Traditional culture of ethnic minorities

00 Yi Flower Arrangement Festival: Flower Arrangement Festival is a traditional festival with characteristics of Yi people, also called "Ma Yinghua Festival". The Flower Arrangement Festival is held every year on the eighth day of the second lunar month and generally lasts for three days. The flower arrangement festival in the epiphyllum mountain area of Dayao County, Yunnan Province is the most grand and grand. There are many stories about the origin of the Flower Arrangement Festival, and the most widely circulated is the legend of Miyi Road. According to legend, Miyilu is a smart and beautiful Yi girl. In order to protect her sisters from bullies, she pretended to be loyal to each other. At the wedding, she drank Ma Yinghua's poisoned wine with the bullies, sacrificing herself and endangering the people. Therefore, every year in bloom, Ma Yinghua, the Yi people in Tanhuashan District will hold a grand flower arranging festival to commemorate the beautiful and kind Miyi Road.

During the Flower Arrangement Festival, people pick flowers of various colors and weave them into colorful arches and flower sails to symbolize good luck. They arrange flowers on the fields and cattle and sheep in front of their homes, praying for a bumper harvest of grain and the prosperity of six livestock. People also arrange flowers for each other to express their best wishes for good luck, harmony and happiness. The younger generation should put on headdresses and clothes for their elders and wish them happiness and good luck. The elders should also give them to the younger generation, wishing them health and happiness. Yi compatriots will also put on festive costumes, bring wine and delicacies, hold flowers, sing folk songs, and dance with their left feet happily, enjoying themselves and wishing each other good luck. The Flower Arrangement Festival is also a festival for young men and women to express their love. On this day, young men and women who love each other prepare for their wedding. The young man put the bright camellia on the girl's Baotou, and the girl also put the cherry blossoms on a small group of lusheng, and they got together to sing and dance, staying up all night and enjoying themselves.

00 Dai Flower Festival: Flower Festival is popular among Dai people in Yongping Town, Jinggu County. On the eve of the "Water-splashing Festival" in the Dai calendar (mid-April in the Gregorian calendar), the Dai people went up the mountain to pick beautiful flowers and presented them to the Buddha statue in Myanmar temples, praying that the Buddha would bring more blessings to the people. This traditional activity is called "Flower-picking Festival" by local people.

Before the flower picking festival, people should bathe themselves and put on the most beautiful clothes. In the early morning of the festival, men, women and children in each village dressed in costumes, carrying flower baskets and carrying "tuba" on their shoulders, flocked to the green mountains and green waters outside the stockade with pious feelings and picked all kinds of wild flowers covered with dew. During the break, young men and women dance to the elephant foot drum. Careful boys will weave or tie azaleas, chestnut flowers, ink flowers, peach blossoms and plum blossoms into garlands and give them to girls they like. If a girl likes a boy, she shyly takes the garland in the boy's hand, and then her friends will chase the girl and give a burst of cheerful laughter. If the girl doesn't like the young man, she won't pick up the flowers and walk away silently. The young man had to take the flowers to find someone else. After the sun came out, boys played bamboo instruments (also called "flutes"), girls sang simple and beautiful folk songs, and melodious songs echoed in the mountains.

After lunch, people carefully tied the collected flowers into bundles, or made them into garlands or greenhouses, then beat gongs and drums, held colorful banners and walked to Myanmar temples with exquisite food and fresh fruits. People hold flowers, sing and dance, walk around the Myanmar Temple, and then enter the Myanmar Temple in twos and threes in an orderly manner, offering bouquets, greenhouses and fresh food in front of the Buddhist shrine and kowtowing to the Buddha statue. Say something in your mouth, say your wishes, pray for Buddha's blessing and realize your wishes.