Dressed in gorgeous, colorful costumes and wearing elaborate headdresses, girls of the Miao ethnic group come together to celebrate the important Ganqiu Festival. When the Start of Autumn, a solar term, arrives every year, the festival will enliven Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County in Chongqing.

Ganqiu Festival lights up Chongqing Xiushan every autumn to celebrate the harvest. (Photo/ Shangyou News)

Passed down from generations ago, it has been recognized as a special folk custom in the Chongqing Intangible Cultural Heritage list. In 2017, the Ganqiu Festival was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The oldest and grandest traditional festival of the Miao ethnic group

Miao priests strike gongs, play the trombone, hold streamers, and carry the God of Grains onto the altar.

At the other side of the threshing ground, girls in traditional Miao clothes perform the Greeting Dragon Dance and Dule Dance; on the mountain, other girls ride swings that could hold eight people at a time.

Ganqiu Festival lights up Chongqing Xiushan every autumn to celebrate the harvest. (Photo/ Shangyou News)

This is the existing oldest and grandest traditional event of the Miao ethnic group — the Ganqiu Festival.

Li Zhiming, Deputy Director of Commission of Culture and Tourism Development of Xiushan County, said the festival was originated from Huayuan County in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, and then became popular in eight counties (cities) in Xiangxi and surrounding Songtao County in Guizhou, Xiushan County in Chongqing, and Laifeng County in Hubei, shaping a Ganqiu Festival ecosystem covering more than two million people.

Ganqiu Festival lights up Chongqing Xiushan every autumn to celebrate the harvest. (Photo/ Shangyou News)

Traditionally, the Ganqiu Festival was celebrated on the first day of the Start of Autumn. Events held on that day are called "Zhengqiu (lit. formal autumn)," while the following ones are called "Xuqiu (lit. subsequent autumn)." Events can be individually organized by one village or co-organized by several villages at the market on duty.

Ganqiu Festival celebrates ancestors' success in subduing demons, expressing gratitude to the God of Grains, welcoming the season of harvest, and offering young people a chance to mingle and express admiration for each other. It can be divided into three parts, namely Welcome Autumn, Worship Autumn, and Celebrate Autumn.

The most appealing activity for young people is "riding the swing." Young men and women will sit on the swing; when it stops, people on the top have to sing a song. Many of them would love to "be punished" to please the persons of their hearts. "After that, young people will sing songs to show their love beside the threshing ground," said Li.