Spring Sowing Festival

Brief Introduction

Spring sowing festival is also known as the sowing seed festival and experimentally sowing festival. It is a ceremony held on a white day of Tibet calendar for the celebration of the calf tying to plough for the first time. Three or four days before the sowing festival, Qinghao Biejia Tang would be brewed. And adornment should be prepared for the livestock.

The Way of Celebration

Preparation before the Sowing

At the sunrise of the Spring Sowing Festival, a woman with the same animal zodiac with that year and several old farmers would be in splendid attire. Before the villagers got there, they would make full preparation for the drinks, tea, sutra streamer and censers. They would put the above items on the best land for the sowing. Then all the villagers would pray for the gnome for blessings over the crop with good harvest.

The Process of Sowing

After the memorial ceremony for the gnome, the farmers would go back to the village. Then people of all ages and sexes would be in their beautiful dresses, and decorate all the livestock. Under the notice of the leader, all the villagers would go to the land to be sowed. The teenagers would drink alcohol and tea happily. After that, several men would burn joss sticks for sacrificing, put up the sutra streamer, sing the songs, offer sacrificing to the gods and prepare to plough. In the ceremony, each family brings a pair of calf. The hostess of each family will propose a toast to the god and smear 3 lines of butter on the heads of the calf, to show lucky. Sutra streamers are inserted into the yokes of the calk. For the first plough, women with the same animal zodiac would sow seeds of lucky strike. The other calf would plough one pair after another, making the land the world of calf and howling business street.

Activity after the Sowing

After the sowing, people would get together to have a rest. There are also games of running, wrestle, as well as sports activities of Tibet tradition and folk style. During the competition, the winners would be with prize. People sing and dance together, fully enjoying themselves. The day after the spring sowing, people handle the plough would have a feast of 5 or 6 days happily.