That's what it felt like in one Yunnan province community last week, as a local carnival produced two world records.

Munao zongge means singing and dancing in the Jingpo language of Yunnan province, and this year's recent International Dehong Munao Zongge festival brought more than musical fun: Two world records were set.

The city of Dehong began a complex application to set a record for the largest scale Jingpo Sword Dance in the world, and on Feb 6 there were 1,039 Jingpo folk artists assembled in Mangshi Square in Dehong Dai, Jingpo autonomous prefecture, for the ancient ritual performance.

The World Record Association also certified a record for the most participants in the munao zongge dance on the same day: 18,604 people from different sectors of the community assembled to dance at the square, according to association spokesman Robin Doak.

In ancient times, it was said that only the children of the Sun could dance in the traditional Munao Carnival. According to the legend, the king of the Sun once invited all of the Earth's creatures to the carnival in the Sun Palace.

All the birds flew to join the carnival, and on the way home they came across a primeval forest, where they found all kinds of beautiful fruits on the trees.

To share the fresh fruit, the birds held the First Birds' Munao Carnival on the Earth. Two people joined the carnival and they were immersed in happiness. That was how the Munao Carnival started, according to the legend.

It is said that after the humans learned the munao zongge dance, their lives became better - healthier and luckier. Nowadays, whenever the Jingpo people need to get rid of evil spirits, pray for a better harvest, or for more rain or just plain old celebrate, they would perform the munao zongge dance.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/12/2012 page6)