On December 1, which is also the first day of the eleventh month of the lunar year, Niupi Village in Sandaokeng Town, Zhijiang, was bustling with activity. Dressed in their festive attire, local Dong people invited neighboring villagers and visitors to celebrate the Year of Dong through traditional folk activities such as making glutinous rice cakes, performing straw dragon dance, enjoying the long-table banquet, and holding bonfire evenings.

Dong New Year, which is called “Ninggeng” in the Dong language, is the most significant and lively festival of the Dong ethnic group.

At the gateway of Niupizhai Dong Village, the young Dong men and women sang songs and played lusheng flutes to welcome guests. After taking the welcoming wine at the gateway, visitors followed the young Dong men and women into the Dong village, where programs with distinctive Dong characteristics were presented in succession, offering an audio-visual feast to the audience.

During the long-table banquet, guests were served round-robin drinks and rotating dishes. Young Dong men and women, together with the guests, circled the long table six times before returning to their respective seats to enjoy their meals and drink to their hearts’ content. That evening, the bonfire party, symbolizing national unity and the prosperity of the Dong people, took place as scheduled. Hundreds of people gathered around the bonfire, singing and dancing, pushing the festive atmosphere of the village to its climax.

Ms. Xiao, a tourist from Jiangxi Province, expressed that the simple and unsophisticated ethnic customs of the village are truly captivating, and the natural scenery is mesmerizing; she will definitely bring my friends to visit here in the future.

In the next step, Sandaokeng Town will vigorously promote and inherit the culture of Dong songs and dances, and intangible cultural heritage, aiming to turn the Dong New Year Festival into a cultural tourism promotion event so as to boost economic and social development.

(Translated by Yang Hong)