Posted 2017/6/20
Every year after the autumn harvest comes the most important festival for Hani people, the Hani New Year, or Angmatu in local language. On the day, people, male and female, ole and young, are all dressed up in their holiday bests. Young men beat the wooden drum hung on the wooden frame erected in the stockade in turn. The farther the melodious rhythm of gongs and drums carries, the more prosperous and wealthier the stockade will be. Also, each stockade will hold a big banquet in the center of the stockade. People have fun together and drink in turn. As the banquet is held in the center of the main street, it is called the Street Center Banquet. It is also named Long Street Banquet for the tables are laid end to end along the street like a long dragon. The Long Street Banquet is an epitome of the unique culture of Hani people. It displays to the full cultural characteristics of Hani people in holiday foods, customs and rituals, songs and dances, as well as costumes, etc.
There are rules for the setting of tables in the Long Street Banquet. The tables shall be laid end to end without a gap. The first and last desks are respectively called “the dragon head” and “the dragon tail”. 16 large pots are set up in the street to cook local delicacies. 960 people at 240 tables taste national delicacies and bask in the profound atmosphere of the Long Street Banquet. At the ceremony to commence the banquet, there will be drummers in gala dress performing around the stage.
