The Bouyei ethnic minority mostly resides in Guizhou Province. The rest spread about Yunnan, Sichuan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Bouyeis mainly live on agriculture, and their paddy planting has a long history.

Bouyeis worship their ancestors, believe in the multi-deities and adore the nature. Some others believe in the Catholicism and Christianism. Apart from the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, they also have another holidays, such as February Second, March Third, April Eighth and Ox-King Festivals etc. The grandest is the June Sixth of Chinese lunar calendar.

 Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important festival in one year. It lasts from the lunar New Year's Eve through January 15. Prior to the eve, people have to slaughter swine, pound sticky rice for making Baba (sticky cakes) and prepare various kinds of vegetable.

During the first three days in the first lunar month, the Bouyeis in Yunnan Province abstain from eating meal; and the Bouyeis in Sichuan Province have to take chicken conjee on the eve or the first of this Chinese lunar month, which is referred as to red rice conjee. They have respective ceremonies prior to the dinner for different surnames. The counterparts should have their pre-dinner ceremony in compliance with each other. There are also many recreational activities during the festival.

 Tiao Hua Hui

From the first to January 21 of Chinese lunar calendar, the Tiao Hua Hui (Flower Dance Party) is held by Bouyeis on the festival day. Girls put on colorful dress decorated with lacework and flower shaped fasteners; boys wear jackets buttoned down the front, tie waistband and whistle with leaves happily. Coming from different villages and remote mountainside areas, delighted girls help boys with leading horses, and then they concentrate at the place of Tiao Huahui. It is large plain grassland with limpid streams flowing by at both sides. To the north, there is the tung forest, where people can hear clamour and bray all over the place. It can contain over one thousand people at least. Here, young girls and boys divide themselves into groups, dancing with giocoso pas and singing old love songs. They sit down at the riverside and produce the tune of Leyou, play the yu-kin, whistle with tung leaves. The young lovers exchange their affection in their bright eyes. Close to the tung forest, they build up a platform where interesting Bouyei operas are performed in merry atmosphere. They keep singing and dancing without realizing the sun sets down the slope. When the sunglow bathes the tung blossoms, people are reluctant to ride on horses and leave the grassland one by one.

The Flower Dance Party, in the meantime, provides girls and boys with a date chance. They seed love on the grassland. The final day of the festival, i.e. January 21, announces the conclusion of the party. January 22 is the Sheep Pulling Day, meaning to make the engagement. Boys lead Sheep home (the undermeaning here is to bring a girl back home) to see his family circumstances so as to decide their marriage. On this day, many boys go to the grassland to take their fiancée to the village. But how could shy girl dare to step in her lover's home? Only they hide themselves on the hill behind the village and just peek where his home is located. After January 22, people will begin to work as the spring plowing falls. That will be another busy season.

-- June Sixth

The June Sixth is a traditional festival of Bouyeis. As they reside in different area, they celebrate on various festival dates. In some regions it takes place the festival on June 6, named the June Sixth. In other areas, the festival is celebrated on June 16 or June 26 of Chinese lunar calendar, named June Street or June Bridge. The Bouyeis attach much importance to this festival. When it arrives, people from every village will slay chooks and slaughter swine. They make white paper into triangle banners, speckling chook and swine blood on them and planting them in the cropland.

In the legend, it is said that doing like that, grasshoppers would not damage the crops. In the morning of the festival, some sainted grandsirs in the village guide young people to hold traditional activities such as Village Cleaning, etc., to drive away the ghost.

Except the sacred participants, the rest of villagers have to dress in ethical costumes, and take sticky rice, chicken, duck meat, fish, beverage and wine to the slope outside the village (the local Hans call it June Faire). After the worship, the compere leads all people to drive out the ghost in the village. And other villagers stay outside the village telling about the interesting stories and enjoying various recreations.

When the sun sets down in the west, people sit on the ground, uncover the food basket, and taste delicious dishes and sweet wine. They invite each other to have their food. People are waiting until they hear shouts like Come and share the beef from the place, where the Mountain Deity is worshipped. Then, strong persons have been chosen and divided into four teams. They are dispatched to carry four Ox legs. The rest will go home in company. Later on, each family will send a deputy to draw the beef from the village. The most interesting game during the festival is the Throw Flower Bag. The bag is pillow-like and made of various colorful fabrics. Inside it there are bran, red beans or cottonseeds. The fringe of the bag is embellished with laces and braids.

While throwing the flower bag, girls and boys stand aside, keep several meters away and pitch it from each other. The proper way includes: right side pitching, left side pitching and overhead pitching, but no cross pitching is allowed. The requirements of the game are described as the follows: far throw-off, quick launch and fast holding. Flower bags flitter in the sky staging a fascinating spectacle. If a boy tosses the bag to his lover, which falls to the ground under her shoulder, the girl has to present him a gift, such as a chaplet, a finger ring and bracelet, etc., which are regarded as a keepsake of love. The boy will conserve it for a long time.

The June Sixth Festival has a long history, which originated from various legends in different areas. One of the parlances is that: during the ancient flood and lean years, Pangu, the forefather of the Bouyeis, collected the experience of the paddy planting from the cultivation and gained bumper harvest for years. He married the daughter of the Dragon King and had a son named Hengxin. When one day the son offended his mother, she got angry and returned to the Dragon palace and never came back again. Pangu had no choice but to marry again. One year, he died on June 6. Since then, Hengxin was maltreated by his stepmother and almost murdered by her. At last, he could not put up with the pains and went to the Heaven to accuse of his stepmother. He swore to destroy the paddy and seeding she had planted. Aware of that, his stepmother repented of her behavior. Finally, the son forgave her and they got along well with each other. Since then, people slaughtered pigs and ducks and made Baba to fete Pangu on January 6 when he was dead. The worship is held for him every year to pray for the offspring and the bumper harvest. So, with the development year by year, the festival has its own form.

 Chabai Song Festival

The Chabai Song is the traditional festival of the Bouyeis in the Xinyi area in Guizhou Province. It takes place from June 21 to 23 of every Chinese lunar year. During the holidays, there will be several ten thousands people of different ethnic groups to join in, who are from more than 10 counties as well as Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. Legend has it that long ago, there were a young lady and a young man living here. The boy's name was Chalang and the girl was Baimei. One day, Baimei cut firewood on the hill and met with a tiger. Chalang killed it. Both of them fell in love with each other. The hill master coveted girl's pretty look. He threatened and allured her but failed. Then he murdered Chalang and rapped her. Baimei burned him and his residence. Afterward, she was dead for love. People named the village Chabai Village to memorize them and appointed this day as the festival date. The place, where Chalang killed the tiger, was taken as the singing ground.

Before the festival, every family washes clothing, quilt and mosquito-curtain and hangs them all over the village, symbolizing white clouds and the cleanness. During the festival, people bring along with the young and the old, hurrying around the village in groups. The young people should not only dress in new clothes, but also bring the keepsakes of love with them, which represent the wish to get a duteous love like that of Chalang and Baimei. The contest of songs is the subject of the festival recreation. On the daytime, the contest is carried out at the place of the contest, and in the evening, they sing in the residences or courtyards. The housemaster will serve them with the Color Rice (sticky rice painted in five colors) and Tea (actually rice wine). While meeting with relatives and friends, people will taste the food in the Soup Pot. Legend has it that Eating in Soup Pot originated from cooking the tiger killed by Chailang, and later turned into tiger bones braised in beef soup. Up to date, they are replaced with pork or dog meat braised in a large pot full of spring water. In recent years, apart from the festival recreations, people also supplied with the trip-shopping service with the development of the commodity economy. Anyway, people enjoy their activities with full satisfaction. When it is near the end of festival, they begin to look forward the next again.

 March Third

The March Third is the traditional festival of the Bouyeis, and can be traced back a long time ago. In the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), there was a record in the Survey of Cultural Education and Geography of Nanlong: the local custom there was people taking sticky rice dyed in colors in the early March… It is the evidence that the March Third is a sticky rice festival in fact. Legend has it that three sisters of the same family were married in the same village. They all lived a happy life. One day, the grandfather wanted to see his grandsons. Aware of that, the grandsons from three sisters strove to request the grandfather to visit each of them first. The grandfather said:" On March 3, you will bring the best sticky food to the entrance of the village and I will taste. I will decide to go to the family whose sticky food is most delicious." On the very day, the eldest daughter prepared fried rice ball, the younger sister, Baba cakes and the youngest, five-color sticky rice. As the grandfather entered the village and tasted the foods served by three families, he found that the best one was the five-color sticky rice because it was bright in color and aromatic in taste. Hence, he paid visit to the youngest daughter first. Since then, on March 3, all Bouyeis families prepare sticky rice to host their relatives and friends. Year after year, it comes to shape the actual March Third Festival.

  Tiaoyue

The Tiaoyue in Bouyeis is actually a Dating Fair, which takes place from February 13 to 15 and lasts three days. It occurs at Luoshimu and Luowan in the Huaxi or Niaodang region. Luoshimu and Luowan are located in the northeast suburb of Guiyang City where there is a large grassland and beautiful scenery. It is a large village where the Bouyeis live.

The participators are unmarried males and females. They normally come to the fair in company with their aged mother or brothers and sisters to show the care and protection from their relatives. The mother takes a large wrapper, which is packed with the clothes, skirts, embroidered shoes, silver hairpin, jade bracelet and bead-inlaid chaplet, etc. In addition, there are numerous visitors, including married young couples. In the costume, the single and the married are quite different from each other. The single boys tie a wisp of red threads on the frock front or bottoms, taking a Lusheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument, used by Miao, Yi and Dong nationalities) and a big umbrella; unmarried girls have the ribbon and apron embroidered with red flower patterns on the waist and chest. It is not allowed for the married men to tie red threads on the frock front. Married ladies are not allowed to wear the ribbon and apron decorated with red flowers motifs.

The Bouyeis practice a set of strict family disciplines that nobody dares to violate. The village in the Niaodang area has favorable living conditions. It is an appropriate place to hold the ceremony of Dating Fair. It is not difficult for people from far away in finding the host through their relationship so far as they have a little kindred. They will be given a warm welcome. Once the lodging place has been settled, they visit around to investigate which family's daughter is pretty or how her family's circumstances are.

On February 13, Dating Fair approaches. At dusk, the crowd hurries to the fair ground. To start, a sainted grandsir among the hosts holds high a color banner and walks three rounds around the ground, then he plants the banner on the ground center; then three strong men run on horses with guns. They gallop three larger circles around, which are much bigger than those made by the grandsir. This will be used as the place for people's dancing and singing. The visitors can be in and out as they wish, without any restriction: and the smaller banner-focused area circled by the grandsir will be the scope where it is reserved for the courting unmarried couples. The onlookers have no right to enter in.

Once the scope has been finalized, the mother in company uncovers the bag and spread over the various colorful clothing, jewelry and ornaments for display and comparison, which are referred to as display of family property, then dresses her daughter with jewelry and ornaments in order to attract others. At that time, the unmarried boys close up on step, blowing the reed flute. Whatever the girl likes or not, she, in term of the etiquette, has to stay there and follows the boy to move around the banner in center three circles and replies in singing. They look at each other in the moon, carefully scrutinizing. If she is not satisfied, she will refuse by singing, and the courting boy will understand that. He will give up and look for a new lover. Then, the girl again stays with her mother and waits for another boy. The option is up to the girl. After several courting by dancing and singing, the couples will satisfy with each other and then respectively go back to their mothers for reporting the progress. The girls now have dinner and rest. They will wait for the chance to deepen their talk.

In midnight, the toastmaster gives order that the onlookers retreat from the small preserved area. The boy opens the umbrella when he sits with the girl in harness. They start to have an intimate talk. Around the preserved area, there are guards for safety. No eavesdropping is allowed. Now the land is covered by shades and quietness, nothing can be heard but only the love whispering that lasts all night until the sun rises in the east. The ban then is released and people drop off. After that, the parents of the couple gather together and talk about the engagement. The observance reaches its end. During the three days, the similar ceremony is practiced in the Dating Fair, only except the enclosure of the preserved ground, which just allows the entrance one time. This custom is full of the folk flavor. No record can be traced as to their origin, but it is followed up to date.

 Ox-King Festival

It is also known as Cowboy Festival. It is held on April 8 of each Chinese lunar calendar year to express thanks and favor for cattle.

On this day, after transplanting the rice seedlings, the villagers will hang on the Ox's horn a King-sized Zongzi (a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves) and lead it to the riverbank and water it. The buffalo will see its inverted reflection in water as well as the gift of its master. On the Ox-King day, cowboys also benefit from it and enjoy the festival, as they have worked hard for one year. The cattle will not furrow on the field and they are led by the boys to browse on the slope. By the custom, the boys have sticky rice, pork, eggs and candy in the satchel. Every family has to buy candies for the cowboys. Hence this day is also named Cowboy Festival in some regions.