Jinuo people's iron-striking festival

The traditional festival of Jinuo nationality is the Spring Festival. The original intention is to strike the iron for everyone and prepare production tools, hence the name. Popular in Jinuo Mountain Area, Jinghong County, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. It is held in December of the lunar calendar every year, and the exact date is uncertain, which is decided by the father and mother of each village according to the climate season.

At that time, "Zhuoba" (the mother of the village) and "Zhuosheng" (the father of the village) knocked on the cowhide drums that were considered as artifacts. When the whole village heard the news, they gathered at "Zhuoba" and "Zhuosheng" homes, waiting for the preparation of the New Year distribution. First of all, all the families in the village raised funds to buy calves and held a ceremony to sacrifice them to heaven. After the sacrifice, one person from each household, carrying a bow and arrow and a musket on his shoulder, went up the mountain to catch two yellow-billed rats and presented them to the elders of the village as holiday gifts for their children to show their filial piety. In addition, a pair of bamboo rats will be caught and given to the blacksmith in the village as a gift for the ceremony of ploughing and cutting trees in the New Year and a souvenir made of iron. These gifts are sometimes reserved in advance. The men gathered in the blacksmith's workshop, cleaned the mice, dried half of them with fire, pounded them into powder, poured boiling water, brought soup to the blacksmith, and gave the rest of the mouse meat to the elders in the village.

During the festival, there are activities such as playing cowhide drums, bamboo slips ensemble, jumping, singing and turning bamboo poles. It is said that a long time ago, a Jino woman got pregnant in September after marriage and failed to give birth. Later, a child in her belly bit off her seven ribs, jumped out from under them, held a poker in one hand and a hammer in the other, and struck the iron when she was born. From then on, Jino people began to use iron. In order to commemorate him, later generations followed suit in succession, so there was the Iron Strike Festival.