Dong People - Festivals

Festivals

Below is a list of traditional Dong festivals (Geary 2003:184-213).

Two new year festivals

  • Dong/Kam New Year
  • Chinese New Year

One-day long work-related festivals, where chicken, fish, and glutinous rice are eaten.

  • Sowing seeds
  • Planting cotton
  • Washing water buffaloes
  • Eating new rice

There are a total of four different harvest festivals which last 1–3 days.

  • Mid-Autumn Festival
  • Pumpkin Day
  • Lusheng Day
  • Cultivating new land

Singing festivals

  • Commemoration of lovers killed by lightning
  • Gaoba Singing Festival

Remembrance festivals

  • Girls' Day
  • King Lin's Day - commemorates Lin Kuan, a northern Dong hero of the 1300s
  • A Dianlong Day
  • Jiaxu Day
  • Best Weather Day - Jiang Yingfang, the "Robin Hood" of the Dong people who led a rebellion in the 1800s, is celebrated on this day.

Miscellaneous festivals

  • Tidying the graves (tomb sweeping)
  • Sweet rice cakes festival
  • Fireworks Day
  • Dragon Boat Festival
  • Zongba Festival (Zongba is a type of dumpling made from glutinous rice.)
  • Bull intestines eating festival

Bullfighting is also historically popular among the Dong people (Geary 2003:199).

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