Qiang New Year
9 November 2026 · movable holiday — Thanks for the harvest, and blessings upon every home!
The Qiang New Year is an autumn festival of thanksgiving held in the mountain areas of Sichuan in southwestern China. It is traditionally held on the first day of the tenth lunar month, though exact dates and customs vary between villages. The festival marks the end of the harvest: people give thanks for a good crop and pray for prosperity in the coming year. The white sheep and the white stone are meaningful images in Qiang tradition, as white stones are often placed as sacred signs on rooftops and in shrines. Celebrations include communal rituals, feasting, songs and circle dances in traditional dress. The festival is on China's national intangible cultural heritage list and, since 2009, on UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Its link to the sky lies in the lunar calendar: a lunar month begins with the new moon, so the day falls on a dark night when the stars shine most clearly. Because the date is movable, it is calculated anew each year.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin lines, like a constellation: a shepherd in a long robe leading a small white sheep and carrying a glowing white stone
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