Danu Festival

Name: Danu Festival for Yao people
Date: the 29th of the fifth lunar month
The Danu Festival, also known as the Ancestral Mother Festival or the Yao New Year, is one of the grandest traditional festivals of the Yao ethnic group. It is scheduled for the 29th of the fifth lunar month. However, the Yao people don't celebrate this festival annually. They only hold the festival once in two or three, or even five years. In some Yao communities, the Danu Festival is celebrated once in every 12 or 13 years. There is a famous legend about the origin of this festival. In the far ancient time, there were two great magic mountains facing each other. The left one, looking like a great warrior, was called Buluosi. In contrast, the right one, looking graceful, like a young girl in dress, was thus called Miluotuo. Every year they became a little bit closer. So after 995 years, the two mountains were actually approaching each other. On the 2gth of the fifth lunar month of this year, a deafening thunderbolt suddenly struck the earth. Exactly at the same time, the two mountains were cracked. A man called Buluosi came out from the mountain Buluosi, while a woman called Miluotuo out from the mountain sharing same name. They married and gave birth to given the title of the King of Drum beating and be congratulated by all the people on the scene. After the copper drum dance, the Yao people set off dozens of or even hundreds of powerful firecrackers al at the same time in the village. The person who ignites the biggest number of firecrackers will be hailed as a hero. Some Zhuang ethnic communities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also celebrate the Danu Festival.