On the 25th day of the first lunar month, the Manchu people celebrate the Filling-up-the-Storehouse Festival. It is traditional for Manchus to believe in Shamanism, with the view that the world is ruled over by many different gods.
Because of their assimilation into the Han way of life, including adopting the same language, these two ethnic groups share many of the same festivals and holidays, including the Mid-Autumn Festival Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival. This particular Manchu festival is based on the historical empty storehouses of this time of the year. In order to avoid an empty storehouse, people would go to work in the fields. On the 25th day of the first lunar month, broomcorn is cooked, put in a bowl and placed in the storehouse. A toy horse, symbolising the horses which traditionally carried the corn and also made of broomcorn, is placed inside the broomcorn in order to pray for several years’ worth of good harvests. Some families prefer two hoes instead of the horse.
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