The Shuis have a calendar of their own which takes the ninth lunar month as the beginning of a new year, and their biggest festival is the "Duan" holiday which is celebrated with great pomp after the autumn harvest between the ninth lunar month and the 11th lunar month every year. The Duan festival is the most important festival for shuis. Garbed in their colorful costumes, the Shuis gather in their village to watch horse races and plays, and to feast for days on end. Offering sacrifices to ancestor and horse race are the main activities of Duan festival. The more interesting thing is that the date of Duan festival is different in different clans and different village. So it usually last for three months.
The dish of fish enveloped by Chinese chives is necessary for the festival diet. And the fish symbolize the ancestor of Shui ethnic and blossoming for their clan.
There are in China 340,000 Shuis, the majority of whom dwell on the upper reaches of the Longjiang and Duliu rivers that meander across plains and rolling land interspersed with vast expanses of forests in southern Guizhou Province. They live in compact communities in the Sandu Shui Autonomous County and in Libo, Dushan and other counties. Some Shuis have their homes in the northwestern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The areas in which the Shuis live are a land of plenty, abounding in fish and rice. Wheat, rape, ramie are also grown besides a great variety of citrus and other fruits. The forests are a source of timber and medicinal herbs. The Duliu and other rivers teem with fish.
A Shui house is either a one-storied affair or a two-storied building. Dwellers of two-storied houses usually live upstairs and reserve the ground floor for livestock, dogs and chickens.
The Shui language belongs to the Zhuang-Dong branch of the Chinese-Tibetan language family. The Shuis used to have an archaic writing script. Some of their words were pictographs, while others resembled Chinese characters written upside down. Except for scores of these ancient words that are still used for religious purposes, the Shuis use Chinese in their daily lives.
The Shuis usually dress in black and blue. Men have long gowns and black turbans, and women wear collarless blue blouses, black trousers and aprons, all of which are embroidered. On festival occasions, the females put on skirts and a variety of silver earrings, necklaces and bracelets. They usually wear their hair in buns.
