August is the golden season of the grassland with abundant grass and strong livestock. At the end of August in lunar calendar, the Mongolians will hold a Mare Milk Festival for a whole day. This Mongolian traditional festival is commonly seen on Xilin Gol Grassland in Inner Mongolia. In season of the harvest, the herdsmen name this festival with white mare milk, wishing for health, happiness, good luck and prosperous for both man and livestock.
In the early morning of that day, herdsmen get up early, put on their holiday best and bring the mare milk wine to the agreed location on horses, by lele cart, car or trailer. They slaughter cattle and sheep, prepare the milk product, light the cow dropping and boil the mutton, which are all the necessities for the festival. During this process, there must be some qualified person singing the paeans.
Horse race begins when the sun rises. The horses are all two years old, indicating the prosperity of the grassland and evoking people's respect to the nurture of the mare milk. A traditional banquet starts after the race with accompaniment of horse head string instrument, poems for the festival and singing. The joyance of harvest, wine drinking, singing, toasting and blessing are mixed together, as if the silent prairie is dancing with people's hurrah. The crowd will not disperse until dusk.
