Festivals & Celebrations in Sichuan
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TOPZigong Dinosaur Lantern Festival
The Dinosaur Lantern Festival in Zigong City, which is held around the Spring Festival, dates back to the Tang (618-907) and the Song (960-1279) Dynasties. At the festival are displayed China's colorful traditional lanterns made of bamboo, silk, paper and glass bottles, together with the colorful modern porcelain lanterns, underwater lanterns, gas-discharging lanterns, and the program-controlled lanterns. You can feast your eyes on more than 100 collections of large lanterns as well as several thousand small ones. Most of the funny and beautiful lantern shapes are based on myths, legends, historical stories, movie &TV stories, folk customs, and science-fiction figures. The diversified vivid dinosaur shapes, which are indispensable to the festival, are most distinctive and enchanting.
TOPChengdu Flower Festival
Chengdu Flower Festival enjoys a long history of over 1,000 years, dating back to the Tang and the Song Dynasties. The festival, used to be held in the Qingyang Temple, starts on the 15th day in the second month of the lunar calendar and lasts for more than a month.
In the February of Chengdu, the weather is fine, the spring is coming, and all kinds of flowers are blooming. So, the local people say that the 15th day in the second lunar month is the birthday of all flowers. On the day, most of the flower farmers nearby or from afar carry their carefully cultivated flowers to Chengdu for displaying, and many people go out in groups to appreciate the beautiful blooming flowers. Since 1980, the flower festival has been held in the Cultural Park, a wall distance from Qingyang Temple.
TOPEmei Mountain Pilgrims' Festival
As a natural and cultural heritage, Emei Mountain is one of the four famous Buddhist Mountains in China, boasting a long and profound Buddhist culture. Every year, Emeishan City will hold festivals and celebrations on a large scale in the tourist season, one of which is the Emei Mountain Pilgrims' Festival held in May. The festival, consisting of worshipping Buddha and sightseeing activities, usually lasts about 7 days. At the festival, the respected Buddhist dignitaries at home and abroad are invited to hold a series of Buddhist lectures, temple fairs and pilgrimage activities, praying blesses and happiness for the pilgrims.
TOPDuyang Festival
Duyang Festival, held on the fifth day in the fifth lunar month every year, is a festival of the Yi nationality, similar to the Dragon Boat Festival of the Han nationality. At the festival, all the Yi households hang sweet flag leaves and wormwood leaves on their doors; the children wash their faces with realgar wine; the young people, bringing zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves), wine and tuotuo meat with them, go out to do all kinds of activities such as singing, dancing, wrestling and horse racing to their hearts' content.
TOPHuanglong Temple Fair
Huanglong Temple Fair is held on the 15th day in the sixth lunar month every year, which is said to be the day when Huanglong Taoist succeeded in cultivating himself to be an immortal. The grand temple fair is usually held in the back Huanglong Temple, where the people of all nationalities nearby or from afar gather together, enjoying themselves by singing and dancing heartily.
TOPLiangshan Yi Minority Torch Festival
The famous Yi Minority Torch Festival is held in Liangshan Prefecture on the 24th day in the sixth lunar month every year. Torch is called "duzai" in the Yi language, in which, "du" means "fire", while "zai" means "compensation".
Here is a legend about the origin of "duzai" and the torch festival. Long ago, Deity Stiguz often sent his subordinate Zekuxef to the earth to collect taxes. However, Zekuxef took the chance to extort extra money from the Yi people and savagely oppress them. One day, he came to Srebago's home for grains and silver, but Srebago was not in. Zekuxef then demanded overbearingly for food and drink, threatening to throw Srebago to death. Nevertheless, he had three teeth broken immediately after eating a mouthful of rice mixed with gold and silver. Knowing Srebago was stronger than him, Zekuxef escaped in panic into the big forest and later was killed in a big tree hole by Srebago. Knowing this, Deity Stiguz was very furious and sent heavenly worms to the earth to eat the crops planted by the Yi people. A skylark, feeling sad at seeing this, interceded with Deity Stiguz for the Yi people. Deity Stiguz agreed that the Yi people could compensate the death of Zekuxef with gold and silver. Then the Yi people collected all their gold and silver together, only to find that the total amount still wanted 9 liang (or 450 grams) of silver and 9 qian (or 45 grams) of gold. When people were feeling helpless, Srebago thought of fire. He led the Yi people to ignite torches and burn the heavenly worms to death. From then on, they could have good harvests and more livestock every year. Nowadays the Yi people in Liangshan hold a torch festival every year to commemorate the event.
At the torch festival are held the traditional folk sports activities such as wrestling, horse racing, bull fighting, goat fighting and rooster fighting, etc. The joyous torch carnival reaches its climax usually at night, when all the Yi people, young or old, male or female, are holding numerous holy torches, celebrating a good harvest and praying for more happiness. Then the Yi people and the people of other nationalities in Liangshan, as well as the tourists coming all the way from home and abroad, will surround the burning firewood piles and dance hand in hand to the beautiful Yi melody until the dawn next day.
TOPLuzhou International Famous Wine Festival
Held on September 9th-13th in Luzhou City, "the city of wine", Luzhou International Famous Wine Festival has been held every two years since 1993 to popularize Luzhou wine culture, expand the tourist market and promote the international wine communication. At the festival, you can visit 11 markets like the famous wine market, tourist market, business bidding market and the book market, etc; you can also enjoy all kinds of cultural activities and performances.
TOPMiyaluo Red Leaves Festival
Miyaluo Red Leaves Festival is held in the middle of October. "Miyaluo", meaning "amusing valley" in the Tibetan language, is situated in the valley belt of Minjiang River anabranch. Miyaluo Scenic Area boasts continuous mountains, freely flowing streams, and pleasant scenery. In the dense woods along the valley grow countless trees such as maple trees, birch trees, goose-palm pines, and larch trees, etc. When autumn comes, the leaves of these trees will gradually turn gorgeously golden and cardinal red. The three thousand square kilometers of red leaves, looking like blooming flowers or moving red waves, decorate the mountains more beautifully. If you come to the scenic area in autumn, you may be intoxicated by the beautiful scenery and forget to return home.
TOPYi ehtnic people's New Year Festival
The New Year Festival of the Yi people, lasting about three days, is in the tenth lunar month or the 11th lunar month. Normally, the exact dates are not fixed but decided by the necromancers' augury. If there are good harvests this year, the dates for the New Year Festival can be the same as the last year's; otherwise, auspicious dates have to be redecided. On the morning of the festival, the Yi people shoot hunting guns, celebrating the good harvests and the coming of the festival. The middle-aged men go out in groups to pay a New Year call to their relatives and friends as well as to each other. Instead, the women stay at home entertaining the guests. At the festival, besides singing and dancing, the Yi people hold athletic activities like horse racing and arrow shooting to celebrate their own New Year.
TOPChina International Gourmet Food Tourist Festival
The China International Gourmet Food Tourist Festival, held in Chengdu in October every year by the municipal government, is a big international folk-custom festival with strong local characteristics. At the festival, the sweet smell of the gourmet food will spread to every part of Chengdu City, drawing people out of their homes to taste the delicacies of different flavors.
TOPSichuan International TV Festival
Sichuan International TV Festival is held in the late October or the middle November every two years in Chengdu. Since 1991, the festival has been held for 7 times, becoming an important market for the transactions of China's film and TV programs and one of the main channels for the import and export of the broadcasting &TV equipment and the network technologies.
