The Calabash Festival of Lahu Ethnic Minority in Lancang County, Puer

Chinese Name: 澜沧拉祜族葫芦节
English Name: Calabash Festival of Lahu Ethnic Minority in Lancang County, Puer
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Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in Pu’er is the only Lahu autonomous county in the country. Lahu nationality has many festivals including the Spring Festival, the Torch Festival, the New Rice Festival, the Kana Festival etc., among them the Calabash Festival is the most representative and typical one with unique cultural charm.

The Calabash Festival, in Lahu language called as “A-Peng-A-Long-Ni”, held on the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month, is the grandest festival in Lancang’s Lahu nationality. On that day, every village will held carnival for singing and dancing, men playing the calabash sompoton to lead the dance, men and women taking up “Gak” dance, women beating the elephant-foot drum and taking up waggle dance, men and women singing folk songs for battle, and also there are sports and games performance like swinging, water bearing, whipping top and crossbow shooting.

The old will sit around the firepit, drink and chant the epic “Mu-Pa-Mi-Pa”. Right in the center of the dancing ground, a pair of calabash will be put there as a symbol of the Lahu ancestors, and everyone expresses respect for it to keep in mind the grace they obtained from their ancestors.