Shangsi Festival / Sanyuesan
19 April 2026 · movable holiday — I sing to you from the stars! I sing to you from the stars! Sing back, and taste the five-colored rice!
The Shangsi Festival is one of the oldest spring festivals in China. The earliest records of it are more than two thousand years old: people went to rivers and streams to wash, believing that the water carried away bad luck and illness. Later the day became linked with outings, feasts and poetry gatherings beside the water. Over time it settled on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar. For that reason its date shifts against the solar calendar and usually falls in March or April.
Among the Zhuang people of Guangxi, the day is a great celebration of song, known as Sanyuesan. People gather outdoors to sing in call-and-response, dance, and treat guests to five-colored sticky rice dyed with plant colorings, and toss embroidered balls in a traditional game. The festival expresses joy at the coming of spring and respect for ancestors.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation drifting across the sky: a singing woman in a traditional tunic, with a trail of five softly glowing orbs beside her and musical notes of light rising from her lips
Sources
Positions in Astronativa are astronomically exact. The interpretation is for inspiration. · Glossary · Terms · Privacy · Thank you