Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festival of Jinuo people.

In China, there are some special traditional festivals around the country to celebrate the harvest and worship the gods. Dragon Boat Festival is one of the main traditional festivals of Jinuo nationality, which is divided into dragon festival and dragon festival, and is an indispensable part of Jinuo culture. So, how did the Dragon Boat Festival come about? What are the rituals and customs? Let's have a look.

Dragon festival is a memorial day for Amar Bai Yao, the founder of Jinuo nationality. It is usually held in June and lasts for three days. Ama Bai Yao created Jinuo people and their mountains, rivers, sun, moon, animals and plants, and was killed in the land reclamation movement.

After Bai Yao's death, Jinuo people mourned for her for thirteen days, and the present "dragon festival" was handed down from then on. On the Dragon Boat Festival, the whole village is not allowed to go out, singing and dancing are not allowed in the stockade, and people outside the stockade are not allowed to enter the stockade. Violation of these is a disrespect for Bai Yao, the ancestor of Jinuo nationality, and a violation of Jinuo customs.

On the first day of Dragon Boat Festival, Zhuoba and Zhuosheng held a sacrificial ceremony with their parents in the sacrificial room outside the village. At first, a buffalo was planted on a fixed tree near the village, and then a sow and seven piglets were killed by the pond outside the village. After killing the cow, you should hang a cow's tail on the big tree and provide the pig's head bone with meat by the pond.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhuoba will announce taboos, the main contents are:

"People who don't take part in sacrifices and don't obey taboos fall off their chins in front, their heads behind them, their bones and muscles on the left and their legs on the right. When they meet a leopard, they will be eaten by it. When they meet a tiger, they will be taken away by it and fall from the tree. "

After the sacrifice, each family took a piece of meat home, cut three pieces of lean meat three fingers wide and twelve centimeters long, and dried them. The next morning, three pieces of beef jerky and chicken breast were delivered to the elders' home. At noon, the elder family shouted three times at the door: "Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha" (meaning eating), and all parents went to the elder family for dinner. After dinner, the Presbyterian church sent people to collect rice from every household, and the people sent them took a bamboo tube that could only hold one catty of rice. The rice of each family is packed in bamboo rafts and placed in front of bamboo tables. As soon as the rice collector arrived, he put the rice in a bamboo tube and piled it up. Then, the more rice they peel with bamboo chips, the better the harvest that year.

During the three days of Dragon Boat Festival, the whole village stopped all production activities and blocked the traffic in the village. Two wooden stakes were erected at the entrance of the village, prohibiting all personnel from leaving the village and outsiders from entering the village. Women are forbidden to go out on the first day of junior high school, and offenders will be prosecuted. Jinuo people think that going in and out of the village is disrespectful to Genesis grandmother Amar Bai Yao. In these three days, men told stories, talked about customs and habits, talked about production, old people did insulting work, and women did sewing, weaving and weaving.

After the sacrifice, families went out of the village to see how the crops in the field were growing, whether they were affected or not, and whether they could have a good harvest. After the inspection, they will report to Zhuoba. If there is a disaster during the inspection, generally, families will sacrifice themselves. If there is a big disaster, they will kill white pigs and hold a village sacrifice activity.

Yanomura's style of offering sacrifices to dragons is somewhat different from that of Baduo and Baya mentioned above. They are forbidden to stay in the village for three days, namely the first day, the second day and the fourth day. You can't work in the fields on the forbidden day, but you can work in the fields the next day. Instead of slaughtering cattle, the elders in the village took a chicken, a glass of wine and a liter of rice to Pumi Village to sacrifice the magic knife. It is said that this magic knife can cut off running water, and in the case of long-term rain and flood, it can be sacrificed to seek sunshine.

The Dragon Sacrifice was held on 13 day after the Dragon Sacrifice. Sacrificial ceremonies are composed by the village elders "Zhuoba" and "Zhuosheng". Dragon festival slaughtered cattle and stopped farming for three days, and even the whole village was not allowed to leave the village. The elder brought a chicken, a bottle of wine and a liter of rice to Moyangzhai to offer a sword. It is said that there is a knife that can dominate the weather and rain, and can pray for rain during drought. When it is waterlogged, the sacrificial knife can make it clear. When offering a knife, after killing the chicken, insert three grasses on the chicken head, then burn it on the fire, and then look at the lines on the chicken leg bones to distinguish between good and bad. This is actually "chicken divination" or "bone divination". Dragon festival will last for six days, but men will go hunting in the mountains and women will do housework at home. The purpose of Dragon Boat Festival is to have a good weather and a good harvest.