Miaoling Mountain and Wuling Mountain, where Miao people live together, have mild climate, and are surrounded by mountains and waters, with large and small dams scattered all over the place. Mainly produces rice, corn, millet, wheat, cotton, flue-cured tobacco, rape, tung oil and so on. In addition, there are abundant timber resources and mineral resources.
The ancestors of Miao people can be traced back to the Chiyou tribe, which was active in the Central Plains in primitive society. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Miao ancestors began to establish "Three Miao Countries" in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and engaged in agricultural rice cultivation. Miao people have migrated many times in history, and the general route is from the Yellow River valley to Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan.
Miao nationality has its own language, belonging to the Miao branch of Miao Yao language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Originally, there were no national characters, but Latin pinyin characters were created in the late 1950s. Nowadays, most people use Chinese.
Miao people are used to calling themselves Mu, Meng, Mo and Mao, and some areas call themselves Gan 'ao, Guo Xiong, Lao Dai and Guinea Bissau. He called them "long skirt seedlings", "short skirt seedlings", "red seedlings", "white seedlings", "green seedlings" and "flower seedlings". After the founding of New China, it was collectively called Miao nationality.
Miao people have a long history of music and dance, and Lusheng dance, which is deeply loved by the masses, is highly skilled. Miao people's arts and crafts, such as flower picking, embroidery, brocade, batik and jewelry making, are colorful and enjoy a high reputation in the world. Miao people have many festivals, such as Miao Year, April 8th, Dragon Boat Festival.
Living customs:
Eat: 1. Eat oil tea. Camellia oleifera is a kind of hospitality tea made by mixing fried popcorn with water. If the guest drinks it, the host will be happy, but if the guest doesn't drink it, it will be considered as contempt for the host. Some people want to drink three cups, the first is camellia oleifera, the second is bitter tea, and the third is sweet tea. 2. Eat mountain loach (lizard, collectively referred to as quadruped snake). Add a small amount of rice flour to the processed loach and marinate it in a jar to entertain guests. 3. eat green vegetables. I like to eat green vegetables during the Spring Festival, and generally don't chop them up.
Dressing: Miao costumes vary from region to region. Male, the average old man wears a collarless cardigan, belt, trouser legs and leggings. Cardigans worn by middle-aged people and young people are short and small, and the fabrics are mostly homemade "home machine clothes". Women's clothes are different in style, wearing collarless embroidered clothes with petals inserted in the middle and wide-leg pants with edges, embroidery or gauze. Eye-catching female headscarves are generally more than a foot long, all blue in color, and some are wrapped in black and white squares.
Residence: 1. Diaojiaolou, usually 2-3 houses with cornices and upturned corners. There are white wooden railings around the corridor, and various patterns are carved on the railings. The bottom layer of crane feet is used to store grain, farm tools, firewood, soil ash, or cattle, sheep, pigs and toilets. The upper class is inhabited by people. 2. A square stove, 60-70 cm high, covered with wooden boards and made of masonry, with a square fireplace in the middle for cooking and a space on the lower floor for raising chickens and ducks. When it is cold, the host and guests sit on the stove, joking, talking about family affairs and having a rest. There is a wooden frame with different shapes hanging on the stove, with melon seeds, tea baskets, sandals and so on.
Festivals and religious beliefs
Festivals, in addition to Han festivals, Miao people also have the following festivals.
1. On the third day of March, young men and women fell in love with songs.
2. Eat black rice on the eighth day of April to commemorate Yang Zaisi. There is also a legend that my sister's black rice should be cooked with leaves, and the girl should be taken back to her family to eat black rice in advance; In the neighborhood, you don't have to go back to your parents' home, but you have to send it to your parents' home. This custom is limited to people surnamed Yang.
3. On the sixth day of June, worship the land god, hang paper and burn incense on the mountain. General genealogy once.
4. After the "off-year" on the second day of October, you should kill mice to eat.
Faith: 1. Worship Yang Gong, think again. There used to be 16 Feishan Temple in the township. A grand temple fair is held every autumn. Sing a few days and nights of people's play, in which "Carrying Huashan Mountain" and "Fighting for Money" are the programs that must be sung every time. The main content is to educate family harmony. During the temple fair celebration, pig heads, incense and paper should be placed. 2. In the past, the ancestor worship was to kill cattle, and the cattle killing ceremony was held with the natural stockade as a whole. First, the entrails of cattle are used to worship ancestors, and then everyone takes a piece of meat home. 3. Worship Zanhu, who is said to be the ancestor of Miao nationality.
Marriage, funerals and customs
Love: With songs as the medium, on the third day of the third lunar month, young men and women dressed neatly rushed to the water side of the mountain in droves to fall in love with songs. Those who agree with each other will be invited to leave, indicating that they are in love. Usually, watching cattle and herding sheep also sings for the red. Both parents agree to get married. If they don't agree, there is a custom of running away from marriage.
Marriage: generally, one month before marriage, or as long as half a year, you start to cry and get married. Let the elders send gifts one by one, which has changed a lot. A man and a woman get married, and the woman and others come to the man's house for three days and three nights. During these three days, the bride can only sleep with her mother, but not with the groom. Three days later, the bride and maid of honor went back to their parents' home and lived together for two, three and five years. Men need help farming, so they live with women. After the woman is pregnant, she can take the bride and her parents to live together.
Funeral: When the old man dies, he should be carried to nave and sit in the middle, equipped with a bucket (container) and a cold sieve, and sit on the bucket with his foot on the cold sieve to die. To wash the corpse, the master carries water from the well, and adds peach leaves and calamus leaves to boil warm water to wash the corpse. The washed water (poured into the toilet) is given to future generations to taste three points, that is, there is no need to worry about eating words. It's called "clothing, rice and water", and the dead person has a white thread wrapped around him, one every year. The teeth you usually lose should be kept and put in the coffin when you die. It is forbidden to burn hair after death. The entrance to the coffin contains silver, and the main points of tea and rice in Feishan Temple.