Time for Silver Ornaments of Sisters’ Festival

5 min read

All age groups and both sexes can find their festivals in China’s festival system, and young people’s festivals are most numerous. In the years when the economy was underdeveloped, people engaged in productive labor all day, and young people did not have enough time for communication. Underdeveloped roads and means of transport also restricted communication between people and faraway groups of people. This issue was more prominent for people living on prairies, in deserts and among mountains. However, communication is man’s natural instinct and a precondition for man’s survival and multiplication. Therefore, these groups’ cultures all provide stages and channels for people’s communication, especially young people’s communication. Festivals are among important options.

The Sisters’ Festival is a regional festival popular in the area of the east Guizhou dialect of Miao language.”Sisters’ Festival”is the later Chinese translation for the term”eating sisters’ dinner”in Miao language. The times and origins of the Sisters’ Festivalas well as relevant folk ceremonies differ slight because of differences in various areas’climates and geographical and environmental conditions. The festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month every year in some areas, and is celebrated on the 15th day of the 3″d lunar month in other areas. Before the festival, girls pick “sisters’ flowers”on slopes, and prepare “sisters’ rice”-“colorful glutinous rice”prepared by steaming glutinous rice mixed with colorful sap from plants. On the day of the festival, young men in Miao stockade villages visit the stockade villages where live the girls they love. Girls in a stockade village should warmly receive young men from other stockade villages. Gathering in a family, girls prepare a sumptuous feast with the eggs, meat, fish, wine and sisters’ rice contributed voluntarily to treat young men who come upon invitation. During this period, young men and women are divided into two groups for antiphonal singing. The contents of antiphonal singing are very extensive -for example, asking about the origin of the Sisters’Festival and the meaning of sisters’ rice and expressing love cleverly. Questions and answers are sung constantly. At last, the person who cannot answer gives gifts. In singing, both sides deepen mutual understanding. Before departure, young men beg for sisters’ rice to the girls they admire, and girls give baskets full of sisters’ rice to them. The sisters’ rice given by girls contains great secrets: if pine needles are hidden in it, then the young man should reward the girl with embroidery needles and silk threads and they can continue their relationship; if a pair of chopsticks or red petals are hidden in it, it shows the girl likes the young man and they can discuss marriage matters; if peppers or garlic is hidden in it, then the boy should stop dreaming because they are not suitable. Through presentation of such symbolic gifts, young men and women realize further communication.

Apart from having meals together and eating sisters’ rice, the most spectacular and conspicuous scene is the drum dance on the drum dance square. Miao families with unmarried daughters are the busiest people on the day of the Sisters’ Festival. Mothers get up early, dress up their daughters, and make preparations for girls to perform the drum dance on the drum dance square. They think the drum dance during the Sisters’ Festival is the best opportunity to show their daughters’ beauty. Miao girls’ festive clothes are uncommon. The Miao people do not have written records, and their history is recorded byMiao women’s dresses and personal adornments. The splendid festive attire they wear is called “an epic of clothes.”Some splendid festive clothes are handed down from generation to generation. Shidong Town, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province is the area where the Sisters’ Festival is most popular, and Miao women’s splendid attire in this area is known for embroidery and silver ornaments. There are exquisite embroidery patterns on the sleeves, collar, front and shoulders of their clothes, and the back, front and cuffs are inset with silver flakes with embossed patterns, silver bubbles and silver bells, hence the name”silver clothes.”The weight of a whole set of splendid attire can be more than 10 kilograms.

Though splendid, it is not easy to move wearing such clothes. Therefore, when girls go to the drum dance square during the Sisters’ Festival, their mothers follow them holding bamboo baskets to offer services. Girls in splendid attire cannot sit down. When they need to take off their clothes and rest, their mothers help them take off silver ornaments carefully one after another and put them into bamboo baskets. When girls dance, mothers also arrange them for their daughters.

During the drum dance, girls in splendid clothes gather around the drum stand, form several concentric circles with the skin drum as the center, and dance to the beat of the drum. The pace of the drum dance is fast but not rapid and the range of movements is not large perhaps because girls wear so heavy attire. At that time, young men gather around the drum dance square and watch dazzling girls. Of course, the drum dance is not exclusive to girls. Many married Miao women and old women also dance around the drum in traditional clothes. However, people naturally form circles according to ages, and young girls are usually in the outermost circle.

The meanings of the Sisters’ Festival are abundant and profound. Traditionally, the Sisters ‘ Festival is an important platform for young Miao men and women to get acquainted with each other, know each other and express love to each other in this region. Performing the drum dance in splendid attire is not only a festival entertainment activity, but also a display of family wealth. Those girls in splendid attire represent not only themselves, butalso their families. Through the florid drum dance, girls might find love, and their parentsand family will receive praises. Therefore, families do everything possible to buy splendid attire for daughters, and sometimes a set of splendid attire is even the result of wealth accumulation by several generations.

The Sisters’ Festival is obviously a youth festival for promoting marriage of young Miao men and women.