The Sister Festival is one of the Miao people’s most active festivals. It is based on the lunar calendar, and the Miao celebrate it with numerous traditional activities and customs.
A New Zealander who teaches English in a middle school in Guiyang, Guizhou Province receives “greeting wine” from a young Miao woman during Sister Festival (Women of China)‘Sister Rice’
Sister Festival, held in Shidong, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, in accordance with the lunar calendar, is the Miao people’s busiest time of a year. The festival is held on the 15th day of the third lunar month, and it is an opportunity for Miao youth living along the middle reaches of the Qingjiang River to choose their dates. During the festival, Miao people eat “Sister Rice,” dress up, dance, watch bullfights, compete in a canoeing contest and sing.
Sister Festival this year lasted eight days. More than 150,000 people participated in the celebrations.
It was already dark when I arrived. I hurried in to a villager’s home. The hostess treated me to a large bowl of colorful “Sister Rice.” She told me she had been to the mountain days prior to my visit, and that she had collected several kinds of special flowers and medicinal herbs. The woman pounded the flowers and herbs into pieces, strained the juice, dipped the glutinous rice into the juice for an hour and then steam 
“The Village’s Flower” (Women of China)ed the rice.
How It All Began
I gleaned from Zhang Yunkai, who, at 70-plus years, was the closest thing to a village historian, that the festival dated back centuries.
There was once a family with seven daughters. The girls were very beautiful when they grew up, and they wanted to marry good men. Their parents promised to help make their wishes come true. At their parents’ urging, the seven girls went to the mountain to gather leaves, flowers and herbs.
They then cooked pots of colorful rice. The family invited young men from the village and neighboring communities to eat the rice, sing folk songs during the daytime and dance away the night. The non-stop singing and dancing allowed the girls to test and observe the men. After three days and nights of singing and dancing, the girls chose from about 100 men their dream husbands. They presented the men colored rice and told them to choose a time to return for the wedding ceremonies.
By cooking colorful rice and inviting men from miles around for food, singing and dancing, the sisters became the first of the Miao people to marry for love. That helped the group’s culture to evolve.
A Sight to be Seen
Sister Rice originally had seven colors one for each sister. Nowadays, there are more colors of the rice, symbolizing there are more than seven beautiful Miao girls. These days, the guests receive, after the singing, rice from the Miao girls. The men quickly learn if the women like them. A woman places a hot pepper in the man’s rice if she does not wish to befriend him. She places a hook made from bamboo in the rice if she likes him.
In honor of the seven sisters, and to promote healthy reproduction, the Sister Festival has been passed down through the generations.
Every March, when flowers bloom and creatures mate, Shidong’s residents cook colorful glutinous rice and prepare for the centuries-old celebration. Mothers take pride in their daughters, who look beautiful in their traditional costumes. Women, in fact, begin preparing the traditional, embroidered holiday clothes soon after their daughters are born.
“Sister Rice” banquet (Women of China)When Miao girls turn 16, their mothers dress them up and take them to the Sister Festival. Even if they are not ready to let their daughters get married, the women want to show off their beautiful girls in their splendid clothes. Miao people take pride in their daughters, in contrast with the Han people, who traditionally are more interested in boys. Pretty girls, actually, are a source of pride for all Miao villagers.
Miao people pull together―by donating money―to make sure poor girls have beautiful clothes for the festival. It can take a Miao woman 10,000-plus yuan and more than 12 years to create her daughter’s festival costume. Miao people are so devoted to their daughters because they believe they are the reincarnation of the seven sisters.
Shidong’s girls are world-renowned for their beauty. Sister Festival’s popularity grows each year. As more people flock to Shidong in search of beautiful girls, the village will become more prosperous.
(Source: Women of China English Monthly September 2003)
