A Riverside Picnic - Tasting Fish Cooked With Water From The River

The Miao minority group residing in the beautiful mountainous area of southwestern China has many interesting festivals and holidays all year round. If you visit them during their holidays, you will see their fabulous silver jewelry the local women wear from head to foot. The famous Fishing Festival held in April is an exciting day for people to go fishing.

The day before the festival, people go to climb mountains to collect special leaves and mash them. The mashed leaves are used to narcotize fishes in the river. Old people burn incense to worship their ancestors, while women busy themselves with grinding bean curd and preparing for yummy food for the next day.

On the morning of the festival, men carry their long, big harpoons on their shoulders to go fishing. Women follow their men behind, with food and wine in a bamboo basket. Their beautiful costumes and silver jewelry are especially conspicuous. When getting to the river, women wait at the riverside with food and wine beside them.

Standing on both sides of the river, men hold their big harpoons in hands. One man in the group murmurs a prayer, and throws a handful of mashed leaves into the river. Following him, all men put their mashed leaves into the river. Right after this a huge black dragon appear on the surface, which is in fact the appearance of hundreds of fish that have been narcotized by the leaves.

Men pitch their big harpoons onto the dragon, and dozens of fishes are killed. With the dragon pursued in the water, people shout and laugh. The scene seems to be a battlefield.

In just a few hours, every man has caught a lot of fish. They then take the fish to their women, who by then have already prepared everything to cook the fish. Cooked with water from the river, the fish has a natural fragrance and an excellent taste.

People eat, drink, and exchange toasts. Some young people even sing and dance to express their happiness.

Fishing Festival originates from a ceremony of praying for rain. Legend has it that a god who resided in the heaven had a beautiful daughter. One day, the princess became very sick, and no medication could make her to get better. The god was told in his dream that a soup cooked with one hundred fishes in the rivers and lakes could cure the princess. So the god sent people to find these fishes and make them into soup. The princess recovered soon after she drank the soup. To express thanks to the fishes in the rivers and lakes, the god ordered to protect them and nobody was allowed to catch them. The god also demanded all rain should go to rivers and lakes, but not to the soil.

Without rain, plants withered away, and people couldn't grow anything on their farmland. So they killed pigs, sheep, and oxen to hold a sacrificial ceremony to pray for rain. But still there was no rain at all. With all the livestock slaughtered, people at last had to kill chubs, carps, and salmon as sacrifices.

The god saw his fishes to be killed and were sad to cry. He cried for three days, with thundering and lightning. His tears turned to be downpour, which irrigated the plants and grass.

Since then, the Miao slaughtered fishes when they needed rain. Later this tradition became the Fishing Festival.

Every year lots of tourists go to the Miao area to discover the local people's interesting custom, and beautiful silver jewelry.