Composition on the customs of the Miao people (1)

The Miao people are a nation rich in ancient civilization and pay attention to etiquette. They have unique and distinctive festivals every year.

1. Festivals of the Miao people

The traditional festivals of the Miao people are divided into functional meanings: ⒈Festivals for agricultural activities; ⒉Festivals for material exchanges; ⒊Festivals for men and women to socialize, fall in love, and choose spouses; ⒋Sacrifice. Festivals; ⒌ commemorative and celebratory festivals. In chronological order, one year is divided into twelve months, and each month has more than one festival.

2. Eating habits

Rice is the staple food for the Miao people in most areas. Fried food is the most common fried food. If you add some fresh meat and sauerkraut as filling, the taste will be more delicious. Meat mostly comes from livestock and poultry breeding. The Miao people in Sichuan, Yunnan and other places like to eat dog meat. There is a saying that "the dogs of the Miao people are the wine of the Yi people". In addition to animal oil, the edible oils of the Miao family are mostly camellia oil and vegetable oil. Chili is used as the main condiment. In some areas, there is even a saying that "no dish is complete without spicy food". The Miao people have a wide variety of dishes. Common vegetables include beans, melons, green vegetables, and radishes. Most of the Miao people are good at making soy products. The Miao people in various places generally like to eat sour dishes, and sour soup is a must-have for every household. Sour soup is made from rice soup or tofu water. After fermentation in an earthen pot for 3-5 days, it can be used to cook meat, fish, and vegetables. The Miao people generally use the pickling method to preserve their food. Vegetables, chickens, ducks, fish, and meat all like to be pickled to make them sour. Almost every household of the Miao people has a jar for pickling food, collectively called a sour jar. The Miao people have a long history of brewing wine and have a complete set of techniques from making koji, fermentation, distillation, blending and cellaring. Camellia oleifera is the most common daily beverage. The Miao people in western Hunan also make a special kind of Wanhua tea. Sour soup is also a common drink. Typical foods mainly include: blood soup, chili bone, Miaoxiang turtle and phoenix soup, cotton cake, insect tea, Wanhua tea, pounded fish, fish in sour soup, etc.

3. Wedding and funeral customs

Glutinous rice is also an indispensable food in the marriage and love process of young men and women. The Miao people in Chengbu, Hunan, give each other glutinous rice cakes with pictures of mandarin ducks as tokens. During a wedding, the bride and groom drink cups of wine, and the officiant invites the bride and groom to eat glutinous rice cakes with pictures of dragons, phoenixes and dolls.

4. Costume characteristics

It is the nature of Miao girls to wear silver jewelry. They put their hair in a bun on their head and wear it about 20 centimeters high to make exquisite silver flower crowns. There are 6 uneven silver wings inserted in the front, most of which are patterned with the pattern of two dragons playing with beads. In some areas, in addition to silver pieces, silver horns about 1 meter high are also inserted on the silver crowns, with colorful fluttering on the tips, making it even more noble and gorgeous. On the lower edge of the silver crown, a silver flower belt hangs, and a row of small silver flower pendants hangs down. There are several layers of silver necklaces worn around the neck, mostly made of silver flowers and small silver rings. He wears a silver lock and a silver collar on his chest, a silver cloak on his chest and back, and many small silver bells hanging down. Earrings and bracelets are all made of silver. Only two sleeves show embroidery with fiery red as the main tone, but the cuffs are also inlaid with a wider circle of silver ornaments. The costumes worn by Miao girls often weigh several kilograms, and some of them are accumulated and inherited by generations of people. It is known as the "fairy in colorful and silver clothing". The craftsmanship of Miao silver jewelry is gorgeous, sophisticated and ingenious, fully demonstrating the wisdom and talent of the Miao people. The skirts worn by Miao girls are called pleated skirts, but in fact there are more than 500 pleats on a skirt, and there are many layers, some as many as thirty or forty layers. From weaving, bleaching, dyeing and sewing to final drawing and embroidery, these skirts are all done by the girls themselves. Together with the hand-embroidered flower belts and flower breast pockets, they are really colorful and beautiful.

Composition on Miao Customs (2)

Hello everyone, I am a little girl from the Miao ethnic minority. I believe everyone is very unfamiliar with the term Miao. Today, I will take you to the Miao ethnic group and learn about the folk customs of our Miao ethnic group.

The Miao ethnic group has a population of approximately 7.4 million, distributed in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hainan, Guangxi and other places. (m.taiks.com) The Miao area has a mild climate, is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and large and small fields and dams are dotted among the mountains, giving people a peaceful atmosphere.

The Miao people also believe that there are ghosts and gods in the world. They believe that there are two types of ghosts. One is a good ghost, which is a god, and can bring happiness and good luck to people. The other type is evil spirits. They believe that evil spirits transformed from the resentment of dead people or animals will bring bad luck, misfortune, and disaster. The Miao people in some places believe that Panhu (a kind of sacred dog) or maple tree is their ancestor, and worship them as their ancestors. Very interesting!

The Miao people believe that all things have animism and worship nature. They have various primitive religious forms such as nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship, etc. The traditional Miao society is superstitious about ghosts, gods and witchcraft. The Miao people regard certain strange natural scenery as manifestations of spirituality, and if they encounter them, they will pay homage to them. Most of them believe in Christianity and Catholicism, and very few believe in Buddhism and Taoism.

Their diet is also very interesting. Rice is the staple food for three meals a day, and the most common fried food is fried dada, which is filled with fresh meat or pickled vegetables and tastes extremely delicious. The Miao people also like to eat sour and spicy food. Their typical foods include: blood soup, chili bone, Miaoxiang turtle and phoenix soup, cotton cake, insect tea, ten thousand flower tea, pounded fish, fish in sour soup, etc.

After introducing the food, it’s time to introduce the clothing.

Among our Miao people, all men, women and children, old and young, love to wear silver jewelry. There are also many types of silver jewelry: silver flower crowns, silver horns, silver flower belts, and small silver flower pendants.

This is our nation, the Miao, and our folk customs are unique.