Ox Birth Festival---April 8th There are a lot of festivals for Mulao ethnic group. There are festivals in nearly each month in a year. For instance, the Spring Festival, Goddess of Mercy Festival, Flower Woman Festival, Ox Birth Festival, Yifan Festival, Slope Walking Festival, etc. The ox is industrious and competent, plowing the land in the field for people, and what it need is only grass and water. So many nationalities all worship and cherish oxen, regarding them as the mankind's good friends. For Mulao people, the day of April 8 in the lunar calendar is the birthday of the ox, called "Ox Birth Festival." On that day, no matter how busy the farm work is, the ox will enjoy a holiday to have a rest. Every household washes their oxen clean, sweeps the cattle pen, and also inserts the branches of the Chinese sweet gum on the gate to drive away the mosquito and flies. Especially, chicken and ducks will be killed to prepare wine and meat for a memorial ceremony to the "cattle pen god." Also, the dark polished glutinous rice meal is made to worship the ancestor. On the day, the ox will be fed with the first-class fodder, and the cooked black polished glutinous rice will have the ox eating first. The well-off families will macerate soya bean and maize, which is mixed with egg distiller's grains, to feed oxen. Mulao people have really cherished the ox to the utmost.
There is a beautiful and moving story about the ox birthday. According to the legend in ancient times, the Mulao ancestors plough and till their land with pickaxes and hoes, which is time-consuming and strenuous. There is a girl named Luo Ying born clever, industrious and kindhearted. One day she went hunting in the mountain, and saw a running and jumping wild ox as well as the busy villagers streaming with sweat in the field. She thought if only she could catch the ox to plow the land for the villagers! Then, she started to chase for the wild ox, whose hoof was gripped in the crack of a stone at the time of running. It ached so much that it kept wailing endlessly. Unable to help it extricate itself from the predicament, Luo Ying had to pick some grass to feed it and sing for it. Her songs were so beautiful, genuine and sincere that had not merely moved the heart of the wild ox, but also touched the hard stone, which slowly opened the crack so that the foot of the ox could be pulled out. Then it came to the field following Luo Ying, and started to tow the plow and draw the rake for people industriously, from generation to generation. Since Mulao people have the farm cattle, their labor in the field has become much lighter.
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