Miao Nine-Dish Banquet

Miao Nine-Dish Banquet

　　The Miao Nine-Dish Banquet is the most common traditional feast among the Miao people in Xingwen County, Yibin City. It typically consists of nine dishes—formal yet not extravagant, abundant without waste. During the Spring Festival or weddings and funerals, it’s common to see dozens or even hundreds of people gathering in rural Miao villages in Xingwen, helping prepare the feast while chatting about daily life. Once the banquet begins, everyone takes their seats according to seniority, scattering around the tables to enjoy the food with chopsticks and raise their glasses in celebration, savoring the rich flavors of the Miao Nine-Dish Banquet. The first dish, made up of four items, symbolizes “prosperity in all four seasons”; the meatballs represent “peace year after year”; the heart and lung soup signifies “hearts beating as one”… Each of the nine dishes carries its own auspicious and meaningful symbolism.