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New Taste Festival

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2015-01-07

New Taste Festival

Commonly known as "Eat New Festival", it is the traditional festival for Gelao, Miao and Buyi ethnic groups in Anshun, especially the Gelao people. Every July 7 on the lunar calendar, a presbyter or ghost hunter will lead young boys and girls to pick some mature grains and fruits in the fields near the village, and then hang them under a tree. After that, they will kill pigs, sheep and chickens as sacrifice to ancestors and gods.

The clansmen start the ancestor worship ceremony, and then the ghost hunter recites in the Gelao language praise to god for endowing the people with grain and animals. All the villagers follow the recitation.

After the sacrifice, people set off homemade cannons and firecrackers, clean the village, perform Nuo Opera, sing folk songs and do martial arts. Meanwhile, the presbyter fills griddles with chicken, meat and wine before he inserts a bamboo pole with red pepper and green garlic in the fields to signal the end of the sacrifice.

In addition, Gelao people will free the wild animals and fish to show their respect to nature.

Today, the Gelao people from Wanzi village of Xixiu district and Dagouchang village of Pingba county under Anshun still celebrate the New Taste Festival in the most grand manner.