Activities of Liangshan Yi Torch Festival

The Torch Festival has been passed down to the present day, and has become an important festival of the Yi people, and the programs of celebration mainly include: Wrestling is very popular among the Yi people, and there are two kinds of wrestling activities: tripping and non-tripping, and the one who falls down is the one who loses; different villages elect the strongest and most capable wrestlers for the competition, and the winners are not only awarded with the prizes, but also are celebrated with the food of wine, goat and ox in their own villages, etc. and are encouraged.

In addition, there are wonderful archery competitions, and the venue is always gathered everywhere many young people on horseback and wear brightly colored costumes of the Yi girls, they sing and dance, onlookers sing along, everywhere full of joyful singing and smiling old people, and even visitors from afar also infected with the festive atmosphere. There is a sense of humor and silliness in the sheep fight. Two rams come hobbling along with their heads held high like nobody's business, and when they find their rivals, they dart forward and separate with a bang, and nothing happens. So again several times, fight to the end, the two sheep in the daze of the situation by and by rubbing, shaking hands and make peace, no winners and losers, it is really something interesting.

And horse racing, cockfighting, etc. are all male force competition, is the inner vitality of the nation's burgeoning, is the aggressive fire and wine collision, is the top of the stubborn and clever sculpture. Xichang Yi torch festival has been and Liangshan open to the outside world, to promote economic and trade exchanges, and international standards, three years a Liangshan International Torch Festival for this traditional festival colored with the elegance of the new era, given a new connotation

Yi people love beauty for generations, the pursuit of beauty, beauty pageant since ancient times has always been the most important and the most distinctive activities in the Yi traditional torch festival. It is different from the commercial and artistic beauty pageants in the world today. The traditional folk beauty pageant of the Yi people, which has lasted for thousands of years, is very strict, with beautiful Yi girls dressed up, holding yellow umbrellas, dancing slowly around the fire on the lawn to perform Doleho, and the judges are all highly respected elders in the villages. Their selection is both fussy and natural, both to see the girl's figure and appearance, but also to see their dress; but also to see their usual treatment of parents and elders of filial piety; more importantly, according to their usual moral character and reputation for hard work to judge. On the day of the festival, every household in the village will set up a number of torches in front of the door to prepare for the event. At the same time in the village near the choice of an open area, in the middle of the ground erected a 10 to 20 meters long pine, the top of the pine across a stick full of red paper flowers, the edge of the green pine around the flammable firewood piled up into a pagoda-shaped torch, as the venue for the event. In the evening, the host of the festival led the gong and drum team to beat the gong and drums, Walled House heard the sound of gongs and drums that go out and light torches, men, women and children holding torches to the activities of the place to converge. After people arrived, the host gave a call, everyone lifted the torch to the pagoda-shaped torch to run, will be lit. A moment of fire in the sky, the sound of joy, everyone held a small torch around the big torch, dancing "harvest dance", singing a harvest song, singing and dancing, passionate and exuberant. At the end of the song and dance, people from different families held torches to their own fields, scattered torch parade, has been to swim all over their fields, as an expression of the elimination of pests, wishing and praying for rain and wind, to ensure that a good harvest, peace of mind, the wish of the six beasts of prey. Zijin Yi Torch Festival, to the three towns of Songshuping festival scene for the big, every year there are thousands of people to participate. There is also an orderly monument in the activity place, which describes the formation and continuation of the Torch Festival here. In recent years, with the improvement of the economic and cultural living standards of Yi compatriots, the atmosphere of the Torch Festival is also more than a year grand, the county national cultural team to the Torch Festival harvest dance as the material choreographed Yi dance "copper bells to celebrate the harvest" to participate in the provincial and local performances won praise.