What are the traditional festivals of the Yi people?

Festivals are an important manifestation of the traditional culture of the Yi people, and like other ethnic minorities, the Yi people have their own national characteristics of traditional festivals, such as the Yi New Year, Torch Festival, Mish Festival, Flower Face Festival and so on.

1, Yi New Year

Yi New Year is a very grand festival of the Yi people in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Gui, but the time of the Yi New Year is very chaotic and not uniform. However, most of them choose auspicious days to celebrate the Yi New Year from October to mid-November of the lunar calendar every year.

2. Torch Festival

The Torch Festival is an important traditional festival of the Yi people, which is celebrated on the 24th day of the 6th month of the lunar calendar every year and lasts for three days.

On the day of the Torch Festival, men, women and children will put on their festive costumes and concentrate on the flat dams or gentle slopes near the villages to take part in activities such as bullfighting, horse races, songs and dances, wrestling and goat-fighting. In the evening, they would carry lighted torches and patrol around their houses and fields to exterminate pests and pray for a good harvest.

3, Mishi Festival

Mishi is the god of the tree, on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar every year, the village will kill a pig, to honor the god of the tree. And pray for the tree god can send blessings to eliminate disasters, blessing the village people and animals to prosper, a good harvest.

4. Flower Face Festival

The Flower Face Festival is held on the eighth day of the second month of the lunar calendar every year and lasts for three days. During the festival, young men and women of the Li ethnic group will get together, kill pigs and chickens together, and organize wine, meat and rice. After the meal, they will go to the end of the village and smear each other's faces with ink and pot soot, and the darker the smear, the more people will smear, so that the year will be smooth and have good luck.

Traditional Yi Festival Customs

There are many traditional Yi specialty festivals, and the customs of each festival are different.

1, flower face festival festival customs

(1) kill pigs and chickens, prepare food and wine, to honor the gods;

(2) with ink, pot soot wipe each other's faces;

(3) during the festival, not allowed to labor, not allowed to spring pestle and mortar.

2. Torch Festival Customs

(1) wearing festive costumes;

(2) bullfighting, horse racing, singing and dancing;

(3) carrying torches around the houses and fields to exterminate insects and pests;

(4) gathering around bonfires, singing and dancing all night long.

3, Grass Horse Festival festival customs

(1) families do grass horse, inserted various colors of wildflowers, dressed up as colorful steeds;

(2) the night to kill chickens to offer ancestors, and chicken and good food into the horse's mouth;

(3) the next day, after the meal was held after the bullfighting activities, the evaluation of the strong bull;

(4) at night, singing tunes, playing the bamboo flute, string dances until late at night or early the next morning.

4, February 8 festival customs

(1) held "fence road", "sacrifice miku" and other activities;

(2) only speak Yi language, not Chinese;

(3) playing songs.

The Origin of Yi Traditional Festivals

The traditional festivals of the Yi people are very different from those of the Han people, which gives people a very novel feeling. Every Han festival has its own origin, and next I will mainly introduce the origin of the traditional festival of the Yi people - the Torch Festival.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a Hercules in the sky called Sjaja Abi, and there was a Hercules on the ground called Athilaba, both of them had the power of God, and they were able to pull down mountains and rivers.

On one occasion, Sjak Abi wanted to wrestle with Atiraba, but Atiraba happened to be away on urgent business, and on his way out, he asked his mother to treat Sjak Abi with a plate of discus. Then, thinking that since Atiraba had the discus for his meal, he must be very strong, and feeling ashamed of himself, Sjak Abi hurried away.

When Atiraba returned, he heard from his mother that Sjarabi had just left, so he chased after him to have the promised wrestling match, and Sjarabi was defeated by Atiraba, and was thrown to his death.

Later, when the god of heaven, Entiguz, learned of this, he felt particularly angry and sent hordes of locusts and borers to eat the crops of the earth.

Atilapa then, on the night of the 24th day of the 6th month of the old calendar, cut a lot of pine branches, wild artemisia branches, etc. and tied them into torches, led the people to light them, and went to the geography to drive away the insects and burn them.

So, the Yi people later designated this day as the "Torch Festival".

So later, the Yi people designated this day as the "Torch Festival".