Traditional festivals of Yi people

Traditional festivals of Yi people: Torch Festival, Dress-changing Festival, New Year's Day, "singing folk songs" and "changing skirts" ceremony.

1, Torch Festival

Torch Festival-Carnival of the Yi people: "Torch Festival" is a grand festival of the Yi people, usually held from June 24th to 26th in the lunar calendar. At that time, cattle and sheep were to be killed and ancestors were to be sacrificed. Some areas also offer sacrifices to landlords, feast on each other, eat meat and wish a bumper harvest.

Torch Festival is usually celebrated for three days. On the first day, the whole family got together, and then on the second day, there were colorful activities such as wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting, boat racing and tug-of-war, and then a grand bonfire party was held to party all night.

2. Dress Festival

Dressing Festival-Yi Girl Fashion Show: There are two places in Yizhou, Chuxiong where there are dressing festivals. One is the clothing festival in Zhiju Village, Yongren County, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. One is the Saizhuang Festival in Santai Township, Dayao County, which is held on March 28th every year.

Fashion Festival provides an opportunity for young men and women who live in scattered places and have little chance to get together and get to know each other. What girls can show themselves best is to see whose clothes are the most beautiful.

Yi women's dresses rely entirely on handmade peach blossoms and embroidery, and it often takes one or two years to make a suit. Therefore, whoever has more clothes and good patterns will be regarded as hardworking, capable and ingenious.

3. Supplementary Festival

Yi people living in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou have an annual festival on the 10th and 11th day of the second lunar month after the New Year, which is called "Malong Fire" in Yi language.

Among the sacrificial activities, the Dragon Boat Festival is the biggest. Dragon Boat Festival chooses a dragon day in the middle of February, March and April. Everyone in the village brought a bowl of rice and a small piece of salt, and the old man prepared incense and sacrificed collectively under the dragon tree. On the other hand, the Yi people in Yunnan choose the first Dragon Day of the first month to hold the Dragon Boat Festival. After the sacrifice, everyone sat on the floor, regardless of age, brought their own food and ate meat together. This is a large-scale rally.

Step 4 "Play songs"

Throughout Yunnan, this form of song and dance is popular not only among Yi people, but also among Bai people, Naxi people and other ethnic groups, with different names, such as "Big Man", "Left Foot Dance", "Tiger" and "Dancing Lusheng".

According to research, "Big Brother" is a transliteration of "Tage". As early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, "Tage" was a very active folk song and dance in the Central Plains and South China.

However, the "Yunnan Feather Dance" cast on the bronze drum-shaped shell container unearthed in Shizhai Mountain, Jinning, Yunnan, and the 18 copper buckle unearthed in Lijiashan, Jiangchuan, as well as the solidified dance pattern on the Cangyuan rock painting in Yunnan, are all the same as the image of the Yi people's "big", which may be used as evidence of the ancient origin of the Yi people's "big".

There is still a "Tagetu" painted in the Qing Dynasty on the mural of Longtan Temple in Weishan County, Yunnan Province, which is very similar to Daige in Weishan today.

5. "changing skirts" ceremony

In Liangshan area, Yi girls will hold a mysterious "dressing-up" ceremony when they grow up, which is called "Shalalo" in Yi language, meaning to take off their childhood skirts and put on adult skirts. Before "Shalaro", Yi girls wore red and white children's skirts with braids and pierced ears.

After the "dressing-up" ceremony, you should put on a long skirt with a black and blue middle part. The original single braid should be combed into double braids, embroidered hair bands should be worn and earrings should be hung.

After the ceremony of "changing skirts", the girls are free to go shopping, catch the show, watch horse races, make friends and fall in love. The time for "changing skirts" depends on the development of girls, generally between 15 years old and 17 years old, and most of them are single.

Because in the eyes of local Yi people, "changing skirts" at the age of two will be disastrous and unlucky for life. As for the specific date of "changing skirts", it is still necessary to ask the elderly to make a good choice before they can finally set an auspicious day.