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Residing in southwest China, the Miao minority group are well known for their beautiful silver rings. During the Moon Dance Festival, Miao women will wear silver rings and other silver jewels to proudly display their beauty and elegance. For young people, the Moon Dance Festival is also a good time to look for their life partners. Men play their unique Lusheng musical instrument, with women singing and dancing around. The festival is held three times a year. The story below tells the origin of this festival.

A long time ago, there were two brothers who lived on the mountain. Every day, the elder brother went to hew wood, and the younger brother went fishing. Then they sold their products in the market. Their life was simple but happy.

Enjoying music very much, the elder brother always liked to find some bulrush and bamboo when he chopped wood in the forest. He then made them into a pipe. While he blew it, the pipe produced beautiful sound. Day after day, the elder brother collected lots of pipes. One day, he selected some of these pipes, and blew them one by one. Each pipe made different and unique sound. The elder said to himself, ” What music it would produce, if I play all these pipes together.”

One day when he chopped a kiri plant, he found the inside of the kiri was hollow. He drilled some holes in one side of this kiri wood, and put the pipes into the holes. He then blew into the kiri. Immediately the kiri made several different sounds concurrently. After studying this carefully, he eventually made a nice musical instrument which could make beautiful melodies with various tones. This instrument was later called Lusheng. The beautiful music of Lusheng attracted many people, young and old, men and women. Even the birds and animals in the mountain enjoyed this sweet and touching music.

In a cave nearby, there was a female tiger who was intoxicated by the music too. But the tiger dreamed to have the elder brother only play music for herself. So one day, the tiger became a lady with several big silver rings around her fingers. She came stealthily to the brothers’ home, and ate some food in the kitchen.

When the two brothers got home and saw the tiger, they asked in anger, ” Why do you come to our home and eat our fish?” The tiger answered, ” I like your fish, and also I like you to be my husband.” The tiger snatched the elder brother, and ran away. The younger brother got scared, and tried to get his brother back. But how could he fight against a big tiger? Eventually the elder brother was taken away. When they left, the younger brother found a tail showing under the fat lady’s skirt. So he knew the lady was in fact a tiger.

The younger brother immediately called the villagers together. They took arrows and bows to look for the elder brother in the mountains. One month passed, and they still couldn’t find the brother. Until one day in lunar January, they walked up to the top of the mountain, and heard a bird singing, ” In the cave, in the cave!” They walked ahead, and finally found a cave behind a large patch of grass. The elder brother was captured in the cave, and beside him was the tiger. The younger brother and villagers shot the tiger to death, and rescued the elder brother.

The elder brother played the Lusheng music to express his excited feelings, with the villagers sang and danced around him.

Since then, Lusheng musical instrument started to be popular in the Miao area. In lunar January, June, and August, people get together with men playing Lusheng music, and women dancing around with elaborate silver rings on their fingers. The activity is often held in the evening when there is a bright moon in the sky. So the festival is called ” the Moon Dance Festival”. It also has a nickname ” Looking For Brother Festival”. The women’s silver rings shine especially beautifully in the moonlight.

Clare L. writes about silver jewelry from Asia, especially silver rings. In particular, Miao silver rings are popular almost everywhere. To let her know what you think, go look at some silver rings here. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.

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