What are the festivals and customs of the Maonan people

Traditional Festivals of the Maonan Ethnic Group

Time:2014-05-15 08:24 Responsibility:fortune-telling.com.cn

The Maonan ethnic group's festivals are the Temple Festival in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and the Ching Ming Festival's "Catching up with Ancestors' Weed" and the Lantern Festival's "Releasing Flying Birds" are also their unique commemorative activities. "is also their unique commemorative activities. There are two distinctive features of the Maonan festivals: one is ancestor worship; the other is more singing activities.

Splitting of the Dragon Festival

The biggest festival of the Maonan folk is the Splitting of the Dragon Festival, which is held after the summer solstice every year. All the men and women of the village, as well as the women who have married abroad and the relatives and friends from afar come to participate in the festival, which is grand and enthusiastic. During the Dragon Festival, every family steams five-colored glutinous rice and steamed meat, and roasts a fragrant pig. Willow branches are folded back and inserted in the center hall, and the five-color glutinous rice is pinched into small balls and densely glued to the willow branches to indicate a fruitful harvest and pray for a good harvest.

During the Fenlong Festival, Maonan people of all ages, men and women, put on their costumes, and young daughters-in-law go back to their mothers' homes to reunite with their parents on the festival. They collect golden flowers and maple leaves to steam the five-color glutinous rice; in the field to five-color glutinous rice, steamed meat sacrificed to Shennong's, praying for good weather and a good harvest; in the village at the head of the three worlds of the temple to kill a cow to pay tribute to the legend of the Maonan people to raise vegetable cattle in the founders of the three worlds of the public, and pray for the well-being of animals and people; but also with the "Fado" (a kind of leaf as big as a fan) wrapped up five-color rice and steamed meat, to visit friends and relatives, and to go home to see their friends and relatives. They also wrap up five-colored rice and steamed meat with "Fado" (a leaf as big as a fan), visit friends and relatives, and celebrate the festival. Fenlong Festival is also the Maonan young men and women get-together days, activities such as on the col mouth, slope foot song and so on.

Duanwu Festival

The Maonan people also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, but the significance of the festival is different from that of the Han Chinese, which is called "Medicine Festival". Whenever the medicine festival, used to pick mugwort leaves, calamus, yellow ginger, dog fart vine and other herbs boiled water to drink, or with these herbs chopped as a filling package zongbao can be detoxified to get rid of the disease.

On this day, men go to the mountains to find herbs. The women make mochi at home. This sticky rice is the use of local fart vine and rice ground into pulp, put in a pot to cook, eat a kind of flavor, the old man said to eat this sticky rice can prevent disease. The old man said that eating this kind of glutinous rice can prevent diseases and epidemics. And also use the staghorn into powder, drink a cup of wine to drive away diseases and evils. The old man said that the herbs that the men picked up from the mountains on this day were particularly effective and could prevent diseases and expel the plague if eaten, whether by humans or animals. The herbs are boiled in a pot. Bathing children with the herbal water can prevent various skin diseases. Rich families also eat snake meals on this day, buying poisonous snakes such as flat-headed wind and mountain wind, simmering them in a pot outside the house, together with herbs. Old people say that if you eat snake meat and snake soup on this day, you will not get sores, rheumatism and other ringworm diseases. Each family also picks maple branches and inserts them by the front door to drive away all kinds of evil wind and poisonous gas.

Pumpkin Festival

The "Pumpkin Festival" of the Maonan ethnic group is held on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, which is the day of the Chongyang Festival. Each family arranges large, orange-colored pumpkins of different shapes and sizes all over the floor and selects them one by one. Young people go from house to house to select the "Pumpkin King". Not only do they have to look at the appearance of the pumpkin, but they also have to see the seeds of the pumpkin through the surface. When all the people basically agree, a strong man uses a machete to split open the "pumpkin king," and the owner pulls out the gourd scoop and saves the full seeds for the next year's seeds. Then cut the melon into pieces and put them into a pot of millet porridge. Simmering fire stew, cooked to rotten, the first sheng a bowl for the incense in front of the hall in honor of the "pumpkin king", and then all the people *** meal to enjoy together.　

Many ethnic groups in China regard the Chung Yeung Festival as the Festival of the Elderly, there are traditional customs to honor the elderly. The Maonan is no exception, but the customs are different. For the aged and frail old man, the Maonan people generally in the Chongyang Festival for the "food to make up for the life".

Children in this day set up a few tables at home, invited friends and relatives to visit, guests are to bring a few pounds of fine grains of good rice, or fresh fruit. Friends and relatives sent "hundred rice" to be stored separately. In the future, when cooking for the elderly to grab some mixed into their own rice.

"Hundreds of rice" eaten, if the old man has not recovered, but also to continue to choose a day to engage in the "grain to make up for life" ceremony.

The Chongyang Festival

Many ethnic groups in China regard the Chongyang Festival as the Festival of the Elderly, and have the traditional custom of honoring the elderly. The Maonan ethnic group is the same, only with different customs. For the old and frail old people, the Maonan people usually "add food to make up for life" on the Chongyang Festival. Children in this day to set up a few tables at home, invited friends and relatives to visit, guests are to bring a few pounds of fine grains of good rice, or fresh fruit. Friends and relatives to send the "hundred rice" to be stored separately. In the future, when cooking for the elderly to grab some mixed into their own rice. "Hundreds of rice" eaten, the old man if not recovered, but also to continue to choose a day to engage in "add food to make up for life" ceremony. This custom is actually out of a piece of love for the elderly, very much in line with the morals of the masses and traditional concepts, supported by the local government and attention.

The festivals of the Maonan ethnic group are characterized by two distinctive features: firstly, they must be dedicated to the ancestors; secondly, they are often characterized by singing activities. During the festivals, pigs, chickens, ducks, beef, wine and glutinous rice are usually used as offerings to the ancestors. The Maonan people like to make tofu rounds for festivals and celebrations. The method is to mix and mince pork (or beef), dried shrimp, peanuts, garlic, coriander and pepper, add salt and mix them well to form a filling, and then put the stuffed tofu wrapped in pounded water into a round shape in the hands or in a bowl and roll it repeatedly, and then put it into a frying pan to deep-fry it. When you eat it, put it in the pot to cook soup, the flavor is fresh and delicious, it is a necessary dish for guests, and it can also be used as a gift to each other. During festivals, the Maonan people like to use boiling water to shabu-shabu beef to receive guests, i.e., according to local custom, an iron pot is set up on the fire pit, and during the meal, everyone gathers around the iron pot, pours slices of raw meat and lettuce into boiling water to shabu-shabu, and then dips it into the ingredients to drink, which is the most common form of feast for the Maonan people. The biggest festival of the Maonan folk is the Dragon Scattering Festival after the summer solstice every year. During the festival, every family steams five-color glutinous rice and steamed meat, and some of them also roast a fragrant pig. Willow branches are folded back and inserted in the middle of the hall, and the five-color glutinous rice is pinched into small balls and densely glued to the willow branches to show that the fruit is abundant and to pray for a good harvest. Maonan also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, but the meaning of the festival is different from the Han Chinese, the folk called "Medicine Festival". Medicine Festival, used to pick moxa leaves, calamus, ginger, dog fart vine and other herbs boiled water to drink turbid, or with these herbs chopped as a filling package zongbao can be detoxified to get rid of the disease. Maonan adult men are good drinkers, and there is not enough wine to honor the guests said. Some people also use sorghum, corn brewing. However, the majority of bottled liquor sold in the market.

Bird Flying

The Maonan people celebrate the Spring Festival with the most meaningful activities such as "leading the soul", gun washing, morning reading and bird flying, which bring happiness and joy to the festival.

Among the many customs of Maonan people, the 15th day of the first month of the "bird fly" is the most characteristic and interesting. Legend has it that in the past, there was an old master in the Maonan mountain township, who had an ingenious, handsome and outstanding only daughter, who was good at weaving birds with bamboo gimlets and calamus leaves, and was known as the "little bird girl".

She fell in love with a young man, ready to get married on the first day of the Chinese New Year. The old master wanted to test his future son-in-law's skills, and on New Year's Eve, he asked him to sow the land on the mountain with seeds before nightfall, which should have been sown with millet, but the young man was in a hurry and sowed glutinous rice seeds by mistake. The old master told him to pick up all the seeds to save them from being trampled on. The bird girl saw this and told her fiancé to go home and bring all the birds they used to weave in baskets.

The girl blew on the birds and whispered to the boy. The young man took the birds to the mountain, where they soon flew out and retrieved all the glutinous seeds. The young man re-sowed the seeds before nightfall. The old master was happy and said, "Let's have a good reunion between father and daughter in the New Year. On the fifteenth day of the first month, we will send the little bird girl to your home to get married." From then on, there was the custom of "letting the birds fly".　 When the Spring Festival is approaching, every family picks calamus leaves in advance. On New Year's Eve, the calamus leaves were used to weave the "Hundred Birds", and the empty bellies of the "Hundred Birds" were filled with soaked fragrant glutinous rice, rice beans and sesame stuffing, and then steamed or boiled in a pot. After being steamed or boiled, they are tied to a long sugar cane with a thin rope and hung in front of an incense burner in the hall. The "hundred birds" include partridges, chickens, swallows, cormorants and painted eyebrows.

This day, to the children of the family each a "bird" to quench their thirst; married and gave birth to a daughter-in-law to go back to her mother's home to receive "bird", hoping that the child will be like a bird as lively and lovely. In front of the incense hall, there are also offerings, red rice and fruit, intended to pray that the birds do not eat crops, to ensure that the blessings of food abundance, fruits and melons. By the 15th day of the first lunar month, the "hundred birds" are taken down and steamed in the pot, and at night, the "hundred birds" are used as rice, which is called "releasing the birds"." When the birds are released, the Maonan people always forget to revisit the legend of "releasing the birds to fly".

Catching up with the ancestor polder

"Ancestor polder" location, in the lower south. Pocheon two villages at the junction of the lower forest (Maonan language called "Karin"). Here is a small hill, the image of a chair, from the foot of the mountain to the hillside, stone graves scattered, is a larger cemetery, in front of a mountain stream, the scenery is very good. Every year to the early morning of the day of the Ching Ming Festival, the Maonan people in the area of the lower South, Po Chuan, with torches or oil lamps, in the hillside cemetery between the "catching Wei" to come.

The Maonan people called "July 14" in the middle of the New Year's Day. The actual festival began on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. On this day, the day Ma Ma dawn, the main family will take a pointed stretcher, the lower head inserted in the gate stone steps in the mud, on top of a bamboo hat, the middle bundle of a handful of grass (or leaves), and then burned three columns of incense, muttering: "male female eight female a few ah! Soma Sokunai." I.e.: "Gongmu ah! Hitch the horse here." It is said to be for the return of the ancestors to tie the horses. From this day on, the ancestors came back.

Fifteen morning, to send the ancestors "home", kill ducks for the meal, the money from the seventh to fifteenth morning burned paper ash (nuclei first burned in the rotten pot), with two taro leaves or bamboo shells wrapped up in a small piece of bamboo loaded with a small stretcher, the Maonan language is called "stretcher to the female eight! ", that is, the male milk money stretcher, sent to the village outside the boundary or the creek, said to send ancestors "home" (i.e., back to the netherworld), the festival was declared over. Fifteen days, it is forbidden for children to play in the creek, for fear of bumping into the ancestors on the way to the child "away".