Zhuang Frog Festival (Maagua Jie)

The Frog Festival is a unique traditional folk festival of the Zhuang people of the Hongshui River valley in Guangxi, venerating the frog (called 'maagua' in Zhuang) as a spirit that controls rain and agricultural production—a classic totem worship custom.

Running from the first day of the first lunar month for about a month, the festival includes finding the 'frog king,' conducting the frog king's funeral, and singing frog songs; participants in traditional costume use song, dance and ritual to thank the frog deity for its protection and pray for the coming year.

The Zhuang Frog Festival is one of the most completely preserved living examples of totem-worship custom among China's ethnic minorities, listed in the first national ICH list, and holds major scholarly value for studying Zhuang agricultural belief and proto-religion.

The festival is primarily held in Donglan, Tian'e and Fengshan counties along the Hongshui River; the Guangxi Ethnic Museum in Nanning and other institutions also host related cultural events during the festival period.