What are the specialties and customs of Hongjing?

The custom of Yunnan ethnic minorities' annual festival

According to the ancient Yi solar calendar, the Yi people in Yuanyang Hani and Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province live twice a year.

The Yi solar calendar divides a year into 10 months. Every month, the rat day lasts for one month, and the 12 zodiac cycles three times, and the pig day ends at the end of the month, with 36 days per month. There are 360 days in a year, and the remaining five or six days are New Year's Day. 10 months is not counted. Every summer solstice will usher in a three-day New Year's Day. The first day is the day of receiving ancestors, the second day is the day of offering sacrifices to ancestors, and the third day is the day of seeing them off. Off-year is the solstice of winter, with only two days, one for receiving ancestors, one for seeing them off, and three for celebrating ancestors in leap years.

After increasing contact with the Han nationality, the Yi people in Yuanyang County also spend the Spring Festival with the Han nationality, but they still retain strong national characteristics. In the three days before the Spring Festival, every household will kill the Year Pig. Clean the house and outside, plant pine trees in front of the door, and insert pine branches at the door and beside the stable in front of the stove. I wish you a happy life in the coming year. Don't spend the night at other people's homes on New Year's Eve, and pay off all the things borrowed from others.

On New Year's Eve, it is forbidden to say unlucky words, swear words and beat your wife and children. The father or the eldest son led the whole family, with trays filled with wine, meat, rice, water and other sacrifices, offering sacrifices to ancestors, heaven and earth, earth, water, sun, moon, dragons, stoves and so on in turn, and then offering sacrifices to doors, columns, water tanks, livestock stables, large agricultural tools and so on one by one. After the whole family sits down, take a little from each meal and put it outside the door for homeless wild ghosts. Then bring the dog a bowl of rice. It is said that all the crops were drowned in the first flood year, and the dog got back the grain seeds from the gods, so the dog was comforted first on New Year's Day. Wait until the dog is full, and then the whole family will have dinner together.

On the morning of the first day of the first month, at dawn, all the men fired their guns and went to the well to worship the water god, trying to get the new water back first. As dawn dawned, the whole family got up, put on holiday costumes to welcome the God of Wealth, and then wrapped jiaozi to sacrifice to all the gods. Make another jiaozi and stick it on the child's forehead, indicating that the child is one year older. The Yi people in Yuanyang call the first day of the first month "Queen's Day". Women don't do or do less housework, while men do all the cooking. No matter how big the zongzi is, the rice should be steamed fully, which means it is more than enough all year round. On the first day of the first year, I kept my knife and axe still all day, never left the village entrance, never went out to be a guest, and never went to the vegetable garden to get food. Visiting relatives and friends began in the second and third days of junior high school, and women took their children back to their parents' homes.

Woodcut "invitation" invites friends and family.

Every winter or twelfth lunar month, Dulong people have the only traditional festival, which is called "Kakwa" in Dulong language and is an annual festival of Dulong people. The length of the festival mainly depends on the preparation of food, usually two or three days or four or five days. There is no fixed date for festivals. All ethnic groups are free to choose a good auspicious day to start the new year.

Dulong people live in the Dulong River valley between Gaoligong Mountain and Dailika Snow Mountain, and are one of the ethnic groups with less population in China. After choosing an auspicious day for the China New Year, all families invited their relatives and friends to celebrate the New Year. They carved a gap in a special piece of wood, which was an "invitation" to send people to the invited village. There are several notches carved in the wood, which means that a ceremony will be held in a few days to celebrate New Year's Day. Those who receive the woodcut "invitation" should bring all kinds of food to show their respect and congratulations. When the host and the guest meet, they should drink a bottle of water wine and sing to each other. In the evening, the whole village and guests gathered around the bonfire, tasted food and watched young men and women dance "pot dance" to celebrate the annual harvest. When making a toast, the man drank the wine. After drinking, he threw the wine bowl into the bamboo frame hanging above the fire pit to indicate good luck, with the bowl mouth facing up as a good sign.

"Girl country" women are busy

Mosuo people in Lugu Lake, Yongning Township, Ninglang Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, call the Spring Festival "Kush", which means Chinese New Year. Mosuo people celebrate the Spring Festival, which means worshipping their ancestors, heaven, earth, sun, moon and everything. This is the busiest time for women in the "girl country".

The matriarchal society preserved by Mosuo people still practices the custom of "divorce" in which men and women do not marry on the sole basis of feelings. Among Mosuo people, mother has the highest authority, so it is called "daughter country". In Mosuo family, the oldest and most prestigious grandmother or mother is in charge of housework, and everyone in the family pays her the income. She arranges the life of the whole family. A month before the Chinese New Year, the woman in charge of housework will buy new clothes for everyone in the family, New Pants, at least one set. Then, the women began to make wine, extract oil, make rice sugar, pound rice and grind noodles, and all pine nuts and firewood needed for the New Year should be prepared. Because, according to the custom of Mosuo people, from the first day of the first month to the sixteenth day of the first month, you can't use ropes, otherwise you will encounter snakes during the New Year. On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, Mosuo's women spread from the corner of the roof to the crack of the door and cleaned it thoroughly. Women cut their children's hair, take a bath and put on clean clothes.

On the first day of the first month, at dawn, Mosuo women carry buckets on their backs and carry water to springs or streams. This is called "fighting for water". Whoever gets up the earliest and wins the first sip of water means that this family will be prosperous and rich in money in the new year. So the women got up early to freshen up, and when it turned white, they rushed to the mountain springs and streams. After the water came back, the housewife prepared breakfast, and the whole family offered sacrifices to the pot farmers and kowtowed to the ancestors and the elderly. When the sun comes out, the mother carries the piggy on her back, brings tea and wine, and takes the children to the elders' home of the same "Sri" (families with the same maternal blood line form a clan) to pay a New Year call.

Become an adult after the new year.

For Pumi children who have reached the age of thirteen, Chinese New Year is especially important for them. Because on New Year's Eve, a ceremony of "wearing pants" and "wearing skirts" will be held for them, and they will become adult boys and girls in the future.

New Year's Eve is the most important traditional festival of Pumi nationality in Yunnan. Men, women and children wear bright national costumes to welcome the New Year. On New Year's Eve, 13-year-old children get together in groups according to gender, party all night and bid farewell to their lovely childhood. The first-class cock sings loudly, and the East frowns. They immediately returned to their homes to prepare for their bar mitzvah ceremony. Family members put a bag of grain and a piece of pig fat next to the "male column" or "female column" next to the fireplace according to whether the child to be held as an adult ceremony is a boy or a girl. Pig fat is a special food for Pumi and Mosuo people. It is made by hollowing out the bones of slaughtered pigs, smearing pepper and salt on their bellies, and air-drying. Pig fat symbolizes wealth, and grain bags symbolize harvest.

The girl's coming-of-age ceremony is called "Dressing Ceremony" and is presided over by her mother. The little girl walked to the "female column" in front of the fireplace, with her feet on the grain bag and pig fat, earrings, beads, bracelets and other decorations in her right hand and daily necessities such as linen and linen in her left hand. The objects in her hand symbolize that women will have the right to enjoy and undertake family obligations. Then the wizard prayed to the ancestors and the kitchen god, and the mother took off the linen gown, put on the linen blouse, wore hundreds of pleated dresses and tied a belt embroidered with patterns for the girl. The daughter in new clothes kowtowed to Kitchen God and relatives and friends, and relatives and friends gave gifts to express their blessings.

The boy's coming-of-age ceremony is called "pants-wearing ceremony", which is presided over by his uncle. The Pumi nationality retains many matriarchal social customs, and the uncle has the highest status in the family. The little boy walked to the "male column" in front of the fireplace, stepped on the pig fat and the grain bag with his foot, and held a sharp knife in his right hand, symbolizing courage; Holding a silver ring in the left hand symbolizes wealth. The wizard prayed to the kitchen god and my ancestors. My uncle took off the boy's linen robe, put on his linen jacket, linen trousers and tied his belt. Boys in new clothes should kowtow to the kitchen god and relatives and friends one by one like girls, and toast to relatives and friends with horn glasses. Relatives and friends often send him a sheep to congratulate him on his future peace and good luck, as well as flocks of cattle and sheep.

When a "dressing ceremony" or "trousers ceremony" is held, parents of girls or boys will hold a grand banquet to entertain their relatives and friends. They served each guest a bowl of bone soup, a piece of meat and some pig hearts and livers, indicating that everyone is close relatives and heart to heart. After the banquet, the ceremony was over.

"Dressing Ceremony" and "Panting Ceremony" were held. Little girls and boys became adults, and they could participate in productive labor and social activities and become full members of the family.