Sisters’ Meal Festival, also called Eating Sisters’ Rice Festival, is known as Valentine’s Day in Miao village. The festival will last three days, celebrating from the 15th to the 17th day of the third lunar month every year. Travelers can view the festival activities at Taijiang county, Shidong Town and Laotun village, etc.

History

There are several legends about the origin of Sisters’ Meal Festival. The most accepted story is the love story about Jindan and Ajiao. They fell in love but got resistance from their parents. But they dated secretly and Ajiao always brought rice in her basket to Jindan. At last, they got married and lived happily. After hundreds of years, there are more than 800 girls in Shitong town and 800 boys in Sanbing Datand who keep single for a long time. The elders taught girls to do the same things as Ajiao, inviting boys in Sanbian Datang to enjoy homemade rice, join in singing and dancing parties. In this way, these lovesick ladies find their soul mates. Perceiving the advantage of this love match activity, Miao people preserve it in the form of a settled festival, which remains a romantic and effective way to find true love.

What’s to See and Do

Coloured Glutinous Rice

According to the traditional customs in the Miao minority group, Miao girls will pick wildflowers, leaves, berries to extract the color, then dye the glutinous rice into red, green, yellow, black and white color and steam. These rice balls are presented to the young men who come to visit, and each treasure inside the rice bowl has a different meaning. Red chopsticks mean ”I like you, let’s date!”, leaves or pine needles mean “You should give me embroidery needles to keep in touch”, while a single chopstick, onion garlic or chili mean “Sorry, I don’t like you”.

Miao Girl’s Beauty Contest

This activity is the highlight of this festival, many Miao girls dress up their beautiful costumes(colorful embroidered skirts, blouses, aprons) and silver neck rings, bracelets, anklets, earrings, hair ornaments ect. The whole suit weighs about 15 kilograms. Thousands of the girls wearing the beautiful silver ornament walk on the street, it looks like the street flood with the silver sea. Dazzling silver ornaments shine beautifully in the sunshine, quite interesting and spectacular!

Performance

The exciting festival also includes twelve rice wine blocks, singing and Lusheng dancing performance, folk customs show, campfire party, bullfighting, catch fish and shrimp, drum beating, etc.