Customs of March 3

Sacrifice to the God of Society: "March 3" is a day for the Buyi people to honor the God and pray for blessings. "On March 3, the men of each family go to the mountains to worship the mountain gods. Organizers (sacrifices) are mostly Bumo (i.e., Mo Gong, Mo culture inheritors), the beginning of the event, the first cow or pig slaughter, then each family will be pre-prepared money paper more than a dozen, less than five or six to go dipped in the blood of the cattle, ready to be taken later to hang in the field or the ground, indicating that this portion of the field and land has been under the jurisdiction of the people, wild ghosts dare not invade the occupation of the pests and diseases, do not dare to invade the food to ensure that a good harvest. People lit incense and red candles, stone table with offerings (must have flower rice can not be), the old man stood in front of the temple on the steps shouting: "worship start!" The villagers under the stage into a ladder to face the community God, look grave, the atmosphere is solemn, the mountains and forests are silent. Under the leadership of the village elder, the villagers nine kneeling and three kowtowing, the village elder prayed for the blessing of the God of the mountains, read out the admonition of the gods and the village rules and regulations, and to consult the views of everyone. After the dissent is unified, each person kneels down in front of the temple and promises not to trample on the covenant and comply with the village rules, or else he will be punished by the mountain god. March 3 sacrifices to the god of the mountain, the god of the water and the god of the village.

Sacrificing national heroes: there are sacrifices to legendary national heroes, and ancient heroes such as Wang Sangxian and He Lian level.　　Sweeping the Walled Village: The Mogong organizes a team to sweep the devils and demons out of each farmer's home, and sweep the devils and demons out of the Walled Village to keep the party safe.　　"Sacrificing Earth Silkworms": Legend has it that in ancient times, a crop farmer avoided insect pests on young mu, and he fried buns of cereal flowers to feed earth silkworms in spring sowing, which resulted in the preservation of young seedlings.　　Planting Trees and Hanging Green (Tomb Sweeping): Each family, the male head of the family carrying a back pocket and sickle, bar with a hoe, the female head of the family carrying offerings and holding the children, and go out of their way within a month to their own family's ancestral graves are all finished, and planting trees in the cemetery hill in honor of. There are also cases where clans collectively go to the ancestral graves to hang green, and everyone kills pigs and chickens. Girls who are married off return to their parents' homes with sacrificial offerings to participate in the festival.　　Treading the Green: The custom of treading the green is very old, basically formed along with hanging the green and sweeping the graves. People go to the mountains and fields to tread the green in the spring, children pick young maple leaves and make them into balls to throw and hit them, women pick a few pi of young maple leaves and put them in the bun of the head, and stick the branches of the maple tree in the surroundings of the houses. Of course, trekking is never just about love, but more importantly, it is also about games and entertainment. The people who are restricted to the labor, at this time can be the countryside gallop, the mountains and fields. So the girls hang swings on the trees, the boys fly kites and play water pistols in the open space.　　Song: the custom of song is also very old, basically also accompanied by the formation of hanging green trekking. Gathering people to drink, contact feelings. The singing of songs by young men and women is the theme of the "March 3" activities of the Buyi. Singing is the most important activity after worship. Singing is used as a medium for socializing, making friends and seeking spouses.　　Traditional Sports: During the song-singing period, in addition to singing songs, there are also hunting, throwing chaff bags, "Juggling Jihuan" (unicorn dance), "Getting Pulp" (similar to a gyro), bullfighting, cockfighting, horse racing, horse kongs (similar to stilts) against each other, playing bamboo water pistols, playing Buyi Chess and swinging on the swings, kite flying and other traditional activities.　　Economic and trade exchanges on the traditional township field: During the "March 3" festival of the Buyi people, as the number of participants increased, vendors appeared to serve the event, loaded with commodities coming and going, from large furniture to small daily necessities, as well as ornaments and food unique to each ethnic group, with a wide range of goods. The event has developed into a material exchange and commodity trading event with national characteristics, promoting the economic and trade development of the Buyi region. The "March 3rd" of the Buyi is the most common traditional festival of the Buyi people, and the origin of the festival and the content of its activities vary with the different areas where they live. The origin of the "March 3rd" festival of the Buyi is related to sacrifices and thanksgiving.　　The religious ceremonies of the "March 3rd" of the Buyi, as recorded in Chinese literature, are the most solemn. The ancestors of the Buyi, "their customs fear ghosts and gods, and they are especially fond of obscene sacrifices" (Wei Shou, Wei Shu - Bureaucratic Biography, Volume 101, The Twenty-Five Histories, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986 edition, p. 259); the Xingyi Prefectural Records of 1854 recorded that the Buyi's "March 3rd The 1854 "Xingyi Prefecture" records the Buyei "March 3" folklore, that is, the North and South Pan River Hongshui River, "urban and rural areas are to the third of March, the sixth day of June, the ninth day of September to sacrifice to the God of the Land". "Every year on the third day of March slaughter pigs and cows sacrificed to the mountain, the cottage share meat, men and women drink wine, eat yellow rice. Miao language to this day for the 'more will', as if the Chinese 'over the small year' also. Three, four two days, the walled village can not come and go, the wrong person penalty. Then in the "Qingming tomb, to paper money hanging on the tomb, called 'hanging green'". Huang Jinming, a scholar from the Daoguang Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, described the folklore of Wangmu's "March 3" as follows: "Peach and plum blossoms bloom on March 3, and the sound of whistling blows to warm the blue clouds. Women are looking for men and men are looking for women, and a song of barbarians is sung in a simple manner". The Qing Dynasty Daoguang deputy tribute student Zhang Guohua also confirmed the Wangmu Buyi sacrificial situation, "heard the dry year group prayed for rain, cattle slaughterers on the back of the hill," eating cattle, that is, rain.

Buyi March 3 Customs

The Buyei Song of Sacrifice (Ancient Songs of the Mo Culture), in which the Buyei ancestor Ayong learns the rituals, is the beginning of the rituals for the parents (Wei Yongqin, Buyei Work Newsletter, World Knowledge Publishing House, p. 187); and the Buyei's classic folklore, "Nanghoban", also talks about Nanghoban's selling the grain silo and selling the family to bury the parents (Wang Ma, a famous Buyei rapper, often sang about this). Aitian, a famous Buyei rapper, often sings about this); Buyei opera also has a play about selling one's body and burying one's parents. If the origin of "March 3" is deduced from the Buyei ritual legend, the folklore has a history of several thousand years.

Related to the folklore of hanging green The origin of "March 3" in Mammu County, Luodian County, along the banks of the Hongshui River, is related to the folklore of "going to the grave and hanging green". The Buyei people or clans collectively go to the graveyard of their ancestors to hang green, kill pigs and slaughter goats, and on the day of the festival, people go to the mountains and fields to trek in the spring, children pick young maple leaves to make balls to throw and play or dress up in maple leaves, and women pick a few pi of young maple leaves to put in a bun, and collect branches of the maple tree by the way, and take it to their homes to insert it in the walls around the house. In addition, families dye glutinous rice in various colors and make flower glutinous rice to eat. Young people go to the hillside to blow wooden leaves and sing songs. If they meet a satisfactory rival, they are invited to the Buyei village at night and sing songs all night long. At the end of the night, the host family wraps flower rice and chicken legs in banana leaves and gives them to the children as a gift for the festival.　　March 3 in central Mammu County is associated with flower rice. At that time, there were only three colors of flower rice, black to thank the father, yellow to thank the mother, and purple-red to thank the matchmaker; with the deepening of people's feelings, the flower rice became five-color flower rice. Another legend says that a long time ago, a woman from the Buyei family had to go back to her mother's home to visit her parents, but due to poverty, she didn't have anything to take with her, so she decided to make flower rice to bring back to her parents to honor them, and as a result, she gained everyone's respect. The third story is that a woman came to her lover's grave to send her condolences with flowers and rice, and people were touched by the woman's action, realizing that even if she missed her lover, everyone should be more filial and grateful to their parents, and so there was the folk custom of "March 3".　　The origin of March 3 in Guiyang City is related to the folk custom of "sacrificing silkworms on the ground". Legend has it that in ancient times, a crop farmer used many methods of sacrifice to avoid insect damage to his young mu, but none of them worked. Later, he fried grain flowers to feed silkworms in the spring sowing, the result is to save the seedlings. Since then, this area of the Buyei in order to protect crops, for a good harvest, on the third day of March every year, fried grain flowers as offerings, in groups of three to the nearby hillside to sacrifice "God of heaven, the ground silkworms," praying for God blessing, do not call the ground silkworms biting the field seedlings, so that the grain abundance. After the sacrifice, people walk along the field side of the earth side of singing songs, and put the bag of grain flowers to the field in the soil.

Related to "honoring national heroes"

The origin of March 3 is related to "honoring national heroes". Legend has it that when the flooding occurred, it was the Buyei ancestor "Bujie" who went up to the sky to punish Leigong, eliminate the flooding, plant rice, and finally died of exhaustion at the edge of the sky. In order to commemorate him, people chose the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar to kill pigs and slaughter goats in the field to sacrifice to him, and used the maple tree, which represents good luck, to set up tents and singing platforms to sing his praises. Buyei is the indigenous people of the North and South Panjiang River Basin, living mostly in dams, good water sources, fertile land, according to the "Guizhou Folk Tales Integration - Anlong Volume" records, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a foreign tribe intended to capture the Long Guang forty-eight (Buyei) Walled City (including the Tianba Village), then stationed in Guangxi, the Han generals Cen Peng, Ma Wu, led the troops with the people of the Buyei together to resist the enemy, the battle was unfortunately sacrificed, the time for the first three days of March in the Lunar Calendar, the serpent field Day. People buried these two heroes on the mound between Nana and Cotton Village in Tianba Village, erected a monument for them, built a shrine, and set the first Snake Farm Day after the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar as a day of remembrance. The Buyi people have two heroes for the village God, held a grand festival once a year, lasted three days, but the festival has not been the main content of everyone's attention, and to the Tianba "to catch the woolen cedar tree" song is known far and wide, that has evolved into the Buyi traditional music and folklore festivals.　　Sacrifice Wang Sangxian, Wei Chao Yuan and other heroes related to Anlong County, Dongsha, when the zhang area of the "March 3" and the sacrifice of Wang Sangxian (also known as the immortal nun), Wei Chao Yuan and other national heroes of the Buyi people. Every year on March 3, Dongsha Village still conducts activities of sacrificing mountains and commemorating the immortal nuns. Spring season in the hole sprinkle thousands of acres of rapeseed flowers in the dam, the immortal nuns in the field of Wang Sangxian monument more and more upright, solemn and dignified. Accompanying villagers said that the period of the 1980s, from the fifth to the eighth, Xueheng, Wangmu, Xingyi, Zhenfeng and even Anshun, Ziyun, tens of thousands of people of all ethnic groups, will be spontaneously gathered from all directions to commemorate the martyrs, the song will be three days to hold a variety of commemorative activities.　　With the ancient "on the Si Festival" related to history can also prove that "March 3" and the ancient "on the Si Festival" related to the Han Chinese, Buyi and other ethnic groups **** with the festival, just Inheritance and development of various ethnic groups in the process, due to changes in values, some ethnic groups still maintain this folklore, some have given up. In short, "March 3" has not disappeared, it is from the Han Chinese region to the Buyi and other ethnic minority areas, with a variety of names to survive in the world. Today's "March 3rd" of the Buyi people has inherited and developed the "March 3rd" culture of the Chinese nation, where people can experience the ancient cultural connotations of the Buyi people. Ethnic Characteristics: The "March 3rd" of the Buyi people is characterized by the culture of the Buyi people, and is a folkloric event inherited by the people of this nation from generation to generation.

Buyi March 3 Song Pairing Activity

Social Characteristics: The Buyei March 3 is a custom formed and agreed upon by the Buyei people in the life of the same people in ***, with a wide range of mass, such as the development of the village rules and regulations of the system.　　Collective characteristics: the Buyei "March 3" is the result of collective creation, circulating in the folklore, relying on the collective response, enrichment, development, and by the collective generation after generation of inheritance.　　Stability characteristics: Buyei "March 3" for the Buyei people to *** with the compliance, and become a standard of constraints on their behavior; has a relative stability, and in the inheritance and development, and the formation of a certain scale.　　Mutability characteristics: Buyei "March 3" due to social, political and life factors affecting the content and form of changes, such as economic and trade activities have become an important form of expression of the "March 3".　　Characteristics of cultural integration: The "March 3rd" of the Buyi people contains cultural connotations such as filial piety, gratitude, harmony, joy, wealth, good fortune, unity, love and other cultural connotations. The Buyei people believe that no matter how big an official you are and how many books you read, you must go home to sweep the graves on March 3; the Buyei people have this folk custom: "get up early on March 3, sit late on June 6", people get up earlier than on that day, and burn incense and pay respect to ancestors after making good rice. After doing a good job, they burn incense to honor their ancestors and their benefactors; "March 3" is the "national unity" festival, and all ethnic groups come and go with each other. Folk value of "March 3" of the Buyi people: Folk value: "March 3" reflects the most real life and culture of the Buyi people, through the inheritance and development of the "March 3" of the Buyi people. Through the inheritance and development of the "March 3", the cultural status of the Buyi people can be truly restored.

Religious value: The primitive religious culture of the Buyi people is an important component of the "March 3", reflecting the evolution of the Buyi people from the natural religion to the humanistic religion, which is an important reference value for the study of the development of human religious culture.　　Historical value: The "March 3" of the Buyi people is a product of the development of the Buyi people to a certain stage, and has the typical color of farming culture.　　Literary value: March 3 is one of the most important song festivals of the Buyi people, and the folk literature of the Buyi people is mostly expressed in the form of songs, no matter they are ancient songs, mountain songs or even children's songs.　　Linguistic value: If Buyei folk literature and ancient songs are the foundation of the language, then Buyei mountain songs are responsible for the modernization of the Buyei language. Because the Buyei songs are easy to understand and develop with the development of the times, they enrich and develop the vocabulary and grammar of the Buyei language.　　Sociological value: The "March 3rd" of the Buyi people embodies the harmony between man and nature, man and man, man and society, and ethnicity and nationality, and plays a positive role in the current reform and opening up and modernization. The Buyei people believe that trees are the symbol of the soul, and planting trees on March 3 can console their ancestors and green their homes at the same time.　　Value of spiritual civilization construction: It is a very effective way to promote the construction of socialist spiritual civilization in the activities of ethnic minorities' folklore, and we can't ignore the fact that folklore activities are an important position for the construction of spiritual civilization in rural areas.　　Economic value: The ancient "March 3" has integrated modern civilized activities, such as economic activities, and "March 3" has not only become a cultural brand, but also an economic brand. Based on the protection of Wangmu "March 3", we can develop Buyei folk tours and food related to "March 3", especially Buyei five-color flower rice. In Anlong County, Guizhou Province, part of the Buyi people say that March 3 is the birthday of the shadow "mountain god". In order to avoid locusts released by the mountain god to harm crops and ensure a good agricultural harvest, there is the custom of sweeping the village and sacrificing to the mountain god. "March 3" this day, people to the village in front of the altar of the mountain god set up rooster, knife head and other offerings, but also to kill a dog, the blood will be sprinkled in the paper flag, paper horse and the village in and out of the main road entrance to the stone, and then by the "old devil male" and other personnel to carry a dog dripping with blood of the paper flag, paper horse Then the "Old Devil Gong" and other people will carry the paper flag and paper horse drenched with dog's blood to each house to get rid of demons and ghosts. At the entrance of each house, a bench is set up with a "water bowl" filled with fresh water and a bowl filled with gravel. The "old devil" in front of the gate incantation "magic scripture", play a few "Nongyang Gua", and then the gravel grains to the house scattered, the water bowl of water splashed around, overturned the bench in front of the gate, buckle up the water bowl, meaning that the bench is full of water. The water bowl was then snapped up, meaning that the devil had been swept away. Finally, to this inserted with dog blood on the paper flag, good on the paper horse, another to sweep his home. Village households are round sweeping finished, "the old devil male" mouth to the altar, the collection of sweeping the demons and ghosts centralized suppression in front of the gods, and then the whole village men in the altar at the meal on the spot, known as "accompanying the gods to eat". The county town of Dewo called "March 3" for the "drive Mao Suzuki", also known as the "Mao Suzuki Song Festival", a three-day party of tens of thousands of people.

The March 3 festival of the Buyi in the area of Bada River in Luoping, Yunnan Province, is a festival for young men and women to sing songs. On this day, men, women and children come to the riverside to listen to the youth sing songs and watch the children compete in rowing bamboo rafts and playing water pistols. Some families also make flower glutinous rice for their children and send it to the side of the river and the village; some use small flower cloth pockets filled with eggs and all kinds of food for the young people who play and participate in the competition activities. Luoping Niu Street of the Buyi young men and women in these three days, held a grand tour of the mountains, song and dating activities. Youths of various ethnic groups from dozens of miles around also come to the area around the hillside of Maguang to participate and watch this traditional song-racing and pairing activity. Singers can show off their skills on such occasions, and with their genius for improvising poetry and chanting, they can sing with their opponents for three days and three nights or even longer. Many young men and women have formed love relationships through these events.