Shai Qiu translates literally as “autumn sun”, and the festival focuses on the village’s sun-dried autumn harvest of fruit and vegetables. It’s a localised version of the mid-autumn festival that’s celebrated throughout China and other parts of Asia.
Xidi and Hongcun villages are in a mountainous region, within the Huizhou District of Huangshan City in Anhui Province. With very little flat land to dry their crops, the villagers hang their harvest from windows and roofs to dry so they last through the winter.
The Shai Qiu festival is held a few weeks before the first winter frost. Xidi is adorned with corn, pumpkins, chillies and persimmon, turning the village into an artist’s palette.
During the festival, Xidi villagers perform folk dances that have been passed down for centuries. Both the Nuo Dance, performed by men, and the Pheasant Mountain Phoenix Dance, performed by women, are a form of harvest blessing and prayer ritual. The dances, which are both included in China’s intangible cultural heritage list, feature traditional dress and farm tools and express the villagers’ appreciation of the harvest and their desire for good weather for future crops.
In 2021, a Central China Television (CCTV) crew broadcast Xidi Village’s Shai Qiu festival throughout China.
The nearby village of Hongcun also has a beautiful mid-autumn festival every year. In this village, the harvest is laid out in courtyards to dry. Once the sun sets, the baskets of food are cleared away and the village is festooned with red lanterns. The villagers gather to enjoy the harmonious views of the lanterns and the moon and recover from the busy harvest season.
