The Plowing Festival is a grand celebration that takes place in spring, before the plowing and sowing starts. Families gather with homemade highland barley wine, which is mixed and then splashed into the air as the carnival opens. People tie hada, a Tibetan silk scarf, on gigantic rocks piled up in the middle of a reservoir to show their respect for nature. Zanba, a Tibetan food made from roasted barley flour, is thrown on each other for good luck and to pray for a bountiful harvest.