Hezhe traditional festival

Hezhe Hezhe is one of the ethnic minorities with a small population in Northeast China, and has long lived in the "Sanjiang Plain" of Heilongjiang, Songhua River and Wusuli River. Hezhe nationality has a population of more than 464.0, distributed in Jinkou Ethnic Township, Bacha Street, Tongjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, Sipai Ethnic Township, Raohe County, and Aoqi Village, a suburb of Jiamusi City. A few Hezhe people live in Fuyuan, Yilan, Suibin, Fujin, Baoqing and other counties, as well as Harbin, Changchun, Beijing and Xinjiang.

Hezhe language belongs to Manchu branch of Manchu-Tungusic family of Altai language family. There is no national language, no common Chinese, and no shamanism. Fishing and hunting are the mainstay of economic life. Now primary and secondary schools have been established, and fishing and hunting production and ethnic trade have been developed.

Hezhe people living in different areas claim to be different. Those who live below Jiejinkou Village in Tongjiang County and along the Wusuli River call themselves "Na Bird" and those who live along the Songhua River above Datun in Fujin County call themselves "Beina". "That" here means "local". Nanio, Bena is a local. Hezhe nationality merged with other nationalities such as Han nationality and Mongolian nationality in the long historical development, and formed a multi-source and multi-stream national identity in the early Qing Dynasty.

Compared with other brothers, Hezhe people have few festivals. The Spring Festival is a grand festival for Hezhe people, in addition to traditional national festivals such as "Deer God Festival" and "Wurigong Festival". Hezhe people have celebrated Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. In his early years, he lived together with the Han nationality and had close contacts. Some habits gradually converge with the Han nationality, and these traditional festivals are also spent with Han brothers.

Hezhe Year Hezhe Year, that is, the Spring Festival, is a grand festival for Hezhe people. Hezhe people, like Han people, attach great importance to the Spring Festival. Hezhe people call the New Year "Foeshikes", which means New Year's Eve, from the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first month.

At first, Hezhe people did not have their own unique festivals. Later, influenced by Manchu-Chinese culture, they began to celebrate the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and especially the Spring Festival. Moreover, there is not much difference between Hezhe people's interpretation of festivals and the way of festivals.

Hezhe people have lived in the J River Plain composed of Songhua River, Heilongjiang River and Wusuli River for generations, where rivers are intertwined and forests are dense, so Hezhe people are full of strong northern water town customs. As soon as they entered the twelfth lunar month, Hezhe people began to prepare for the New Year. Men usually grind their faces and dig ice holes in the river to fish; Women are busy making fish hair (fish floss), dried animal meat, stinky plum cakes, sticky bean bags and so on. Children and adults learn paper-cutting and paper lanterns together. When the Spring Festival comes, Hezhe people always renovate their houses. The eaves of the "knot"-shaped tall houses are covered with neat dried fish and bright red peppers, and the yard is clean. The furniture and utensils in the room are exquisite and elegant. Their furniture and utensils, especially birch bark boxes, are mostly engraved with exquisite patterns such as moire, flowers, fish, birds and animals, mountains and rivers. , uniform and beautiful. They also like to carve wood into fish, animals and people, which are different in shape and lifelike, and then put them in the house in an orderly way.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, it's going to be off-year. Hezhe people often sweep the dust and burn incense for the kitchen god, praying that the kitchen god "speaks well in heaven and ensures peace in the next world", and smearing "Lala" (thick porridge) on the mouth of the kitchen god. On New Year's Eve, the Hezhe language is called Buddha's forehead, which means that every family should have New Year's Eve dinner, including millet dry rice and meat. You can eat rice, white flour and stir-fry after the New Year's Eve. I want to eat jiaozi in the evening. In the past, Hezhe people did not include jiaozi. On holidays, they make meatballs with white flour for the immortals and cook some millet porridge for their neighbors. Later, jiaozi was used as a god. Jiaozi, who worships God, is called "Five Jiaozi" because he looks at the bag at four in the morning of the first day. When jiaozi is finished, he will offer a part to the gods to show his respect for his ancestors, and then the whole family can eat it. On New Year's Eve, men generally don't sleep, and men drink and chat at home. Women are busy stewing and cooking; Children play various games. In the past, in some places, it was necessary to "burn bags" on New Year's Eve and give food and drink to the dead. "Bao Bao" is a nickel coin folded into an ingot shape with gold foil, put in a yellow paper paper bag with traces of copper coins, then burned with herbs or firewood, and sprinkled some wine and food on the fire. This is not only to send money and vegetables to the ancestors, but also to express the memory of the victims who defended the Jin Dynasty in Huining House on New Year's Eve. In addition, the Western Wall should worship three generations of ancestors, the gable outside the house should worship the god of heaven and earth, and the wall above the pot cover should worship the kitchen god, and insert a few poles instead of incense.

On New Year's Eve, Hezhe people, old and young, kowtow to Vulcan. In the middle of the night, parents go outside to "worship gods" (mountain gods, river gods and tree gods), burn paper, light incense, offer offerings, toast and kowtow. After receiving God, the younger generation at home kowtowed to the elders and wished them happiness and longevity. Elders should also say some words of blessing to their children; Peer exchange greetings.

On the morning of the first day of the first month, the girls, daughters-in-law and children put on brand-new leather clothes embroidered with clouds and went to visit relatives, neighbors and friends.

Hezhe people are very hospitable. For the guests who come to pay a New Year call, the host always treats them warmly, offering tea, melon seeds and other foods. Everyone was talking and laughing, and it was very lively. In the past, Hezhe people's New Year's Eve dinner was mostly fish and game. Now the living standard has improved and there are more varieties on the table, but traditional fish and delicacies are still the main dishes. On New Year's Day, most people will have a "fire banquet". Fish and animal meat are the main foods at the banquet, and wild plums are also made into cakes and put on the banquet. Of course, there must be locust fish, squid and salmon on the table. One of the dishes is called "Fried Fish Hair", which is cooked with dried fish floss and has a fragrant and attractive taste. There is a local saying that "you can't be a Hezhe without eating fried fish hair", and there is also a famous dish called "Tallaha". Its practice is to peel off the meat on both sides of the hucho with a knife, cut it into filaments, put it in a basin, and bake it a little. In addition, salmon roe as big as soybeans is also delicious.

Hezhe people live by mountains and rivers, so they mainly eat fish and animals. They have many special ways to eat fish and animals.

Killing fish is a famous dish of Hezhe nationality, which is mostly used to entertain guests. There are many ways to eat:

1. Raw fish with vegetables. Hezhe language is "Talake", which is made of live fish such as fresh, locust, carp, grass root and white fish which are abundant in Heilongjiang. After bleeding, take out the meat and cut it into filaments, then add ginger, onion and pepper to the fish shreds, and then add salt and vinegar to eat. When the vinegar is insufficient, you can also eat it with wild cherry sauce. If you add monosodium glutamate and vermicelli, the taste will be more delicious.

2. Sashimi. The Hezhe language is "Labutaha", which means that after the live fish is bled, the scales are scraped off, the meat is cut, sliced and eaten with vinegar and salt. If you add some Chili oil, it will taste more delicious.

3. shavings. Hezhe nationality means "Surakka", that is, in winter, frozen fish is peeled, cut into shavings, and then dipped in vinegar, Chili oil and salt. This kind of eating method only takes fresh, locust, dog, snail, fine scale, tooth cloth sand and other excellent fish as the original family, especially fresh, locust and carp. If it is fresh fish, you can eat it with bones and meat. Crispy and delicious, it is a fine dish.

4. Tallaha. Cut the meat from the skin slices on both sides of the fish spine and string it with wicker to roast it. When cooked three or four times, you can dip it in vinegar and salt. This fish is crispy and delicious.

In addition, there are raw fish eggs, fish bones, shark fins and so on. As for how to eat cooked fish, it is fresh to stew fish soup with river water.

Hezhe people also like to eat wild animal meat, and there are many ways to eat it:

1. Dried animal meat, commonly known as "Huliekete". Cut the limbs and waist pieces of wild animals such as deer, steamed stuffed bun, wild boar and bear into small pieces and burn them on high fire until they are 70% mature. It can also be dried and preserved, and can be steamed or boiled when eaten.

2. Dried pork strips, called "Ucek Te" in Hezhe language, are strips of loin and limbs of wild animals such as deer and robes, stored in the sun, and cooked with salt when eating.

Because Hezhe people make a living by fishing and hunting, they have been making a living by fish and animal meat in their early years. After the Qing Dynasty, dried fish and dried fish skin were exchanged for millet to make millet porridge or glutinous rice porridge, and fish hair and colored oil were added. Hezhe people call it Lala rice, which is very precious, sweet and delicious. Another is to cook millet and fish pieces together and add some salt. Hezhe people call it "Mowen Valley" rice.

In the early years, Hezhe people mainly collected wild vegetables, including spinach, leek, leek, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, willow bud, Hericium erinaceus, day lily, wild onion, wild leek, wild pepper and mushroom. Willow bud is a kind of wild vegetable that Hezhe people like, and it is called "Enbi". There are all kinds of wild fruits in the forest where Hezhe people live. One of them is thick plum (Inkett), which grows on the big trees on the island. It can be eaten directly with fish floss or with millet. You can also mash thick and ripe black plums to make pancakes, which are round. They are called "Deb sickert" in Hezhe language. After drying, soak it in a jar with fish hair and take it out when eating. They are sweet and fragrant.

Cultural and recreational activities during the festival are extremely rich. The little girl likes to play a game of flower rope and eagle catching chickens; Young women get together to "touch paste" and "throw bones" (that is, pour tin on the hind legs and tibia of nothing and play on the kang); Boys and boys like to get together and compete with each other, such as the game of pitchforks, hide-and-seek, shooting grass targets, skating and skiing. Among them, pitchforks are the most interesting of Hezhe people.

In the grass ball competition, one person throws the grass balls one by one, and the contestants throw harpoons in turn. Whoever has more grass balls in his fork wins. After the grass ball is thrown, roll on the ground. If you want to hit it, you must be agile and flexible. In order to master the skills of spearfish, Hezhe people began to practice the fork ball from an early age. During the game, there were constant shouts, players running back and forth, and the atmosphere was warm.

Hezhe people also like to listen to Imakan. On festivals, the old people in the village often love to go to folk artists' houses, worship him for drinking and ask him to sing Imakan. Yimakan is a kind of oral rap literature combining sound and rhyme, which has both traditional singing and impromptu lyricism. The folk artist who performs Imakan is called Imakanai, which means smart and respected.

Imakan has a different singing style and rich content. Some praise national heroes, some show fishing and hunting life, some praise pure love, and some fairy tales that yearn for freedom and happiness and attack ugly forces are full of romance. Heroic epics such as Mo Rigen Man Dou and Mo Rigen Antu appeared earlier than Homer's epics. Among these stories and legends, the most touching one is the story of "Kong Kanghui" widely circulated among Hezhe people.

In the ice and snow, the little boy also likes to put the hounds on the sleigh, run to the hillside and play on the ice. Other young people sang Hezhe folk songs and had a good time. They like to improvise folk songs such as Marry a Rich Family and Anina. The melody of Marrying a General is melodious, mostly praising nature and expressing Hezhe people's love for their hometown. "Anina" is a folk minor, sung by women, with lively tunes, singing boat songs, hunting songs and love songs. The Hezhe nationality's Wusuli Boat Song praised a beautiful new life and spread all over the world.

Hezhe people have long lived a life of spearing fish with birch bark boats and hunting with guns on sledges, forming a unique national custom closely related to fishing and hunting economy. Hezhe Year embodies this lifestyle and simple Hezhe moral fashion.

Deer God Festival is a traditional festival of Hezhe people, which falls on September 9th. This festival comes from the worship of the tiger god by Hezhe people in their early years. Because the primitive hunting tools can't cope with the fierceness of tigers, they rely on the blessing of tiger gods, which leads to worship and gradually forms a custom festival with national characteristics.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there lived an old Hezhe Orion in Sanjiangkou. One autumn, a hunter and his son went hunting in the mountains, and only an old lady was at home. One night, a Tiger Claw suddenly reached into the room and a wooden thorn stuck in her paw. When the old lady saw it, she understood the meaning of the tiger and went forward to bite the wooden thorn with her mouth. The tiger barked several times and then left. In the future, this tiger often comes to this house and throws a roe deer and a wild deer at the door. When the old hunter and his son came home, they knew about it. In order to thank the tiger god, the hunter and his son took wine and food to the mountains to find the tiger god, but they didn't find it. So they offered food to the tiger in the mountain and three glasses of wine to the tiger god. They fell into the mountain and went hunting by themselves. As a result, the hunting went well and many prey were hit. He went back to the village and told people that everyone in the village thought it was the result of the blessing of the tiger god. Since then, September 9 every year has been regarded as a festival to sacrifice tigers. Because all Hezhe people in the village have to dance with shaman when offering sacrifices to tigers, it is also called Deer God Festival. On this day, the whole village went out, lit a bonfire, put wine and meat on it, sang and danced, and danced the deer god to sacrifice to the tiger god. On holidays, whenever Hezhe people raise their glasses, they always dip their fingers in a few drops of wine to show their respect for tigers.

On the traditional festival of Hezhe people, Hezhe people in the village jump on the road on March 3 every year under the leadership of shaman to ward off evil spirits and protect every household from diseases and disasters.

Hezhe Uygur Tribute "Uygur Tribute" is a language of Hezhe, that is, a festive day, which is a Hezhe festival. It is held once a year in July and August, usually for two days, mainly for Hezhe ethnic culture and sports competitions. Sports activities include forking, archery, boat racing, casting nets, pushing bars, etc. Recreational activities include singing folk songs, dancing shaman, dancing swan and playing harpsichord.

With the economic and cultural exchanges between ethnic groups, Hezhe people have been influenced by other ethnic groups, especially the Han nationality, and have celebrated the festivals of the Han nationality for hundreds of years. Hezhe people are a very hospitable people, and they greet their guests with sincerity and enthusiasm. One of the most important etiquette is to propose a toast to the fish head.

Treat people with fish heads and serve them to God. Hezhe people are very warm and polite to their guests. Whenever tourists come to festivals, they will stay to drink and eat. When the Hezhe people entertain guests, they first serve fish heads to show their respect. This etiquette has continued to this day. Now, all you have to do is be a guest in the Hezhe inhabited area, and all the fish on the table are aimed at the guests. The host ordered the fish head with chopsticks to signal the guests to eat first. No one can eat unless the guests move chopsticks, otherwise no one can move chopsticks.

According to historical records, Hezhe people offered sacrifices to mandarin fish, mandarin fish bones and so on. , especially the head of mandarin fish, to show sincerity to God. Because mandarin fish is the king of fish. Hezhe people often treat their guests, relatives and friends by killing fish. Once upon a time, in order to see if he was a friend, a fisherman pulled out his broadsword, cut a piece of meat from a lively fish and provoked him with a knife. If this person happily bites the fish off the knife and eats it, then he is Hezhe's friend, otherwise don't go to this house again! Hezhe people often kill fish with the best and freshest carp and sturgeon.

In addition, Hezhe people have some special ways to eat fish:

1. dried fish. The Hezhe language is called "Orkchi". Use a wooden frame and choose some thinner fish to dry. In spring, bask in the backs of pike, carp and crucian carp. Sun more salmon in autumn. The drying method is to directly dry the fish after eviscerating it, or to pickle it first and then dry it. Salmon is generally cut into strips or pieces according to different parts of fat and thin. The dried fish on the ridge is called "giving to the forest"; The fish with a bulging belly is called "Yujika color"; Sticky fish and dried meat are called "Sigurdeli" You can choose at will all year round.

2. Dry the roe. The Hezhe language is Chafa. Mainly dried salmon seeds like soybean grains, dried and stored. There are many ways to eat dried fish roe, which can be eaten directly like snacks or in rice porridge. You can also eat salted fish eggs, or eat fresh fish eggs directly, which is delicious and unique.

3. Fried fish hair. Hezhe language is called "Tashi Hate". Slice silver carp, sturgeon, carp, bighead carp, grass roots, steamed bread and platform door, cut into large pieces and cook them, then pick out fishbones, mash the meat, let it cool and fry it until it is brown and crisp, which is fish hair. Put the fried fish into a jar or birch bark box, soak it in fish oil, seal it and keep it in the shade. It is better to use fat fish in this way. If you put some wild fruit cakes or Queena Ding on the altar, it will taste better.

4. Dried grilled fish. Hezhe language is called "Shaolu". Cut lean fish into strips or pieces, put them on a shelf, smoke them with fire, cook them and store them. When it is used, soak it in water and eat it directly, or cut it into small pieces and eat it with fish hair.

5. Fried fish pieces. Hezhe language is called "Essim". The method is to cut the fat parts of carp or other fatter fish into small pieces, fry them with fish and eat them. Fish hair is also delicious. You can also put the fried fish in a jar or birch bark box and soak it in fish oil for preservation. This practice is mostly carp.