A folk culture themed activity “Sparrow Festival” was held in Chuantang Village, Datang Town, Guidong County on March 18.

The event kicked off grandly with a drum performance. Wonderful programs, including a female solo, a folk song duet and dances, were staged one after another, conveying a strong festive atmosphere.

As the highlight of the Sparrow Festival, the folk custom experience session brought the event to its climax. Guests, tourists and villagers sat around, kneading white and tender glutinous rice lumps into round balls, steaming them, and then carefully sticking them on bamboo twigs.

As the dragon dance performance began, the blessing ceremony officially kicked off. Everyone held bamboo sticks decorated with glutinous rice balls, and chanted the “Sparrow Song” in unison. This expressed the villagers’ concept of bird protection and their beautiful wishes for favorable weather and a bumper harvest in the new year.

Subsequently, the grand blessing procession marched to the fields. On the plowed fields for sowing, they continued to perform dragon dances and sing the “sparrow song”, spreading the ancient agricultural wisdom and the anticipation for a bountiful harvest on the fields of hope.

At the event site, a theoretical lecture and a shrimp seed release activity for ecological aquaculture were also carried out. By integrating folk blessing customs with industrial development and food security, this event brought the thousand-year-old customs to life in the modern era, injecting new momentum into the county's cultural tourism development and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas.

“The ‘Sparrow Festival’ is an invaluable cultural heritage in Guidong County. Through this festival, we not only inherit the agricultural culture and strengthen the sense of community, but also connect tourism and cultural resources. This enables traditional customs to become a ‘golden card’ that boosts rural revitalization and the high-quality development of the tourism industry,” said Li Haijun, chairperson of the Guidong County Federation of Literature and Art.

Chinese source: hunantoday