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Ancestor Worship In Chinese Miao Culture

07.07.2009 · Posted in Home and Garden Articles

Occuring only once every 13 years, the secret Guzang Festival is an exciting time for the Chinese Miao people to worship their ancestors. In the Chinese language, the word “Gu” means a bull, and “Zang” means innards of an animal. During the festival, a series of ceremonies like slaughtering bulls, beating drum are held.nnOne of the most important part of the festival is beating drums. A Miao drum is crafted with maple wood. People use cowhide to cover both ends of the drum. The Miao think the soul of their ancestors exists in this huge drum. So during the festival, they beat the drum very loudly to wake up their ancestors, who take part in their exciting worshiping ceremony.nnThere are two different types of drums: double drums and single drums. The double drums consist of two identical drums, and the whole piece is 170 cm long and 30 cm in diameter. The double drums are usually placed with a couple who has been married for a long time but doesnt have any children. It’s said that worshiping the double drums can bring them children. On the day of festival, the double drums are taken out for the ceremony.nnFor each Guzang Festival, the Miao have a new single drum. After the festival is over, they place the drum in a cave until it decays. The single drum is quite smaller than the double drums.nnIn the August before a GuZang festival, people take the old single drum out of the cave and hold a praying ceremony. Then they start to make a new single drum.nnAn elderly man is selected as the leader, who presides over the worshiping ceremony a full two years before the festival! This man is in charge of choosing the sacred bulls. The sacred bulls can’t be used for farming, and they are fed carefully until the ceremony.nnThe most conspicuous person during the festival is the leader in a special costume. He wears violet shirt, with some dried fish ******* around his head. This suggests that their ancestors ever resided along the Yangtze river in east China and lived on fishing.nnThe festival lasts 13 days. On the first few days of the festival, the Miao sing, dance, and hold numerous feasts to welcome friends and visitors from far away. They have meat and bean curd, but they are not allowed to eat vegetables.nnThere are a few more exciting things about the secret Miao GuZang festival, so visit my website below to learn it now!

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