Becoming adults after the New Year
 For the children aged thirteen from the Pumi
Ethnic Minority, the New Year is specially important, because of the holding
of the "wearing trousers or skirts" ceremonies, in which they will afterwards
become young adults.
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for the Pumi
people, who wear bright-colored national costumes for the occasion. On New
Year's Eve, the 13-year-old children gather together in two groups of girls and
boys and play all night long to bid farewell to their lovely childhood.
When the rooster crows at dawn, all the children go to their own home to
prepare for the adult ceremony. The families place a bag of grains and a piece
of pig fat around the "Man Pole" or "Woman Pole" near a pond.
The adult ceremony for girls is called the "Wearing Skirts Ceremony" and is
presided over by the mother. The girl attending the ceremony goes to the "Woman
Pole," and respectively stands on the grains and fat with both of her feet. She
holds earrings, a string of beads, and bracelets in her right hand, and other
daily necessities like cloth in her left hand. Those things she holds symbolize
the power women enjoy and the responsibilities they shoulder in the family.
Then the "wizard" prays to the ancestors and god of hearth. Next, the mother
takes the long gown off the girl and puts the blouse and skirt with embroidered
belt on her daughter. The newly dressed girl kowtows
to the hearth god and her other relatives, who in turn present her their gifts.
The adult ceremony for boys is called the "Wearing
Trousers Ceremony" and is presided over by the uncle, the mother's brother. The
boy attending the ceremony goes to the "Man Pole" and respectively stands on the
grains and fat with both of his feet. He holds a knife in his right hand to
symbolize courage, and a silver bracelet in his left hand to symbolize fortune.
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