March 4 marks the traditional Chinese Longtaitou Festival, which means "dragon raises head" in Chinese. It also indicates the start of spring and farming in China. A traditional festival called Sparrow Festival in Guidong County also falls on the day.

 

Villagers from the county gathered at Longtou Village, where they enjoyed lion dance, made glutinous “sparrow rice cakes”, told stories about the festival, and sang “sparrow songs”.

 

 

“Every year when the ‘Sparrow Festival’ comes, I remember the old days when my parents hung ‘sparrow rice cakes’ on branches and then put those branches on the ridges of farmland to worship the gods for a good harvest,” said Mr.Guo, a villager in his fifties.

 

In a house located in the center of Longtou Village, a group of women were busy making “sparrow rice cakes” with glutinous rice flour and hanging those sparrow cakes on the branches prepared in advance.

 

 

Various activities were launched to celebrate the festival. Following performers of lion dance, villagers held branches of sparrow cakes and came to the hall to worship Shennong or Farmer God for a good harvest in autumn. And then they came to cole fields and sang “sparrow songs”, in the hope of sparrows eating no crops growing in farmland after eating “sparrow rice cakes”. In addition, villagers shared “sparrow rice cakes” with each other, hoping for a happy and disease-free life.