Guilin Culture Festivals

In Guilin, besides the attractive landscape scenery and human sight, the colorful ethnic customs and festivals are also obsessed. Guilin has 28 minorities such as Zhuang, Hui, Miao, Yao, Miao, Dong, which occupies nearly 8.5% of the city's total population. As consequence, the traditional feature festival here is also in diversity. The splendid culture and the unique ethnic festivals ect of the nationalities have constituted large tourist scenery in Guilin.

The Chinese New Year in Guilin
The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the most irreplaceable festival that has hope to all the Chinese people. It begins on Lunar January 1th and ends on 15th. With the coming of the Spring Festival, most of the villages and towns in Guilin will organize various cultural activities to enjoy the rich cultural feast of the Spring Festival such as opera performances, calligraphy and painting exhibition, cock fighting, basketball game, dragon dance and lion dance etc. At the same time, some scenic spots will also organize theme activities to celebrate the festival according to annual Chinese zodiac. In Guilin, the residents celebrate the first day of the New Year with "Lion" dancing, performed down through the street by the dancing team.

Zhuang Singing Festival on March 3rd
March 3rd is Zhuang traditional song festival, during which time young men and women dress up and gather in the mountain and sing in antiphonal style, and most of the lyrics are about love and made impromptu, from shallow to deep and involve broad. During the time of celebration, people would make The five-colored sticky rice by technically using maple leaves, Huanghua grass, March flower to boil and dye into glutinous rice. In addition, activities such as touching color eggs, throwing embroidered ball etc are also very popular with the young men and women during the festival.

Tomb Sweeping Day
Tomb Sweeping Day is the most important day for the descendants to offer sacrifices to ancestors. It's on April 4th and lasts 3 days. It is a festival to worship ancestors and visit their graves. For the Guilin people, they will prepare Tzung Tzu, glutinous rice cake, mugwort leaf Baba, lotus root and water chestnut cake etc. one or two days before the Tomb Sweeping Day.

Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It's the festival to commemorate the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty with Tzung Tzu and holding the Dragon Boat Race. In Guilin, Dragon Boat Race is held every 3 years on the Li River.

Lusheng Dance Festival
Lusheng Dance Festival is a traditional recreation of the Miao Nationalities. Performers are mostly the young men; they often dance or swing the instrument from side to side while playing. Girls are dress in their traditional costumes, and dress up with special headpieces and dance to the rhythm of Lusheng. Young people fall in love with each other through the dance.

Bull Fighting
Bull Fighting is a popular recreation for the minority nationalities of Guilin.

Longsheng Red Clothes Festival
The Red Cloth Festival is held on March 15 in the lunar calendar each year at Sishui Town. During the festival, the Red Yao women wear red costumes. Red Yao people will gather in Sishui Street to exchange products and farm implements as well as buying some other household products and visiting relatives and friends. The festival is a good opportunity for the young people to find a potential husband or wife.

Ziyuan River Lantern and Song Festival
Latern and Song Festival is a traditional festival of Ziyuan County. It is held from July 13 to 14 in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. During the festival, Han, Yao, Miao and other nationalities would gather together to celebrate the festival with activities such as lion dance, dragon dance, floating lanterns, art performance etc.

Yangshuo Rock Climbing Festival
The annual Yangshuo Rock Festival is held in every November each year. It attracts large numbers of climbers both from domestic and abroad. The program include various activities such as natural rock relay race climbing competition, rock shows, Festival photo contest etc. Now, the festival is becoming an exciting and distinct entertainment for the tourists.

The Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-autumn festival is on August 15th in the lunar calendar when the moon will be full round throughout the year. The full moon symbolizes the family reunion. And on the night of the festival, relatives would gather to appreciate the glorious moon with eating the moon cake and the fruit. In Guilin, varied activities will be held for the people such as the lantern riddles, knowledge contest about the Mid-autumn festival, arts Plaza, calligraphy contest etc. This time the whole county will present the jubilant scenes.

Yangshuo Li River Fishing Light Festiva
Each year, in the golden autumn, the festival will be held on the vast and crystal Li River. It performs the real life of the local formers and the fishermen and will last for three days.

Guilin Landscape and Cultural Tourist Festival
Annually, in the off seasons from October to December, the Guilin government will hold the activities such as Guilin Elegant Demeanor Show; landscapes, customs, history and culture promoting and studying activities, various exhibitions, fairs, negotiate Council, attracting and allowing domestic and foreign tourists participating so as to experience the charm of Guilin.