| October 1 of the lunar calendar is regarded as the Spring Festival of the Qiangs. The feast of the Spring Festival is also named Harvest Wine.
On the festival, all people of the village will go to the Devine Forest to fulfill their promises and burn joss sticks to worship their ancestors and the Heaven God. The offerings include dumpling made of buckwheat flour, chopped meat and bean curd. In other cases, various sacrifices are made like different animals, cattle, sheep, horses and chooks.
On the next day, the family feast is to be held. Married daughters will go back to their parents' home. Besides, various festal entertainments will be held.
The worship to the mountains of the village is aimed to pray for a good harvest. Excluding the married women, who are not allowed to participate, all people of the village have to participate in the worship with wine, meat and steamed buns. The emcee will be served in turn by every family in the village. On the occasion, the emcee has to prepare a blackbuck, a red feather cock, a jar of wine, 1.5 kg pork, 5 kg highland barley, 6.5 kg large buns made of flour, incenses, candles, firecrackers, paper made to resemble money and burned as an offering to the dead, which are lined up according to the practice. The necromancer will preside over the worship, and pray to the Mountain and Heaven Gods to bless the whole village with longevity and a bumper harvest. Afterward, a goat is slaughtered, cooked and distributed with other food to every family, which, in the past, was called Sanfenzi. Finally all people will sit on the ground and taste the food offered by others. |
