What are the traditional festivals of Yi people?

0 1 Yi Festival is a concentrated expression of the lifestyle and customs of the Yi people in China. There are agricultural festivals focusing on agricultural production; There are sacrificial festivals mainly dedicated to gods and ancestors; There are commemorative festivals focusing on remembering heroes and major events; There are festivals to celebrate harvest and victory; There are social entertainment festivals with singing, dancing and opera as the main activities.

Yi nationality is the sixth largest minority in China, and its national language is Yi language, which belongs to the Yi branch of Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. There are six dialects in North, East, South, Southeast, West and China, including five sub-dialects and twenty-five dialects.

Yi people are mainly distributed between the plateaus and coastal hills in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces, and mainly gather in Chuxiong, Honghe, Liangshan, Bijie, Liupanshui and Anshun. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is the largest Yi inhabited area in China.

Yi festivals are the concentrated expression of the lifestyle and customs of Yi people everywhere. There are agricultural festivals focusing on agricultural production; There are sacrificial festivals mainly dedicated to gods and ancestors; There are commemorative festivals focusing on remembering heroes and major events; There are festivals to celebrate harvest and victory; There are social entertainment festivals with singing, dancing and opera as the main activities. The main festivals are:

Yi Festival 1: Flower Face Festival

Flower Face Festival is popular in Qiubei County. It is held every year on the eighth day of the second lunar month for three days. Every festival, young men and women in every Yi village get together to kill pigs and chickens, prepare wine and meat rice, respect the gods first, then invite the elderly to eat the best wine and meat first, and then everyone sits around and toasts each other to eat meat. After dinner, go to the village head and tail, and wipe each other's faces with ink and pot ash until they are covered in black and too tired to laugh. This is why the Flower Face Festival is named. Except for young men and women, the others also wipe each other's asses according to age and seniority. They think that the darker it is, the more people will wipe it. In that year, the weather was good, people and animals were safe, and crops were bumper. During the festival, villagers are not allowed to work, spring ploughing or threshing.

Yi Festival II: Torch Festival

Torch Festival is a grand festival of Yi people. Except Bailuo people in Muyang, Funing County, Yi people all over the country celebrated grandly and even spread to Han people. According to the Yi solar calendar, June 24th of the lunar calendar is the most correct day when the sun is in orbit. At noon, the sun shines on people and you can't see your own shadow, so this day is regarded as a festive day. June is the season when rice heads, crops bloom and all kinds of crops are close to maturity. It is also the time when all kinds of pests harm crops. Therefore, torches should be lit to destroy pests and pests in this festival to ensure a bumper harvest. On this day, men, women and children put on festive costumes and gather in designated venues for bullfighting, horse racing, singing and dancing; Holding lighted torches at night, men and women chase and play with each other to show goodwill and auspiciousness, and also to burn off the evil spirits of each other. In addition, torches were held around houses and fields to kill insects and pesticides, and then groups of people sang and danced around the bonfire all night.

Each branch's activities have different forms and meanings. Aza spent two and a half days from the afternoon of June 24th to 26th of the lunar calendar. In addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors every morning and evening, sacrifices are made on 1 day. Black dragon? The next day? House god? The third day? Crops God? Some of them are still provided in the fields? Thor? , pray for blessing. Before the festival, every family cut down young pine trees, dried them with wedge A, made them into torches, and lit them every night during ancestor worship. After dinner, young men and women gathered in the open field, lighting torches, playing black boys and dancing strings, full of vitality. The sound of torches and happy laughter made the whole village jubilant. Young people are becoming more and more interested and stay up late at night. Dedication? House god? Extremely serious. There is an altar behind the house, which is presented by the head of the household. The offerings include a small basket of corn and1.65m linen or white cloth, bracelets and rings. Add 1 bowl of rice and put 1 egg; Reed front line 1 bowl of water, 3 wine glasses. Tie three branches of pine, fir and chestnut with red, white, green, blue and blue cloth with a length of 16.5 cm, and insert some chicken feathers on the wall. Kill the cock on the table, kill the hen on the right under the table, and burn some blood and paper as a tribute. According to legend, in ancient times, during the Torch Festival, 1 the couple were honored as house gods because they fought against the devil who stole the children. Later generations respect and appreciate it. Every Torch Festival, they will kill chickens at the back of the house where they were killed. Yesterday, the course was simplified, and the cows were killed and shared on the festival day. Cook glutinous rice that night, cook eggs according to the number of children, and offer them on the ground. Parents hold up a dustpan and beat it to recite the words of exorcism, and then hold up a torch to spray fire with rosin particles to exorcise ghosts, mosquitoes and flies. Then each child eats 1 boiled egg, which means he won't get sick in 1 year, and everything will be fine. In recent years, in order to protect forests and prevent fires, we have stopped playing with fire handles, and most other activities have remained unchanged.

Yi Festival III: Grass Horse Festival

Cao Ma Festival is popular in Aza branch. Aza paid tribute to the service horses who accompanied their ancestors in their long journey to find their way, and prayed for the protection of crops. Every year in August of the lunar calendar, he chooses Horse or Rat Day to celebrate Grass Horse Festival. Neighboring villages do not choose the same day, which is convenient for them to visit each other and congratulate each other on the festival. On this day, every household makes grass horses, inserts all kinds of wild flowers and dresses up as colorful horses; Make a horse reed from pumpkin leaves and fill it with kitchen ash and grass seeds. Sacrifice ancestors before killing chickens that night. Before dinner, put chickens and good dishes in the horse's mouth and put them in the grass in the west of the village. The next day, flowers and horses were placed on both sides of the road for everyone to visit and evaluate and learn from the winners. In the afternoon, every family in the village presented grass horses, and men, women and children went to the suburbs for lunch to see who ate well, had many guests, was popular and auspicious. It is another lively scene to hold a bullfight after dinner and evaluate the champion of strong cattle. During the festival, men and women in the village and foreign guests play freely, especially at night, singing songs, playing bamboo flutes and dancing strings. The excitement will last until late at night or early the next morning.

Yi Festival 4: February 8

The eighth day of the second lunar month is an annual festival of Weishan Yi people, which is grand and warm. Every village holds activities, among which? Damen Road? 、? Sacrifice is intensive and dry? Is * * * and activities. On this day, all villages have to cut off some branches to block the entrance to the village, and outsiders are not allowed to enter the village. The activities of offering sacrifices to Miku are held within ethnic groups, and women are not allowed to participate. During the activity, people all speak Yi language, but don't speak Chinese. Call the event first? Ground pulse? Answer? Dense and withered? Then, an activity of offering sacrifices to the dense dead trees was held, and Abi (a Yi religious figure), the boy and the able-bodied man guarded the dense dead trees for three days and three nights. Playing songs was an essential activity in each village.

Why do Yi people hold such grand and enthusiastic activities on the eighth day of the second lunar month? Legend has it that there was a kind-hearted and helpful old man named Miku in Yi Nationality Village, Weishan, who lived in a shack one mile away from the stockade. At noon on the eighth day of February one year, all the young and strong laborers went to work in the fields, leaving only some women, children and old people in the stockade. Miku suddenly found two hungry tigers coming at the stockade, and both the old man and the children were in danger. At this critical moment, Miku ignored his own danger and shouted? Children, run! ? Cut down the branches and thorns on the roadside with a machete that you carry with you, while blocking the road and delaying the tiger's entry into the village. When you are exhausted, you will not hesitate to meet the tiger and stand under the big green tree, leading the hungry tiger to your side. People came from all directions, the tiger was killed, the villagers were saved, but the old man fell in a pool of blood. People buried the bones of the dead old man under the big green tree with deep feelings. Since then, the Yi people have been called Daqingshu? Dense dead trees? ,? Dense dead trees? Become the incarnation of the old man. Yi people have passed? February 8? This custom has been handed down from generation to generation. March 27th, 2007 (the ninth day of the second lunar month) was held in Weishan. The 12th Yunnan-Sichuan-Guizhou-Guangxi-Yi Ancient Books Cooperation Conference? The meeting decided that the eighth day of the second lunar month is the main sacrificial day for the Yi people in China to worship Nanzhao Metropolis every year.

Yi Festival 5: Rice Festival

Miss is a tree god. Every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the whole village will kill pigs to worship the tree god. Pray for tree gods to bless and eliminate disasters, and bless the prosperity of people and animals in the village and the bumper harvest of crops.

Yi Festival Six: Shahubi Festival

? Sand fox ratio? What is the significance of Weishan Yi language? Taste new wheat? The time is the middle of April in the lunar calendar. In this festival, every family worships their ancestors with new wheat flour and glutinous rice dipped in honey, and invites relatives and friends to taste new products to celebrate the bumper harvest in Koharu. On this day, a married daughter should visit her family with a rake and other gifts.

Yi Festival 7: Huang Tu Festival

The Huang Tu Festival is held in the middle and late September of the lunar calendar, and the Yi people in Weishan choose to hold a ceremony to send Huang Tu on the night that does not belong to their family's zodiac. On this day, people will draw a circle from the inner room of the main room to the face room, and then to the enclosed room, taking the intersection line of the center of the courtyard as the midpoint, and set four corners to form five directions in the east, west, north and south, respectively inserting a pine branch and a chestnut branch, inserting three branches in the middle, ordering food such as incense, tea, rice, wine and salt, and holding a rooster in one hand. East, West Jin, South Soldiers, North Water, Central Black Chicken Rabbit, when will my family be dedicated to the local emperor? . Then kill a chicken, put tail hair in five directions and wrap tail hair in five directions. When the chicken is cooked, the whole family kowtows. Send the local tyrant, ensure safety, protect the field and protect the inheritance? Good luck. Finally, send all the branches and incense to the roadside behind the house, and then have a family dinner.

Yi people's festival 8: Let's drink opera festival.

? Shall we play together? Weishan Yi language is to taste new rice, and the time is on the day of October of the lunar calendar every year. On this day, people turn the harvested new grain into Gu Mi, and call their married daughters, visiting sons, relatives and friends back to kill chickens and taste new rice. Taste new rice, worship your ancestors first, and then respect the elderly. At dinner, an old man gave a speech? Let's drink opera, play European opera, Chinihan Maiwan, and go to Imado in that sea? . Taste the new rice, taste the harvest this year, and hope to have a better harvest next year. In some Yi villages, new rice is mashed into bait blocks with various patterns, painted with pigments and distributed to relatives and friends and the elderly in the village for tasting.

Yijie 9: White Valley? Joe's Day?

In the barren hills of Yongren County, there is an alpine Yi village called Baiwen Valley. Every year, the first day of the fourth lunar month belongs to the Year of the Loong, and the local Yi people will hold a grand event. Joe's Day? .

White Paper Valley belongs to Hu Mao Village Committee of Yongren County, located in the hinterland of Yishan on the Jinsha River.

Perhaps because of the different migration routes or time, the Yi branch of Baizhigu is different, and the festival customs also have their own characteristics. ? Joe's Day? It is one of the unique festivals of Yi people in Zhiju, Yao Ju, Baizhigu, Piancha, Ali, Liangshan and other areas in Chuxiong.

? Joe's Day? This is the most important and lively festival of the local Yi people. On the morning of the festival, with the first cock crow, the elder Li Bo in the stockade sounded the first crisp bronze drum to tell people? Joe's Day? It has arrived, and the festival is about to begin. At this time, the villagers dressed in festive costumes gradually gathered from various stockades to the venue where the festival activities were held, and then got busy according to the contents of the festival activities. Women's main task is to prepare sacrificial offerings and holiday food, while young and middle-aged people are going to pick up buckwheat seeds, while unmarried young people take this opportunity to enjoy singing and dancing and love affairs. The activity lasted all night and the scene was very lively.

When the activity begins, the first thing is to pick up? Josh? . Led by the drummer of the bronze drum, everyone walked around the buckwheat field in turn and began to call buckwheat seeds. At this time, it is the season of harvesting buckwheat. The name of buckwheat seeds means that buckwheat seeds should not be attached to fields. Please take buckwheat back to the granary of every household, live happily with people in the mountains, and return to Shan Ye in the sowing season next year.

After the ceremony of picking buckwheat seeds, everyone broke a green branch nearby and took it home, indicating that the buckwheat seeds attached to the branch had been brought back. Take the green branches home, put them at the bottom of the building, and send them back to the ground when sowing in the next spring.

Next is the dance performance. On the dam in the middle of the stockade, I saw a dozen Yi men wearing strange clothes wearing masks, robes and sticks, forming a big circle around a square table in the middle of the dam, singing and dancing, and performing various dance movements. It is said that in ancient times, a big fire burned all the houses and food of the Yi people. At that time, there was no distinction between grains, and people were struggling with hunger and pain. Later, I don't know who found several surviving buckwheat seeds under an upside-down bowl. People sow buckwheat seeds on the hillside and carry water to the foot of the distant mountain in the scorching sun, guarding them day and night and carefully managing them. So it was not until April and May of the following year that buckwheat finally blossomed and seeded, and the ancestors of the Yi people used these buckwheat seeds to survive and reproduce. This is the origin of Yi buckwheat festival. In order to make future generations remember this painful farming history forever, the Yi people will perform these dance performances every year at the Qiao Nian Festival to show that they will not forget yesterday's hardships.

After people finish all kinds of activities, they get together to sing, jump on bamboo poles and dance on cucurbits. The elders sat around the square table in the center of the venue, drinking, narrating and singing.

? Joe's Day? In fact, it is an agricultural sacrifice festival, which actually expresses a kind of natural worship of the Yi people and exposes the mentality of the agricultural people looking forward to a bumper harvest.

Bai Zhigu? Joe's Day? The custom has been passed down to this day.

Yi Festival 10: Secret Festival

This is a primitive sacrificial ceremony and one of the major festivals of Yi people in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. But it has no fixed and unified festival, which is made up of? Bimo? Hold festivals on auspicious days. On the same day, the men in each village took the whole slaughtered white sheep to a special sacrifice field in the deep forest to pray for a bumper harvest of crops and the prosperity of six livestock.

About what? Secret details? There is another legend about its origin. According to legend, there was an expert who herded cattle and sheep in ancient times. Dense branches? . He has helped others graze and look after cattle and sheep for many years, and people are very grateful to him. On New Year's Eve, a host gave him a chicken, a liter of rice and a catty of meat and told him to go home for the New Year. But he was homeless, and it was inconvenient to spend the night in another house (because it was New Year's Eve, which was unusual), so he had to curl up under the eaves of others. Unfortunately, he was killed by cold and cold that night. People feel very sad and sorry about this. In memory of him, the Yi people set up a program called "? Secret details? . But because he died on New Year's Eve, it was not convenient to set up a festival on this day, so he changed it? Bimo? Choose another day to celebrate the festival temporarily every winter.

Yi Festival Eleven: Bow Jumping Festival

Traditional festivals of Yi people in Napo county. Also known as jumping public sacrifice. Yi language is called Kaqi, Kongzi and Cao Qi. It is held every year in the middle of April in the lunar calendar. The exact time varies from village to village. According to legend, the ancestors of the ancient Yi people left the village to resist the enemy, and returned home successfully from early April to mid-April. People hold banquets, sing and dance to celebrate according to custom. This activity began in the Northern Song Dynasty. There are big jumps and small jumps. In 9 years, 1 jump was held, each lasting 6-9 days. 1 Small jumps are held for three and a half days every year. People sang and danced around the golden bamboo silk, and the neighboring villagers came to watch and congratulate. There is a temporary market transaction outside the venue.

Bow jumping activity

Public dance is also called. Bow jumping festival? It is the biggest festival of the Yi people in Napo, Guangxi and Funing, Yunnan. It is said to commemorate the ancient warriors who returned home in triumph. It's been around for thousands of years. The specific time of festivals in each village is similar, which is the first day of April in the lunar calendar. The contents include offering sacrifices to ancestors, gods and ancestors, preaching national history, singing and dancing, performing entertainment and so on. A village held a public dance festival, and several nearby villages came to participate. It was very lively. During the festival, all the men, women and children in the village put on festive costumes, and Mora (Yi language, meaning teacher and wise man) preached the achievements of their ancestors and led everyone to worship. Then they drank and sang, and everyone played bronze drums and lusheng, following the traditional dance rhythm, from slow to fast, from low tide to high tide, and celebrated heartily. Young people perform symbols of hunting enemies? Jumping through the gate? 、? Crossing the broken bridge? Dance, etc. It shows the memory of the heroic and martial spirit of our ancestors and the victory against national oppression. Surrounded by holiday food, everyone can eat and dance, punctuate Bimo's chanting, praying and blessing ceremonies from time to time, and hold horse races and various performances during the period. After dark, young men and women flocked to every property, taking turns dancing, praying and even partying all night.

At that time, people will wear certain clothes, and girls will wear white jackets, blue cloth pants, leggings, collar earrings and ribbons around their waists. The young man was wearing four brand-new jackets with collars exposed, and nine young people gathered in the square with long poles (symbolizing the long hair used by their ancestors) and blue robes. ? Master? Lead people to worship their ancestors with pig heads, board the bamboo platform, and officially announce the start of the Golden Bamboo Dance. ? Ma Gongba led the dance, wearing a high white hat, cassock and new shoes and socks, leading the crowd to dance on the lusheng and gongs and drums. The dance lasted two days. At noon on the third day, all men, women and children climbed to the top of the mountain together. Master? Sacrifice ancestors under the auspices of another person, and then leave one after another.