Page 64 - Life in Naples November 2018

travel

SISTERS’ MEAL FESTIVAL

The Oldest

Valentine

Party

by Ron McGinty

he first frameworks of civilizations started with the
Persians, Greeks and Chinese. Traveling back four
thousand years ago the Miao people lived in the lower
regions of China’s Yellow River. Following centuries of
T battles, people started to migrate. The final departure
was to Laos and Thailand with the Miao/Hmong bloodlines
settling in the Hunan and Guizhou areas of China.
This brings us to today’s customs and festivals. The Zhang
village in Shidong is a small Miao village about two hours east of
Kaili in the Guizhou providence. The population is over fifteen
hundred people. Ready for this? Everyone is related with the
same last name, “Zhang”. Fortunately, decades ago they decided to
stop intermarrying their cousins. To enable relationships, festivals
with neighboring villages were created for boys and girls to meet.
After marriage, the bride moved into the in-law’s home to raise
their family. This clarifies why everyone shares
the same last name. Multiple generations live
under the same roof; this is very influential in
building strong family principles.
The Sisters’ Meal Festival celebrates love
and spring. The custom in the Zhang hamlet
is for all young women to wear a solid silver
ensemble and dance around the boys. My
guide and I were kindheartedly invited to
stay the day with the family of six sisters for
lunch. They welcomed me to photograph
their elaborate process of donning their silver
regalia. This process starts with a few tears of
pain while their hair is tied into a very tight
bun to hold the headdress. The method of
getting dressed took five hours for all to
be finalized. I was fascinated to learn the
cost of each dress is about $15,000 dollars.
The family’s wealth is in their silver. The
festival is held annually by the girls on
the 15th day of the third lunar month.
It is the most active festival of the Miao
people, their Valentine party.

64 Life in Naples | November 2018