20 September; 2, 9, 14, 22, 26 October

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.

According to legand, Shui people migrated into Guizhou under the lead of a holy pheonix. Then, for finding new land to live, Shui people kept moving into different directions, in memory of their origin and keeping their culture, different branches of Shui agreed on to meet every year, after the rice harvest and at a place called Sandong. Finally this agreement becomes Duan festival, the most important festival to Shuis. Duan means melon, symbolizes good life.

After long time cultivating, Shui people made this mountain area full of rice fields, it made other people jealous, this people wanted to drive all the Shui people away from this land, and occupy it themselves.

One year, when Shui people was holding their Duan festival, they bad people came, Shui people had to carry weapon to protect their land and themselves, finally, Shui people drove the invadors away, but so many young boys died in the war. later, for commemorating heroes, horse racing became the most important activity of the Duan festival, and that day, all kinds of meat beside fish are forbiden to eat.

Today, we can still see this festival at the place dated by Shui ancestors thousands years ago, and all the horses are racing from the the slope to the top of the hill.