Sisters' Meals Festival of Miao Ethnic Group

Date: Third Lunar Month 15th-17th

Place: Taijiang and Jianhe Counties in Guizhou Province

The Sisters' Meals festival is celebrated by the Miao people in southwest China's Guizhou province, especially in the Taijiang and Jianhe Counties along the banks of the Qingshui River. It is the oldest Asian Valentine's Day.

A few days before the Sisters' Meals Festival, Miao girls collect special wild flowers and leaves in the mountains to produce natural color to dye the glutinous rice, known as "sisters' rice".

At festival time, the Miao girls, all dressed up in their startling silver headdresses, crowns, neck rinks, and chest locks, gather together by the river bank to prepare their "sisters' rice". The rice is dyed blue, pink, yellow, and white to represent spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively. When the young men arrive they begin to single out the women they hope to marry someday and begin to sing for them. The young women respond to their songs by giving them a drink of rice wine and the sisters' rice wrapped in handkerchiefs with different symbols on them. A pair of red chopsticks means "I love you too"; one chopstick means, "no, thank you"; a garlic or red chili indicates a flat refusal; and pine needles indicate that the boy should present silks and colorful threads and that she will wait for him. There are also many other activities, including bullfighting, horseracing, drum dancing and Lusheng music.