Huanjiang celebrates Fenlong Festival

A bird's eye view of the dragon dance at the celebration. [Photo/IC]

People gathered in Nanchang village, Xianan township, Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county, Hechi to celebrate the Fenlong Festival on June 24.

As the oldest and most important festival of the Maonan people, the Fenlong Festival lasts three to five days and is a tradition in which participants pray for a good harvest.

Funeral oration chants, ancestor worship and prayers were held at the opening ceremony in hopes of good weather and a bumper grain harvest.

Nanchang village in Xianan township is believed to be the birthplace of the Maonan ethnic group and was listed among the first wave of Chinese "ethnic characteristic" villages published by the China State Ethnic Affairs Commission in 2014.

The Maonan pray for a bumper grain harvest. [Photo/IC]

A craftsman, Fang Wenzhan (L), shows the wooden masks performed in Nuo dance, a Maonan folk art tradition serving as a sacrificial ritual. [Photo/IC]