Villagers hold horns for parade during the Panwang Festival. [Photo/gxnews.com.cn]

Panwang Festival is the grandest festival of the Yao ethnic group. It is a traditional festival dedicated to ancestral worship, featuring distinctive Yao singing and dancing. The date that the Yao nationality celebrates the Panwang Festival is inconsistent. It is usually held after the autumn harvest before the Spring Festival. It can be celebrated separately by families or collectively by several villages, lasting from three days and two nights to seven days and nights. The Panwang worship ritual consists of two parts: priests performing Panwang dance with the Suona band; as well as people singing songs of the myth, history, politics, economy, culture, art, and social life of the Yao people.

On May 20, 2006, the Panwang Festival of Yao Ethnic Group was approved by the State Council to be listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritages.