The New Year Festival is the most important festival of the year for the Tujia people. It is as important as our Han New Year. As for why it is called the New Year Festival, it is because this festival is celebrated one or two days before the Chinese New Year, so everyone calls it the New Year Festival. During this festival, Tujia people will do a lot of things and eat a lot of food to celebrate this wonderful festival.
Just like us Han people celebrating the New Year or celebrating other festivals, everyone will cook a lot of delicious food to enjoy. Many delicacies of the Chinese nation are derived from many traditional folk customs or festivals. For example, rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival, moon cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yuanxiao for the Lantern Festival, and various delicacies for the New Year are not listed one by one. Tujia people also cook a lot of delicacies to celebrate the New Year festival, such as making glutinous rice cake. Ciba is a special delicacy of the Tujia people and is famous all over the country. There are various ways to eat glutinous rice cake, brown sugar glutinous rice cake or various other ways.
They also make dumplings. A fat pig will also be killed before this festival to celebrate. Many families will raise a pig, feed it until it is fat, wait until the major festival, kill it, and then pickle or preserve it in other ways. But it is best to enjoy a meal of fresh and plump pork during the Chinese New Year. They also celebrate the festival by placing cypress branches, money paper, and door gods to drive away evil spirits and pray for peace and success.
Of course, in addition to these more famous customs, there are many other customs. If you want to know more, it is best to go to the local area to experience the Tujia folk customs and the local culture. If you don’t have the chance to go, you can also find some documentaries on the Internet to watch and learn about the Tujia New Year Festival. In addition to the Tujia New Year Festival, there are actually many interesting Tujia festivals waiting for us to learn about.