What are the unknown customs and habits of the Yi people?

Folk people have the habit of "beating sheep" and "beating cattle" to welcome guests. If there are visitors, they must be killed first and then treated. According to the identity and closeness of the visitors, they are treated as cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens respectively. Before killing animals, bring live animals to guests, ask them to have a look, and then kill them to show respect. Wine is a welcome gift for guests. In Liangshan Gallery, as long as the guests enter the room, the host should treat them with wine first, and then cook all kinds of dishes. The fat pig is the most decent meal for the guests. In the middle of eating, housewives should always pay attention to the food in the guest's bowl, and replenish what they can't finish at any time to show their sincerity in hospitality. When eating, the elders sit on it, and the younger generation sits on both sides and below in turn, adding meals, serving dishes and soaking for the elders.

marriage customs

After the young men and women are engaged, they should make preparations for the wedding reception. Pigs and chickens are often used at wedding banquets, but mutton is generally not used (mutton is used for funerals). The Shiping Yi people in southern Yunnan have the habit of inviting men and women to eat and drink before marriage. Yi people in western Yunnan, when they marry their daughters, build a shed with branches on the courtyard towel or dam for guests to drink, smoke, eat and sit around. Folk call this temporary shed made of branches a "green shed".

Dietary customs

Most Yi people are used to eating three meals during a solar eclipse, and their staple foods are miscellaneous grains, noodles and rice. Yi people in Shousha River, Anning River and Dadu River basins often eat a lump of rice for breakfast. Lunch is mainly Baba, and all tables are available. Among all Baba, Baba made of buckwheat noodles is the most distinctive. It is said that buckwheat Baba has the effects of promoting digestion, relieving sweating and diminishing inflammation, and can be preserved for a long time without deterioration. Nuning, a traditional snack in Su Qiao, Guizhou Province, has become a well-known local snack.

Meat is mainly pigs, sheep and beef. Mainly made into "tuotuo meat", beef soup pot, sheep soup pot, or roasted sheep and piglets. Deer, bears, rock sheep and wild boar obtained by hunting are also supplements to daily meat.

The mountainous area is also rich in mushrooms, fungus and walnuts, and the vegetables produced in the garden make the sources of vegetables very extensive. In addition to fresh, most of them should be made into sauerkraut, which is divided into dry sauerkraut and pickled sauerkraut. Another famous dish "Swordfish" is also the most common dish among the people.

Yi people's daily drinks include wine and tea, and wine is used to entertain guests. There is a folk saying that "Han people value tea, Yi people value wine". The habit of drinking tea is more common among the elderly, mainly baking tea. Yi people only pour half a cup of tea at a time and drink it slowly.

Typical foods that Yi people often eat are: buckwheat cake, a staple food with Yi flavor; Paste sauerkraut meat, the home cooking of Yi farmers; Boiled suckling pig, a traditional food of Yunnan Yi people, is cooked in suckling pig and dipped in it. Crispy rice flour is a famous Yi-flavor snack in Yunnan, which is made of pea flour.

Holidays and festivals

Yi people used to worship animism and ancestors. There are many traditional festivals among the people, including October Festival, Torch Festival, regional festivals and sacrificial activities.

October: It is a traditional year for the Yi people, and it is usually held on the auspicious day of the tenth day of the tenth lunar month. The festival lasts 5-6 days. In festivals, pigs and sheep will be killed, and rich people will kill cattle. At that time, they will dress up for dinner, visit relatives and friends and give gifts to each other.

Torch Festival: It is the biggest traditional festival of Yi people, which falls on June 24th of the lunar calendar every year. At that time, cattle and sheep were to be killed and ancestors were to be sacrificed. In some areas, landlords will also be sacrificed, and they will entertain each other, eat tuorou and wish a bumper harvest. Torch Festival usually lasts for three days. On the first day, the whole family got together. In the next two days, there are many colorful activities, such as wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting, boat racing and tug-of-war. Then, hold a big bonfire party and party all night.

Supplementary festivals: Yi people living in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou will have another festival on February 10th and 11th of the lunar calendar 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. 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, bringing their own food and eating meat. This is a large-scale rally.