In southern China, many ethnic minorities maintain their own traditions and rituals to celebrate Chinese New Year. The Dong people in Guizhou and Guangxi let rip with a range of unusual festivities. 

More than 10,000 Dong paraded through the streets of Guizhou’s Longtu village in traditional costumes on January 28, New Year’s Day. The parade was a ceremony devoted to Sa Ma, a goddess attending to locals’ happiness, security and prosperity.

On January 29, Dong people living in Gantuan village in Guizhou took part in a traditional game based on a marriage ritual. They tied a rooster to one end of a shoulder pole and a bowl of glutinous rice to the other. Two men, each leading a team, had to compete to bite the rooster.

According to elderly people in Gantuan, local Dong in the Qing Dynasty used to arrange marriages for youngsters, making a girl marry someone from the far end of the family to bring the clan closer together. But when a pair of lovers demanded that the custom be abolished, a tradition was created whereby two men, one an arranged groom and the other chosen by the girl, competed for a chance to marry her. The marriage ritual has long since stopped being practiced, but it lives on in the form of this festive performance.

A wilder celebration was held by Dong people in Huaidong village, Guangxi. Men dressed up as “Mao Gao,” a propitious god. They wore bark masks and danced through the streets to pray for a bumper harvest. They also smeared mud on one another and performed somersaults. Locals believe that having mud smeared on them brings luck.