Honghe Festivals and Events
There are a lot of ethnic festivals in Honghe Prefecture. Yuanyang Hani Terrace Culture and Tourism Festival is a most popular one of the festivals in Honghe.
The New Year Festival of Hani and the Torch Festival of Yi, as well as many other celebrations of ethnic minorities enrich the colorful culture of Honghe Prefecture. Music, musical instrument and catering customs will provide you a window into the lifestyle of the locals.
For example, during the New Year in October, the Hani ethnic minority holds an outdoor Long-Street Banquet on lunar October 10. Every family will prepare their dishes to their table and celebrates the festival together the long line of tables. It will be a lot of fun and honorable to be invited to the banquet. People will be hospitable to invite the passersby to participate.
Mengzi is the birth place for many firsts of Yunnan and China: China’s first private railway, Yunnan’s first customs, post office, foreign bank, corporation and consulate, as well as thermal power plant, etc.
During the festival, a series of colorful activities will be organized and held focused on Hani terrace farming culture, including sightseeing of the vast thousand-year terrace; experiencing terrace farming culture—catching fish in terrace, ploughing, watching singing and dancing in farmland; watching sunrise and ethnic worship activities; and tasting delicacies on Hani Street Banquet.
Confucian Culture Festival is held mainly in Jianshui County, Honghe Prefecture. Activities include worshipping Confucius ceremony, a tour to the Wen Temple, art performances, local music performances, costume parades and so on.
Amatu Festival is the most splendid of the year for Hani people. In observing the customs of this festival, sacrifices are offered to nature. Besides each Hani stockade is an area of woodland. Tradition requires that it should have one upright tree. Each spring, the religious leader of the stockade will offer sacrifices to the forest and this tree. He will pray for peace for the stockade, health for the people and a good harvest for the terraced fields.
Yet the Axi, a small branch of the Yi, living in Mile County, in the provinces southeast, celebrate an even wilder festival. Every year in spring, on the second day of the third month to be precise, they worship fire with a grand carnival of body-paint and nudity.
Long Street Banquet Long Street Banquet originated from Yuanyang County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province. In February every year, local people would celebrate Angmatu in accordance with the customs of the Ham people. During the festival more than 300 families in the village would present banquet of 300-odd tables.
Hani Terrace Culture Tourist Festival will raise its curtain on February 28 in Yuanyang County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. During the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to appreciate the large-scale farming performance Yuanyang Terrace Field, in the creation of which the famous dancer Yang Liping acts as the artistic consultant.
Discover the places your friends have visited around the world.
