1. Religious festivals of the Miao people

(1) Nature worship

The main objects of nature worship of the Miao people include the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon, boulders, and large rocks. Trees, bamboos, rocks, bridges, etc. Some Miao people in Jinping Malipo and other places in Yunnan offer sacrifices to "God of Heaven and Mother of Earth" every time the crops are earing, praying to heaven and earth for a good harvest. This is a relic of the Miao people's worship of heaven and earth.

(2) Totem worship

The ancestors of the Miao people have their own totems that they worship. Since the Miao people have many branches and are widely distributed, they worship a variety of totems. Such as phoenix, maple, butterfly, divine dog (Panhu), dragon, bird, eagle, bamboo, etc. The Miao ancestors in southeastern Guizhou worship maple as a totem and believe that their ancestors originated from maple. In addition, they also use butterflies as a totem and believe that their ancestor Jiang Yang was born from "Butterfly Mother". The Miao ancestors in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou still regard Panhu as their totem, and many Panhu temples and Xinnu Palace are still preserved in this area. The Miao people in western Guizhou use birds as their totems.

(3) Ancestor worship

To this day, ancestor worship is still very popular among the Miao people. The Miao people in southeastern Guizhou changed from worshiping maples and butterflies to respecting Jiang Yang, the ancestor of mankind. They believe that he is the ancestor of the Miao people. Each drum society has a "drum grotto" to worship "Yang Gong" and "Yang Po"; The ancestors worshiped by the Miao people in western Hunan are "Nuo Gong" and "Nuo Mother". In order to pray for the blessings of the ancestors and gods, large-scale activities of killing cattle and worshiping ancestors are held in various places, such as the Drum Society Festival in southeastern Guizhou, Tongren and Songtao are called "eating cattle" or "chiniu", and southwestern Guizhou, Anshun, Zhenning, etc. The place is called "cutting cattle". In western Hunan, there is a "repaying Nuo's wishes" and offering sacrifices to "Nuo Gong" and "Nuo Mother". During every festival, the Miao people also hold ancestor worship ceremonies. In many Miao areas, every family has an ancestral tablet in the middle of the hall, where they offer sacrifices every day.

(4) Wu Nuo culture

The Miao people believe in ghosts and witchcraft for a long time. It was still common after the founding of New China, and they believe in dozens of ghosts and gods. They divide ghosts into two categories: good and evil: they believe that good gods can bless people and should be sacrificed frequently for this purpose, while evil ghosts cause trouble to people and bring disasters, and should be prayed for and expelled. It is believed that to achieve this goal, witchcraft must be practiced through wizards. Shamans are intermediaries between people and ghosts and gods. They have high cultural literacy and are respected by the Miao people. The witchcraft practiced by wizards mainly includes divination, interpretation, and soul-calling.

2. Food characteristics of the Miao people

The food customs of the Miao people have their own characteristics. The Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, Xiangxi, Hainan Island, and Rongshui, Guangxi, eat rice as their staple food, as well as corn, sweet potatoes, millet and other miscellaneous grains; the Miao people in northwestern Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and northeastern Yunnan eat corn, potatoes, buckwheat, oats, etc. as their staple food.

Hot and sour flavors are indispensable in the life of the Miao people.

In the past, due to the lack of salt in the mountainous areas, many Miao people ate light food all year round and could only season with hot and sour food, which became a habit over time.

3. Miao clothing characteristics

Miao men in northwest Guizhou and northeastern Yunnan wear patterned linen clothes and wear wool felt with geometric patterns on their shoulders. Miao men in other places wear Generally, they wear a double-breasted or left-breasted short coat, trousers underneath, a large belt, a long green scarf on their head, and leggings on their feet in winter.

Miao women wear wide-legged trousers. The Miao people in western Hunan wear collarless tops, with wide lace embroidery on the sleeves and trouser legs. They wear plaid or green cloth turbans on their heads, and wear earrings, necklaces, bracelets and other accessories. Miao women wear a variety of headdresses, including a bun on the top of their head and various styles of headbands. Some wrap their hair into a spire or dome, and some wrap their hair around a bracket and stand high on their head.