Thesis on the Yi culture of the Red River, quick request, Sen buckle

The Cultural Meaning of the Yi Torch Festival

Abstract: Folk festivals are a collection of various cultural activities and "an exhibition of national culture". The Yi Torch Festival has a wide influence and has been a household name for a long time. With the development and evolution of history, Yi Torch Festival has gradually developed into a national festival with multiple cultural meanings. This paper attempts to explore the cultural meanings of the Yi torch festival in the light of the origin and evolution of the festival.

Keywords: Yi torch festival; cultural meaning

Introduction: Generally speaking, all kinds of tangible and intangible folk customs, such as birth and marriage, diet and living, dress, crown and gown, seasons and festivals, midyear activities, farming and animal husbandry, divination and taboos, beliefs and worships, amusement games, folk crafts, etc., reflect the behaviors and values of the people who practiced them, and therefore reflect the rich and complex culture of the folk people. They all reflect the behavior and values of the people who practice them, thus reflecting the rich and complex connotations of folk culture. With the evolution of history, the cultural meaning of folklore is also evolving and developing, and it has become an existence with complex cultural characteristics. The Yi Torch Festival is also constantly enriching and developing its folk culture.

Origin and Development of the Yi Torch Festival

The Yi Torch Festival is a traditional festival in all the Yi regions, popular in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other Yi regions, and with the deepening of the ethnic integration, the Bai, Naxi and Lahu have gradually started to celebrate the festival. The Torch Festival is generally designated as the 24th day of June in the lunar calendar, and the festival lasts for three days. Young men and women light torches made of pine wood and go to villages and villages in the fields, scattering pine incense to the torches as they walk, or conducting rallies, singing and dancing, or horse racing, bullfighting and wrestling. With the passage of time, people's minds are more open, young men and women will also take advantage of the opportunity to gather to look for a good partner, merchants will also carry out a variety of trade activities in the festival.

On the origin of the Torch Festival, there have always been a variety of sayings, there are "Zhuge Liang fire attack miasma," said the Yi people, "the fire burned the magic Ha Palace," said that, although the argument is not the same, but the root of the matter, reflecting the ancient period of the general public on the fire of nature! Worship. Torch Festival in Liangshan Yi language is called Du Zai, Du Zai that is the meaning of fire sacrifice, in the ritual song "sacrificial fire god", "sacrificial pot Zhuang Shi" in the fire god Ayi Diegu's divine performance narrative. Fire is a symbol of the Yi people's pursuit of light, in the Yi region, there are a variety of ritual activities about fire, such as the Liangshan Yi see the fire pond as a sacred place where the fire god resides, and it is strictly forbidden to touch and cross it; the Yi people of Luxi County, Yunnan Province, on the first day of the first lunar month and the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month, housewives choose a piece of the most fat meat and throw it into the burning pond to pray to the god of fire and to bless the safety of the fire god. The Yi in Yongren County will carry out the "fire god meeting" on the second or third day of the first month.

With the advancement of the times, the Yi torch festival has gradually incorporated more fashionable elements, and the traditional cultural connotations of the festival have been gradually combined with modern consciousness, and the forms and connotations of the festival have gradually undergone new changes.

Second, the cultural meaning of the Yi torch festival

The era has given the torch festival a richer cultural connotation, nowadays, the torch festival is not only a festival for worshiping the fire god, feasting and singing, but also an important platform for cultural and ideological exchanges as well as the circulation of trade and commerce. The cultural meaning of the Yi Torch Festival mainly includes the following three aspects:

1. The Torch Festival is a festival to show the rich customary culture of the Yi people

During the Torch Festival, the Yi people will carry out colorful customary activities, which provides a platform to show the Yi culture and Yi customs. During the Torch Festival, every year on the 24th day of the 6th lunar month, every family kills chickens and slaughters goats to worship the "Lord of the Earth" and "Family God", and the "God of the Five Grains", which is called the "Soul of the Five Grains", and the "Soul of the Five Grains". "The soul of the five grains" to pray for a good harvest; people outside the home to eat a reunion dinner, together around the fire to drink home-brewed wine; men, women and children are dressed in festive costumes, get together to light up a big torch, dance the Yi three-stringed dance, gourd sheng dance, organizing horse races, wrestling, singing, beauty pageants, climbing poles, fights with goats, fights with chickens, and other activities. With the expansion of economic development and opening to the outside world, many Yi torch festivals are getting bigger and bigger in scale and more and more diversified in form, attracting people to come here, and the Yi torch festival has also become an important festival to show the world the rich customs and culture of the Yi people.

2. Torch Festival is an important festival for cultural education

Torch Festival is an important manifestation of traditional ethnic culture in China, and the process of carrying out Torch Festival is also a process of traditional ethnic culture education for the Yi people. The educational function of the Yi torch festival has more ethnic cultural characteristics. During the Yi Torch Festival, colorful traditional sports and athletic activities will be carried out, such as flying stone rope, head, sheep pulling rope, martial arts, bullfighting, jumping music and other activities, which can fully demonstrate the performers' and athletes' physique, physical strength, temperament, guts and wisdom, etc. In the process of appreciating and participating in the various songs, dances and athletic contests, people can get happy, which will make them more profoundly appreciate the soul of the nation and the beauty of the nation's culture. These national cultures have deep stability, continuity and creativity. In the process of the modern Yi people's continuous development of the Torch Festival, the Festival has gradually become a social education activity for all participants, baptizing people's national thoughts.

3. Torch Festival is a festival to promote the economic and cultural development of the Yi nationality area

With the economic and cultural development and integration of the various ethnic groups and regions, the Yi Torch Festival is not only an important part of the life of the Yi people, but also has gradually become a valuable resource of the national culture of the Yi nationality area, and has made a significant contribution to the development of the economic and cultural development of the Yi nationality area. Over the years, under the strong support of the government and the active participation of the masses, the "Yi Torch Festival" has been continuously integrated with new cultural connotations, and the scale of the festival has become larger and larger, and the reputation has spread farther and farther, and the attributes of the tourism resources of the festival have also become more and more prominent, and the festival has become an important form and carrier for the development of the tourism industry in the Yi ethnic area, which attracts a lot of foreign tourists and developers to come here. It has attracted many foreign tourists and developers, and promoted the development of tourism in Yi ethnic area. At the same time, the Yi torch festival has become an important platform for carrying out torch festival commodity fairs, transforming national cultural resources into national development capital, making the torch festival a festival integrating political, economic, entertainment and tourism elements.

Third, conclusion

Yi Torch Festival is a traditional festival with deep historical origin and cultural precipitation, which not only reflects the code of conduct and value orientation of the Yi and Bai people, but also changes people's lifestyle and behavioral habits in the thousands of years of cultural precipitation, and plays an important role in enhancing the cohesion of the nation and the sense of national pride. With the development of the times, national integration has become a major trend, the Yi torch festival for the development of tourism, investment to create conditions for the gradual development of multi-functional festivals with national characteristics.