Huangshen

We had a Bai's Mid-Autumn Festival in Dali, and felt the "grand feeling" of the long-lost festival in the Central Plains.

July 16th (August 23rd) of the lunar calendar, the first day of ancestors' return. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the gloomy sky in Jianchuan ancient city is even dimmer. The rain in August is uncertain, and it was stormy when I was young.

Some arty boys with paper fans strode home and stood on tiptoe from time to time for fear of soiling their little white shoes. Outside the window, it's raining harder and harder. Raindrops hit the stone bridge in Galand, and the originally empty bridge deck was dusted off, as if the noise of the world had nothing to do with it.

In the rain, the unburned incense and paper money at the bridge head are mottled beyond recognition, and most of the ashes are wrapped in the current, heading for another unknown world with nike blazer's blessing.

▲ Galand Bridge before the rain [Photo: something to watch]

▲ Galand Bridge after the rain [Photo: something to watch]

The boy said to himself, "This Mid-Autumn Festival is really a good time!"

Yes, it's the rainy season. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, it had rained continuously for 65,438+02 days in Jianchuan, and it was sunny for three days from 13 to 15, which didn't give any chance to those children and grandchildren who wanted to cry when they caught up with rainy days and cloudy days. Before this, in this pure land where the gods looked around, people had already greeted the arrival of the ancestors with reverence.

Waiting for ancestors

In previous Jianchuan, July to 14 in autumn was the Day of the Dead, and July 14 reached a small climax. July 14 is called Ghost Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. Friends of Jianchuan advised us not to go out of the city and go home early before dark, which is a holiday taboo faithfully observed by Jianchuan people for hundreds of years.

▲ On July 14, the streets were sparsely populated [Photo: a little bit]

But people are not as good as heaven. Chin and I were locked out of the door, and we didn't go home until half our salary passed. Accompanied by Buddhist scriptures, we walked on the deserted streets of Jianchuan in the middle of the night, just like Jianchuan's "stranger at the door". The two men walked towards a crowded place, but fortunately they didn't meet unexpected guests.

▲ Locked door [Photo: something to watch]

▲ Mike who waited for a long time to come back [Photo: There are points]

▲ "Non-Buddhist Sutra" [Photography: There are points]

One hundred years ago, the people of Jianchuan "offered sacrifices to their ancestors, recommended food at the right time, and tried to buy fresh vegetables for fear of not eating them". Flat fashion and frugal families will also strive to become rich.

The proportion of Bai people in Jianchuan is very high, accounting for more than 70%. The wind of local folk beliefs is strong, and there is no downward trend today. People who participate in folk activities are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, but under the influence of this trend, young people also participate.

Nowadays, "July 14 is as important as the Torch Festival, even more grand", said a friend of Jianchuan Bai nationality.

For ordinary people, this is the slack season before the autumn harvest, and everyone has enough time and preparation activities for the harvest. Corn, edamame, pear and pomegranate appearing on the altar are all seasonal fruits and vegetables in this season.

▲ Rich cakes and fruit bowls are "consecrated" [Photo: Jean. g〝】

"July 14th" in Jianchuan is called "Qixi Day" locally, and the festivals are very short, including July 14 and 15.

Generally speaking, on the market day before July 14 (the market is held once a week on Sunday), white women in Bai Zi will go out together to buy paper money, incense sticks, bags, gold and silver paper, gold ingots, cold clothes, melons and fruits, sacrifices and other holiday items. This lively scene will last until the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

At the same time, every household uses paper money and baggage these days. According to the number of three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, every ancestor is attached with an intangible wealth baggage. After the paste is completed, the relationship between the bag burner (usually the male owner) and the deceased, the name of the deceased and other specific information should be stated.

▲ Burning Bao [Photo: something to watch]

Usually, in addition to the man's immediate ancestors, people will also prepare some for the deceased relatives and give them to each other two or three days before the festival. If the distance between the two parties is too far, you can also burn the ghost money of your deceased relatives at home.

In the early morning of Mid-Autumn Festival, housewives (under normal circumstances, Jianchuan men don't cook) begin to prepare "eight bowls" and sacrifices, while men consciously abide by the taboo of "not traveling far" and help at home.

Since meeting God, people in small towns have gradually entered the sacred state of meeting God from ordinary secular life. In Jianchuan, devout people began to meet God on the second day of July, and finished it on July 12 at the latest (this happened in two days).

After going home to meet God, three meals a day are provided, and the dinner is more abundant. After the sacrifice at home, there will still be "a little for each dish, burning incense and falling on the side of the road". At the same time, people worship hidden wealth and folded ingots in the hall or hall. At this time, people's thoughts have shifted to a state of piety and "extraordinary".

▲ "Send you fruit" [Photo: There are extra points]

Eat "eight bowls" with ancestors

During the festival, the patron saint and ancestors of every household will come back. They usually protect their children and grandchildren in the dark and deserve courtesy.

Generally speaking, housewives are very busy after breakfast. Today is the day when our ancestors go home. We will make eight bowls for them.

It will take several hours to prepare the "eight bowls", but all of them will be served at 3 or 4 pm at the latest. "Eight bowls" is time-consuming and laborious, and requires a lot of effort, but "these eight bowls must be cooked whether they are appetizing or not, and this is true everywhere in Jianchuan". Some people have as many as ten bowls.

▲ "Eight bowls" upgraded to ten bowls [Photo: There are extra points]

In the past, the "eight bowls" at least included red meat, ribs, vermicelli, steamed fish, crispy meat and beans (kidney beans or edamame), while other foods (such as fungus tofu) were free to play. With the change of the times, everything except fans and beans is no longer a necessity.

According to the old Bai people, "When our ancestors went back, they used fans as ropes to tie gold, silver and clothes to horses, and beans were used to feed them." This is a conception of the life world of the soul and a symbolic restoration of the ancient tea-horse road. When it comes to the idea that the Bai people in Jianchuan may be descendants of the Qiang people, it is hard not to remind people of the story of the ancestors migration of Naxi and Mosuo people.

Among the Mosuo people, the memory of ancestors migrating from north to south to Yongning Bazi through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is preserved. Therefore, after people died, Daba held a soul-sending ceremony for the deceased-Korean dance, and played a pioneering role in leading the way for the deceased. Previously, perforated cloth shoes were prepared for the dead to facilitate their journey.

▲ Leather armor worn by Daba in Korean swing dance [Photo: something to watch]

▲ Punched cloth shoes [Photo: divided]

After the soul-sending ceremony, a symbolic "horse-washing ceremony" will be held, praising: "You are a good horse in a hundred, running faster than thunder and swallows, and tigers and leopards can't compare with you. You have to carry xx to Branava. "

As far as I know, the sacrifice on July 14th can be held in the main hall, the hall or the courtyard, not facing the gate, but facing the "patio". Generally, there is no requirement for the opposite position, but the position is the same.

Bai people usually set the ancestral altar in the Ming hall on the second floor of the house. On this day, they will also burn incense and offer offerings, including a plate of corn sprouts and malt. Generally speaking, on the day of the Kasahara Festival, a small hole will be dug between the flower buds to place the candle lights. "If you start making corn buds this year, you can't stop the next year, and you have to do it every year."

▲ Malt [Photo: Minute]

Sacrificial supplies are placed on a square table, generally including at least one cup of wine, one cup of tea, one plate of cakes, two plates of fruit, three bowls of rice, three pairs of chopsticks and eight bowls. The prepared treasure bags, clothes and gold and silver ingots are also taken out and placed next to the altar (on the right).

▲ A cup of tea, a glass of wine, a plate of cake and two plates of fruit are the standard shapes [Photo: There are points]

How to sacrifice ancestors? -Bring it when you're full.

After the sacrifice began, men, women and children at home began to kowtow and pray. After a round of kowtowing, the most important parents in the family began to read each package in a certain order:

(Front) Newspaper Tracking /xxx (honorific title and taboo)/Sister Zhong Yuanling prepares a treasure bag of gold and silver ghosts B /xxxxx (honorific title and taboo) Soul Summer/Fu Wei/bo /xxxx July 14th.

Seal (back).

▲ Luggage [Photo: There are points]

Reciting bags were incinerated in the brazier, and clothes, shoes and ingots were bathed in the fire for the first time until they were all reduced to ashes and covered with one or two melon leaves to prevent sparks from splashing. At this point, the ceremony came to an end.

▲ Paper clothes [Photography: There are points]

▲ Paper shoes [Photography: something to watch]

▲ Gold and silver ingots [Photo: with points]

▲ Pumpkin leaves on ashes [Photo: There are extra points]

During the whole process, children at home are forbidden to play and joke, and can only watch quietly.

▲ A solemn family in the sacrifice [Photo: Jean. g〝】

In the process of burning packets, new packets are the most important.

In fact, the deceased gained new characteristics when he was hit by death. His body originally lived in an ordinary world, and suddenly it became extraordinary and frightening. People were afraid to touch it for fear of bringing danger to themselves.

After the ancestor worship, some gold and silver ingots, incense, paper and clothes will be burned at the main entrance, and a bowl of rice and water will be poured on the roadside. This is a road sacrifice. Because some families lost their children, their ancestors became ghosts and wandered around the village. In order to minimize the harm caused by ghosts, it is necessary for villagers to sacrifice roads.

▲ Road Festival [Photo: something to watch]

▲ Road Sacrifice [Photo: Jean. g〝】

Sacrifices to ghosts and gods are mostly food and money, and their purpose is to prevent them from hurting others through bribery. "White people think that ghosts like rice as much as people. When they walk at night or sleep outside, they will scatter rice around them so that ghosts will not be entangled. Therefore, rice is both food and a good' protection object'. "

Even when housewives can only burn their ancestors' bags in their husbands' homes because they are too far away, rice plays an important "guardian" role. Housewives often separate their parents' bags from their husbands' bags and enclose them with rice to avoid being bullied and disturbed by other ghosts.

▲ rice to ward off evil spirits [Photo: Jean. g〝】

Whether in Jianchuan city or the surrounding countryside, there are custom requirements for dumping ashes. Generally speaking, they will put the ashes burned last night in bags and then pour them into the nearby river (people in the village prefer to pour the ashes into the river outside the village). The ashes and the river together carry gold and silver ingots, clothes and other sacrifices to the place where the ghost lives.

▲ River outside the village [Photo: Jean. g〝】

River lantern: a lonely soul

July 15 is the Kasahara Festival, and there is a lively Jiangdeng Festival in Jianchuan. As Zhou Xing said: "The beauty of the lamp is closely related to its brightness and warmth, its appreciation and the festive and prosperous atmosphere it renders. Judging from the folklore of China, it seems that there should be deeper reasons. " .

▲ Turn on the light [Photography: something to watch]

During the San Li Festival, people put river lanterns on the dead to turn over, and one lamp represents a lonely soul. Among Buddhist stories, the story of Mu Lian's saving his mother affirmed China's ideal in mainstream life: filial piety.

On this day, people watch lanterns while comforting the dead and expressing filial piety; At the same time, it also educates future generations and promotes filial piety.

▲ Children playing with lanterns [Photo: Jean. g〝】

As a set of homophonic symbols and metaphors, "Deng" and "Ding" are inevitably applicable to festivals. As the day when ancestors came home, the Bonihara Festival was actually a time to look at people. The excitement of the Lantern Festival is largely based on this. "People boast of each other's good lamps, but they boast of their own." .

▲ Soul River Lantern with the words "Work hard" and "Come on" [Photo: Jean. g〝】

River lanterns are usually decorated with corn buds used to worship ancestors the day before, which shows that river lanterns also have the significance of sending away ancestors and illuminating the future. In Bai language (also known as Jia Min dialect), Ya 'er is pronounced Zanga, which is similar to the pronunciation of "Go, Go" in Bai language.

Therefore, they also believe that the corn bud is actually urging the ancestors to leave quickly. "It's time, eat, drink and watch. Let's get on the road."

▲ Corn buds [Photo: There are extra points]

For the children in the ancient city, the activities of putting out river lanterns are full of joy from beginning to end. Each child is carrying a lamp, and they compete with each other to see whose lamp is big and bright, strange in shape or beautifully decorated.

"If death is a process that takes time, then the evil force it brings cannot disappear in a short time." What Hertz said is true. In Jianchuan, when the families of the newly deceased burn bags for them, the new bags are often bigger, and the word "newly deceased" will be marked on the bags.

When people sacrifice to the dead, they also sacrifice to the gods of folk beliefs. In addition to praying for "folk gods to protect the old and cherish the new", fear should also occupy a considerable proportion. The longer the death time, the more the deceased can gradually adapt to the environment of the new world, and the less dangerous it becomes. When people burn bags, they are most concerned about the dead within three generations, and they should also have such considerations.

After the death of the deceased for a period of time, people gradually adapted to the absence of the deceased in this world. From then on, people's attitude towards the dead was no longer dominant, but was replaced by trust and awe.

The dead are gone, but they also miss this caring world; The living naturally want to see them. The terrible separation between life and death lies in "I'm afraid I'll never see you again". With fear of mysterious power, I still look forward to seeing the dead again. From people's standpoint, this is probably the highest expectation of the living for the dead.

▲ The world is not far away [Photo: Jean. g〝】