “Mao Festival” consider the Mao Day in the ninth or tenth month of the Shui calendar (equivalent to the fifth or sixth month of the lunar calendar) as their New Year’s Festival, calling it ‘Jie Mao,’ which means ‘eating Mao.’ According to Shui customs, villages that celebrate the Duan Festival do not celebrate the Mao Festival, and those that celebrate the Mao Festival do not celebrate the Duan Festival.
Festival Legends
The origin of the Mao Festival comes from a mythological story. Legend has it that in ancient times, an ancestor of the Shui people settled in Libo, but the rice seedlings were suddenly attacked by a serious pest infestation. The people were at a loss, facing the prospect of a complete harvest failure. At this moment, a scholar named Lu Duo descended from the heavens and instructed the people to sweep the accumulated dust from their homes and sprinkle it on the rice seedlings, which ultimately eliminated the pests. In celebration of their victory, the people gathered to sing joyfully, and this tradition was passed down through generations, thus forming the Mao Festival.
According to the customs of the Shui people, villages that celebrate the Duan Festival do not celebrate the Mao Festival, and those that celebrate the Mao Festival do not celebrate the Duan Festival.
Regarding this custom, a consistent legend is that the ancient ancestor of the Shui people, Gong Deng, had two sons. The elder son was assigned to live in the upper Inner and Outer region, while the younger son was assigned to the lower Jiuqian region. They had originally agreed to reunite and celebrate at their ancestor’s place after the harvest. However, as time went on, they realized that the distance made it inconvenient to travel back and forth, so they decided that the elder son would celebrate the Duan Festival and the younger son would celebrate the Mao Festival. To this day, Shui people in various regions generally share the same surname and celebrate together.
