What festivals do Mongolians celebrate?

Mongolian traditional festivals mainly include Mongolian New Year, Genghis Khan Memorial Festival, Nadam Festival, Aobao Festival, Horse Milk Festival, ancestor worship Festival and Lantern Festival. Among them, the Mongolian New Year, also known as White Festival, Bai Yue, Chagan Sari and New Year Festival, is the Mongolian "Spring Festival", which falls on the first day of the first month. The White Festival is the biggest festival of the Mongolian people in a year, which is equivalent to the Spring Festival of the Han people.

What festivals do Mongolians celebrate?

Mongolian Festival 1: Nadam

Nadam is a traditional festival with a long history in Mongolia, which plays an important role in the material life of the Mongolian people. The "Nadam" conference is held in July and August every year when livestock are fat. This is a cultural and sports entertainment conference held by people to celebrate the harvest. "Nadam" means entertainment or games in Mongolian. There are thrilling horse racing, wrestling, admirable archery, competitive chess and fascinating songs and dances at the Nadam convention.

Before the start of the conference, men, women and children rode horses and dressed in festive costumes, and came to participate in competitions and visits regardless of the distance. The first activity of the conference is generally a wrestling competition. Wrestlers climb into boots with their hands and feet high, wear wide satin wrestling pants, wear "Zhao Dege" (a vest) and wear colorful ornaments "Jiangge" around their necks, imitating ancient knights and striding around the field, and then compete.

Horse racing is also one of the important activities of the conference. At the beginning of the race, the riders lined up, each wearing a colored belt and a colored towel, full of youthful vitality. There are all kinds of colorful flags at the beginning and end of the horse race. As soon as the horn sounded, the riders flew into the saddle and whipped their horses, and the red scarf flew like an arrow. The first person to reach the finish line becomes the most praised athlete on the grassland.

Archery competitions have also attracted many herders. People with good skills can hit every shot and win applause from the audience. The "Nadam" conference is also an exposition of agricultural and animal husbandry materials. In addition to industrial and agricultural products, there are ethnic diets, such as beef and mutton and their smoked products, cheese, milk powder, cream, milk bumps, milk tofu, yogurt and so on.

Mongolian Festival II: Horse Milk Festival

Mongolian traditional festivals are named after drinking kumiss as the main content. Popular in Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia and some pastoral areas in Erdos. Usually held in late August of the lunar calendar, the date is not fixed and lasts for one day. In order to celebrate the bumper harvest and bless each other, besides preparing enough kumiss, we also treat guests with "hand-grilled meat", hold horse racing activities, invite folk singers to sing greetings, and present gifts to the elderly of Mongolian medicine. It is said that Nadam Festival originated from this.

Mongolian Festival III: Lantern Festival

Every year on the 25th day of the Lunar New Year 10, as night falls, every household lights butter lamps to celebrate. Today, most Mongolians in Buksaier Mongolian Autonomous County and emin county have not celebrated the Lantern Festival; In Wusu, Mongolians don't burn lanterns on the Lantern Festival, but use various forms of entertainment. Traditional entertainment activities for the Mongolian people include horse racing, camel racing, wrestling, archery and shooting, tug-of-war, folk singers playing and singing, Ma Touqin playing Jiangge and folk dances. The Mongolian dance in Turhut includes group dance, solo dance, duet between men and women, singing and dancing, which shows the unique characteristics of grassland nationalities.

Mongolian Festival 4: China New Year

Ancient Mongols called the Lunar New Year "Happy Engel", that is, the New Year. Some people call it "White Festival" or "Bai Yue", which is closely related to the whiteness of milk. There are different views on the origin of Mongolian Spring Festival. First, according to the book Q&A in Black and White by the Fifth Dalai Lama, "Genghis Khan took the capital of Xixia in A.D. 1227 and held a banquet to celebrate, which was the beginning of the Mongolian calendar, and the first month was known to all the stars and the moon." The month of the stars is from 65438+February 16 to 65438+ 10/0/5, which is one month different from the lunar calendar. The Mongolian calendar in Ordos region is based on Bai Yue, May and June. From this perspective, the first year of the Mongolian calendar should be April of the lunar calendar. According to historical records, since the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolians have accepted the calendar algorithm of the Han nationality. Therefore, Bai Yue of Mongolia coincides with the first month of the Spring Festival of Han nationality. This is the origin of Mongolian "Spring Festival".

Near the end of the year, no matter in agricultural and pastoral areas, every household should set up lantern poles. By the thirtieth, we should clean the courtyard and do a good job in indoor hygiene. A small altar should be set in front of the Buddha, and a piece of cooked mutton should be enlarged on the altar for dairy products and flour-made fruits. On New Year's Eve, an ancestor worship ceremony will be held. In the past, at the ceremony of ancestor worship, we had to strike while the iron was hot.

Mongolian people have an ancient legend of "turning iron into mountains", which people regard as the legend of their own national origin. The night is brightly lit. Some also invited Mongolian folk artists to rap "Wuligeer" (Mongolian version). Young people get together to sing and dance. Girls who don't take part in singing and dancing get together to play "Shaha". Usually used to stay up until midnight.

In recent years, although the Spring Festival of Mongolian people is basically the same as that of Han people, and some customs of Han people are absorbed, such as eating jiaozi and setting off firecrackers, many traditional customs of Mongolian people are still preserved, such as eating "hand-held meat" on New Year's Eve to show family reunion.

On New Year's Day, the whole family will put on holiday clothes and get together to celebrate the New Year. First of all, from the younger generation to the older generation, in turn; The younger generation kowtows and peers pay tribute; There are also packs of cigarettes, toasts and hada. After receiving gifts, elders should express their blessings to their brothers, nephews and grandchildren. After the blessing, give the children some gifts and "lucky money". At dawn, family, friends and relatives began to pay New Year greetings to each other. People who travel long distances have to ride horses or drive. New Year's greetings usually end before the 15th day of the first month.

In remote farming and pastoral areas, before the sun comes out in the early morning of the 16th day of the first month, people who often play together also have the custom of "printing black ink". It was secretly put on the forehead when the other person was sleeping, and the paint was mostly pot bottom ash.

Mongolian Festival 5: Fire Day

Torch Festival, also known as Fire Worship Festival. Mainly from the ancient Mongols' worship of fire. The ignition ceremony was held on the evening of February 23, 65438. It may be influenced by the sacrifice of the 23rd twelfth lunar month of the Han nationality. However, since ancient times, Mongolia has the custom of using fire for sacrifice, which is a prelude to the Lunar New Year. Before the fire sacrifice begins, the whole family will go to the yard (some in front of the fire pit, some in front of the stove), and the chief priest (the elders in the family) will first put up sacrifices to burn incense. Then take a bundle of firewood and light it, and throw sacrifices such as butter, white wine and meat (beef and mutton) into the fire. Led by the elders, the whole family kowtowed to the fire. The priest also prayed:-Thanks to Vulcan's blessing, some unclean things were thrown into the fire. Please forgive Vulcan, and bless the harvest of crops, the prosperity of people and animals, and good luck and happiness in the coming year.

Mongolian Festival 6: Sacrificing Aobao

This is also an important festival activity. On this day, herders went to Aobao in droves to offer sacrifices. They placed Buddha statues on Aobao, erected prayer flags and offered sacrifices to cattle, mutton and milk together in front of Aobao. Then, the lamas burned incense and lights, chanted prayers, and the masses made three turns from left to right around Aobao, hoping to usher in a bumper harvest year for animal husbandry.