The Girl's Day of the Miao Nationality, which falls on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month, embodies the profound respect of the Miao people towards females.
Legend has it that the Girls' Day of the Miao Nationality is a day of commemoration to honor the heroic death of Yang Jinhua, an offspring of the famous Yang Family which made illustrious military exploits in the frontier defense wars in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).
As the story goes, Yang Wenguang, an offspring of the noted generals of the Yang Family was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell with no food supply. Worried and anxious, Yang Jinhua, the younger sister of Yang Wenguang, hit upon an idea. To prevent the food from being stripped by jailors, she collected some herbs to make the glutinous rice black and managed to send the "brown rice" to her brother on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month. It was just the brown rice that endowed Yang Wenguang with astonishing strength to smash down the jail and regained his freedom. However, Yang Jinhua lost her life in the rescue. From then on, the Miao Nationality began to schedule this day as the Girls's Day to pay tribute to the heroine.
On Girls' Day, married Miao girls would come back to their mothers' houses and the family hold a solemn ceremony to worship their ancestors and then have brown rice together.
This day is also commemorated as a festival for young Miao people in love. They sing folk songs, blow leaves and play flutes as a way of displaying their fervent love. Young Miao boys will also play their trump card---playing two flutes at the same time.
Source:hunan Cultural Heritage
