What is the origin of the ant-turning festival of the Zhuang ethnic group

Origin of Ant-trafficking Festival

On the banks of the Hongshui River in western Gui, the Zhuang people of Bama are mesmerized by the ancient ant-trafficking song and the joyful sound of copper drums of the river during the Ant-trafficking Festival in the first month of the year. According to legend, the goddess of ant-traffic is the daughter of the King of Thunder, who is in charge of rain and makes the earth windy and rainy. One year, there was a young man named Donglin in the Zhuang family, who was in pain because of the loss of his mother. From then on, the frogs stopped calling, and it never rained again. The people then began to be in great trouble. Frightened, Donglin went to seek the divine ancestor, the goddess of the Brodha River, the mother sister Luojia, and received the divine instruction that he should make amends to the frog goddess. So Donglin hurriedly beat a bronze drum on the first day of the Lunar New Year to invite the frog goddess back to the village for the Lunar New Year, and invited thousands of people to bury the dead frogs. Afterwards, the earth was blessed by the frog goddess again, and the wind and rain were favorable. Since then, the Zhuang people in Bamatunglan have been celebrating the festival every year and worshipping the frog. It is said that the first to find the frog is lucky, known as the son-in-law of the king of Lei, "ant-torch Lang", become the chief of the year ant-torch. The chief will lead the people to light fireworks to report to the King of Thunder the joyful news of the festival on earth. People take the frog back to the village and put it into the sedan chair. From the first day of the year to the end of the first month, the children carry the frog to the village during the day to congratulate every family; at night, they carry it to the ant-trailing pavilion, where people dance and sing ant-trailing songs to show that they are keeping the spirit for the ant-trailing. Wake up, the activities of the village tour to the 25th day, the ant abduction festival will enter a climax. On this day, people choose the auspicious time, carry the sedan chair to the place where the frogs are buried, open the precious coffin where the frogs were buried last year, if the bones of the frogs are in golden color, it will be a sign of a good year, and the whole place will be cheered by the bronze drums and drums all of a sudden. If the frog's bones are gray or black, it means a bad year, so people burn incense and pray for good luck. Then the burial ceremony of the new frogs is held. After the funeral, men, women and children sing and dance around the bonfire to send the souls of the frogs to heaven. On this night, people enjoy the party and stay up all night. After breakfast on the first day of the first month of the year, adults and children in groups of three to five in the fields to look for ants, according to the customary take two, a male and a female. And by the person in charge of this activity will be put into a section of the ant crutch cut open bamboo tube (called "ant crutch coffin"), closed and tied tightly, with colorful paper paste surface. The next day, the youths carry the "ant-car" around the village and recite congratulatory messages to the families. Congratulations to the main family of the New Year, all the best, six animals prospered, the grain harvest.

2. Sacrifice ant crutch. On the fifteenth day of the first month, in the tradition of fixed ankle graveside erected five or six meters high colorful paper streamers, set up offerings, playing copper drums, drums, sacrifices ankle.

3. Burying ants. Burying ant-traps around different dates, customs are different. Take the most solemn Ba Chou township Ba Ying Tun ceremony as an example. Burying ant-traffic before the first old bones out last year, look at its color, it is said that the bone yellow prediction of this year's wind and rain, grain harvest; bone white drought, grain failure, but the cotton is a good harvest; bone black is the crops, people and animals have a disease and disaster. Then, by an old man reciting the words of sacrifice, burying the new ant crutch.

4. Masquerade. Before the burial of ant-abducts, the village to catch up with the source of the latter, at this time, the two old man wearing a mask, wrapped in a ragged mosquito net, dressed as "ant-abducts male" and "ant-abducts female" in a group of each wearing seven ugly masks, holding a stick

The ant-abductions, the belief of the Zhuang people, ant-abductions festival, is a very distinctive custom, is an important part of the traditional ethnic culture of our country, but also the ancient period of the Zhuang people in the case of not understanding the nature of the cultural products derived from a cultural manifestation.

New Year's Eve Customs and Follies of the Black Zhuang People

Every year, the Spring Festival arrives, and we, the Zhuang people, like all the fraternal peoples, attach great importance to the Spring Festival as a traditional national festival. Nowadays, when remembering those very distinctive New Year's Eve customs of the Zhuang people, it still brings back a lot of memories.

Unforgettable New Year's Eve customs

Nanning around the Zhuang people live in places, in the rural pike, can be seen everywhere in the purchase of New Year's Day loan villagers.

My hometown Wuming Zhuang people and the Han Chinese: every year, the wax month 23rd to 30th of this period called "dust day". According to the Han Chinese folklore: because the "dust" and "Chen" harmonized, the New Year dust sweeping has "in addition to Chen Bu Xin" meaning. And the intention of the Zhuang people is: the old year's poor luck, bad luck all swept out the door. This custom, the Zhuang people's desire to break up the old and establish the new and the old and welcome the new prayers. In the "dust day" when the Zhuang people will clean the environment, cleaning all kinds of appliances, dismantle the bedding curtains, sweeping the courtyard, dusting dust cobwebs, dredging nullahs and dark ditches, everywhere you can see the joy of welcoming the New Year atmosphere. The Zhuang people's "dust day", this tradition has continued to this day.

The Zhuang people over the Spring Festival festival, although the Han Chinese Spring Festival is influenced, but the form and content of its activities are characterized by their own ethnicity. When the 30th day of the New Year comes, the Zhuang people around Nanning are busy killing pigs and chickens and ducks, wrapping zongzi, making rice cakes, sewing new clothes, and posting Spring Festival couplets. Such as in the reporter's hometown of Wuming Yiling Village, Zhuang villagers in a special way to spend the night of New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve night to come: some villagers will use the pig's head, castrated chicken, candy and fruit products to grand ancestor; adults around the fire, while talking about the ancient side of the New Year's Eve vigil; the children will enjoy the game, sleepless all night adults do not intervene. At night until about 11 o'clock, the villagers of each household hang long firecrackers in front of the door, to be set off when the cock crows. Since ancient times, the villagers have kept this discipline: that night, the cock crows the first trip to burn guns. Firecrackers, who can be synchronized with the sound of the cock crowing firecrackers for the most auspicious, the villagers will be this custom called "pressure chicken mouth cannon. After that, every chicken crow once, will be burning a firecracker, until dawn. This firecracker custom, in the Zhuang region is very common.

The first day of the Lunar New Year is the grandest day of the New Year. At dawn on this day, the elderly in the village will dress the children in new clothes. After the child says goodbye to the old man, the old man will pay the new year's money into the child's pocket, and will call the child to the house hall in front of the table. After the child faces the ancestors, the old man will educate the child about the New Year's inspirations. Elderly people also need to be especially told: today, go out, see the village people will say auspicious words, never speak unlucky words and so on ......

The first day of the Lunar New Year, in Wuming, many Zhuang villages, everywhere in front of the door of each household have posted the Spring Festival couplets, you can see the people dressed up, everyone is full of joy, and meet each other to say the word of good luck. The people can be seen dressed up in full costume, all in high spirits, exchanging words of good luck. At around 9:00 a.m., the villagers will invite a lion dance team to perform a lion dance. At this time, these Zhuang villages are immersed in the sounds of gongs and drums and firecrackers. At 10:00 a.m., villagers will visit each other's doors to congratulate their predecessors, and adults will send money to the children who come to pay New Year's visits. Every year at this time, the villagers who usually exist in conflict with each other after the New Year's Eve, the conflict will dissipate, everyone will be as good as new, and drink together. According to the elderly villagers said: in the old days, the first night of the New Year, many villages will invite the Nanning troupe to sing opera; village and village between young men and women, often to the song to pass on love, everywhere is a happy scene.

In the old days, the Zhuang people around Nanning, there is such a custom: the first day of the first day of the afternoon, the villagers generally do not kill, do not move the knife does not move the fire; after the second day, will only go out of the village to go outside to visit friends and relatives. After the second day of the Lunar New Year, in the Zhuang countryside on the village road, everywhere you can see the handheld shoulder gifts of Zhuang villagers, they are joyfully looking for friends and relatives.

Over the past 20 years, the living standards of the Zhuang people have been greatly improved. In addition to keeping the traditional customs of thousands of years, the Zhuang people have become more civilized and progressive in celebrating the New Year.

During the Spring Festival, in the Zhuang countryside to see the people are holding mountain songs, ball games, cultural and artistic performances to celebrate the Spring Festival, the content of the New Year more colorful. In the Zhuang village road, can be seen everywhere in the car and motorcycle to see the Zhuang villagers to visit friends and relatives, the villagers to visit friends and relatives as how to get rich "exchange meeting".

Life of the Black Strong

The Black Strong people in the stone cracks believe that the graves of their ancestors can not be moved away, so that they and future generations will always be together. When you approach the entrance of a Black Yizhuang village, you can see a tomb covered with tiles near the housing or in the vegetable garden. From a distance, it looks like a buried hut with just the roof part showing, which is very conspicuous. A rectangular tile-covered grave in Nongwen Tun is the first generation ancestral grave of the Li family name, which has been passed down for more than 200 years. It is only about 5 meters from the house, and fresh vegetables are grown around the grave. Black Zhuang's graveyard selection is to ask the sorcerer to divination, divination with an egg stand up, the egg fell to which side, which direction as a cemetery, no matter who's land, the head of the family are eager to give, this is called "the living are not different from the dead to fight".

In the mountains, mountains one after another, everywhere is dark. Stone, "nine points of stone one point of soil" is a true depiction of their living environment. The black Zhuang live in the dry bar type of wooden buildings, generally divided into three layers. The first floor is used for raising pigs and cows, the second floor is used for living, and the third floor is used as a warehouse. The dry-fence buildings are mainly made of stone and wood, and the craftsmanship is simple and rough. Below the polished solid stone pillar support, above the building with wood, "concave" shape.

There are no inns for outsiders in the village, but the warm black Zhuang welcome you to stay with any family. Sleeping at night is cool, and it's like having a "natural air conditioner" installed all year round. When you wake up in the morning after the rain, you can see the clouds filling the village like a tide, and the tiles and corners of the wooden buildings are hidden in the surging clouds, winding and charming.

Black Zhuang kind-hearted, they are good guests, good treatment of children, more good treatment of the elderly. For the sake of the elderly is not only reflected in the food and living, in all the festivals, the elderly are treated with special respect. The youngest child presents the oldest with a "red ribbon", a symbol of good luck and happiness.

Whenever there are foreign tourists, the black-clothed Zhuang people, dressed in black costumes, step to the beats of the drums, come out of their respective wooden buildings and run to the simple playground at the head of the village. The scene is like a flock of black butterflies flying out of the woods and swooping down to the brilliantly blooming flowers, the whole village becomes beautiful and magical. They perform dances for tourists, such as the Red Offering Dance, the Birthday Dance, the Black Gun Dance, the Whacking Cloth Dance and the Unity Dance. These dances are all derived from their lives, some reflecting their wars against foreign invasions; some reflecting their etiquette of hospitality; some reflecting their respect for the elderly; and some reflecting their joy in making new clothes and preparing to meet their lovers. Although the actors did not go through professional training, they used skillful dance steps to express a kind of ancient sentiment, the charm of the mountains through their dynamic dance was interpreted to the fullest.

The most intuitive of the traditional culture of the black Zhuang is their clothing and jewelry. According to Napo County, a long-term study of black Zhuang scholars: black Zhuang to "black" as a mark of wear and national mark, first of all, with the provisions of the historical Tusi system, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties Tusi rule Zhuang period, the provisions of all the local people are only allowed to wear black, blue two colors; Secondly, the legend of the origin of the black Zhuang also determines the formation and continuation of the black Zhuang costumes. Secondly, the legend of the origin of the Black Clothes Zhuang also determines the formation and continuation of the Black Clothes Zhuang costume; the Black Clothes Zhuang still retains the tradition of wearing black color, mainly due to the fact that the aesthetic concept of "black is beautiful" is y rooted in people's hearts. At the same time, the practicality of wearing and the style of generous simple and beautiful organic combination of perfect the connotation of the black Zhuang dress culture.

The black Zhuang men wore a large lapel top with a wide leg and large pants to match. This attire facilitates their labor and walking in the mountains. Traditional men's head is also wrapped into a circle of black cloth turban, waist tie a red cloth or red silk belt, to show that the ghosts to drive away the evil spirits, but also show that the men's might and valor.

Women's clothing is more distinctive, young and old, like to wear a right cover lapel and gourd-shaped short foot round neck tight short-style tops, the lower body with a wide leg, big pants with pants, waist tie black cloth made of large aprons, head wearing a large black cloth head scarf. Its apron is both wide and long, wear, can tie around the body more than a circle, the bottom of the skirt down to the calf; apron can not only be used to decorate, such as the skirt corner up to make a triangle tied in front of the waist, in order to show that the beauty of the dashing; you can also turn the bottom of the skirt up as a bag with. This is especially useful when going to friends and relatives, to catch the song, to go to the mother's home. In labor, more can be made of bucket-shaped bag, loaded with some vegetables and beans, grains and so on. Women wear the headscarf are their own weaving and dyeing of long black cloth, wear, first around the head in a circle, and then folded into a large diamond-shaped look, cover the head, and then the headscarf on both ends were hanging on the shoulders, not only looks simple and beautiful, but also can be used as a hat with the sun. Black strong women gathered together, a black in the solemn beauty, the beauty of stability and coordination of the beauty. Their edges, cuffs, skirts and headscarves of the four edges of the red or yellow cloth cut into small strips of bundles set up, and some of the red, yellow and blue silk thread embroidered wavy lines, so that the black through the red, yellow, blue fine line segments, elegant and bright, and the color coordination of the level of the more prominent beauty and exquisite beauty. The women's wear all rely on their own skillful hands to sew one by one.

Black Zhuang women wear silver collars, both ends are made of fish shape, like a double fish kiss. Fish kissing silver collar is a black Zhuang women's wedding must have things, indicating that the black Zhuang have fish totem worship beliefs. Historically, in the traditional rice farming areas of the Zhuang, people believed that people became fish after death and then reincarnated as human beings. In the course of our interviews and filming with the Black Strong, we saw many little girls wearing silver collars with fish kissing each other, indicating that the legacy of the fish-worshiping culture of the Black Strong has evolved into the traditions of their own ethnic groups.

The most beautiful of the black Zhuang women's jewelry is the head flower. Women in adulthood to ò bun, insert work hairpin, head cage, head fork, head flower after the head flower with jade ring beads winding head flower; head flower is generally six, unmarried young women or married but have not yet fallen into the husband's family to wear; has fallen into the husband's family of women only wear head fork.

Black Zhuang women's jewelry more, earrings, earrings, jade beads, necklaces, collars, bracelets, rings are indispensable; most of them come from family heirlooms or married from the mother's family to bring the "floating wealth". One of the most interesting is that most women like to set their incisors into gold, to show their beauty and their identity, status is not vulgar.

Now, many young people in black Zhuang usually dress more casually, from the original "all black" transition to "on the blue under the black and white headscarf" of the so-called second-generation dress. However, whenever there are traditional festivals and celebrations or when there are outsiders coming to visit, they still dress very seriously, with meticulous clothing and jewelry. Especially the girls have to dress up themselves or each other carefully.

To this day, the Napo Black Strong still preserves the traditional indigo dyeing and weaving process, which is very rich in cultural connotations, and the Black Strong grows, weaves, dyes, and wears itself, which is a genuine ethnic culture. In Langevin Tun, there is a y buried natural stone, ancient villagers will stone chiseled into a dyeing well, which is the oldest indigo dyeing well in Langevin Tun, every indigo harvesting season, the village people take turns to harvest the indigo branches and leaves composting soaked in the dyeing well, and now this stone well has been dried up, but there is still a layer of thick indigo color on the well wall.

In the long-term production labor, the black strong summed up a whole set of indigo dyeing experience. Every family in Langwentun has a spinning machine and a dyeing tank chiseled out of stone, and the woven cloth has to be dipped in indigo and rinsed dozens of times, and then boiled and dyed in cow's glue and pig's blood, rinsed and dried into black cloth, and finally has to go through the process of pulping and beating with a mallet many times to produce a strong, smooth, and shiny black cloth. This process is full of the unique flavor of life and the poetry of traditional customs of the Black Cloth Strong. With strips of indigo cloth drying on the railing and the fragrance of indigo emanating from the space, the atmosphere of indigo dyeing and weaving culture is very strong. The indigo dyeing and weaving craft of Heiyizhuang is not only the cultural heritage of Heiyizhuang, but also the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation and even all mankind.

Black Strong Love "Wind Flow Festival"

Every year on the tenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, is the Black Strong "Wind Flow Festival", young men and women in the beginning of their love for each other to come to the centuries-old tree or on the lawn, the red belt is the Black Strong "Wind Flow Festival". Meet, red beauty belt is the black Zhuang young men and women important love object and good luck, write their birth date and eight characters of the red beauty belt thrown into the big dustpan, after stirring and each person draws one of his or her own, the name written on the red beauty belt is the name of your dream lover. Young men and women sing love songs and give each other tokens of love through the "Red Thread Passing Love". The song implies the ideal of life of the black Zhuang, but also flowing with their excellent, colorful history and culture, reflecting their perseverance, optimism, simplicity, diligence and excellent quality.

The Black Strong has strictly enforced the intra-ethnic marriage system, but absolutely prohibit consanguineous marriages. The main reason is to abide by the traditional legacy of ancestors, in order to maintain the pure tradition of the community. For thousands of years, the almost isolated living environment is also the reason for the long-term existence of endogamy. So far, the black Zhuang young men and women like to find a love object in the village of this Tuen Mun.

Although young men and women can fall in love freely through the song Wei and other occasions, but the marriage must obtain the consent of the parents, to go through a series of rituals such as matchmaking, fixed life, Na Coin. Weddings are strange and interesting, weddings are conducted at night, the bride out of the house, her father, brother can not see him out. After the bride leaves the house, she is not allowed to look back at her mother's house, let alone walk back. Otherwise, it is regarded as an unlucky omen. Bride to the man's home, through the door into the bridal chamber, the bride sent into the bridal chamber of the meal, can only symbolically eat a little. To the first time at midnight when the cock crows, the bride must quietly and bridesmaids to return to her mother's home (no matter how far the road).

Thereafter, every month, by the male sister or sister to the woman's home to pick up the bride to go to the man's home to help two to three days, after two or three days of residence, the bride returned to the bride's home with her parents and brothers **** with life. Such as three to five years, until the bride is pregnant and will give birth to a child, the bride to settle down in the male family, so that couples have to spend time with each other.