What is the meaning of Torch Festival?

The significance lies in the folk functions of fumigating fields with fire, eliminating diseases and disasters, killing insects and protecting seedlings, urging seedlings to germinate, praying for a bumper harvest, and attracting light to welcome Fu Rui, among which the folk psychology and belief concept are to seek good fortune and avoid evil.

The legend of the Torch Festival of Liangshan Yi nationality reflects the worship of fire, a supernatural force with mysterious factors, in primitive society, and still embodies the original ecological folklore genes of the torch festival customs and legends. It belongs to the early form of torch festival custom, and its cultural core is fire worship, which is in the same strain as the cultural tradition of Yi people worshiping fire in the border strong system.

There are many variations in the legend of Torch Festival. Although the sources are different, they are all similar. The text structure of the story follows the narrative procedure of struggle between man and God → man conquers God → God retaliates → man conquers God again → celebrates victory and gains a bumper harvest.

These different texts all have strong humanistic spirit, and they all end in declaring the victory of man and the failure of God, which is different from the narrative mode dominated by God in mythology.

With the development of society, the change of history, the shift of the core problem of human existence (from nature to society) and the intensification of class social conflicts, the legend of Torch Festival is closely intertwined with the vast and complicated social life of all ethnic groups, and then becomes an oral narrative way to express ethnic contradictions and class contradictions. This kind of legend is a secondary torch festival custom legend with the theme of praising ancestors and heroes.

Later, the penetration of traditional moral concepts into the customs and legends of Torch Festival is reflected in the intersection of female characters and the legends of Torch Festival. Both the early magpie girls and later Anan and Mrs. Chari had the same fate of "self-immolation". On the one hand, this kind of legend reflects the dark reality of national oppression and class oppression and the political conspiracy within the ruling class, on the other hand, it is a heroic female legend of "one woman is no more than two husbands", which is intended to show the virtue of chastity.

From the magpie girl and Anan to the charity lady, the images of loyalty, patriotism and patriotism are closely linked with the legend of Torch Festival, expressing people's feelings and wishes of "being virtuous and despising vulgarity" in a specific historical period. This legend should belong to future generations.

In short, from the formation and evolution of the legend of Torch Festival, we can see different levels of historical accumulation, which is synchronous with the long-term development of this festival in southwest China. The legend of Torch Festival has evolved in its long-term spread, and even influenced festivals and customs in some areas, so that the original ecological "sacrificial" Torch Festival has been attached with the derivative significance of "commemorative festival".

For example, according to Heqing's legend, a woman's nails dyed red with Impatiens on June 19th also belonged to the wife of a charity, saying that it was to commemorate the body of a charity planner that made her nails bleed or burn red.

Naxi language

Old Apu, the son of God, was jealous of the happy life on earth, and sent an old God to the earth, asking him to burn the earth into a sea of fire. God will come to this world and see a man carrying a big child, but the child is leading him. He felt strange. After careful questioning, I realized that the child he was pregnant with was a nephew and the child he brought was a son. Because his elder sister-in-law is dead, this man thinks he should take good care of his nephew.

God will be deeply moved by the virtue of human beings, thinking that people are so kind that they can't bear to hurt them, so he told that person that God burned the world and asked him to tell people to light torches at the door in advance on June 25 to avoid disaster. So thousands of families lit torches that night, and the gods thought that people had been buried in the fire, so they fell into a deep sleep and never woke up.

Later, Naxi people designated this day as Torch Festival.

Lahu people

There lived a good man and an evil man on the mountain. The wicked only eat human eyes. On June 24, the good man wrapped the goat horn with beeswax, lit the beeswax and told the goat to find the wicked. Seeing the sparks, the wicked thought that people would hit him with muskets, so they quickly hid in the hole and blocked the hole with stones. As a result, he was drowned by the water flowing out of the hole.

From then on, people no longer worry about evil people eating their eyes, so they can engage in production safely. Therefore, the Lahu people designated this day as the Torch Festival.

Bai (ba)

In the legend of the Bai torch festival, there is also the famous legend of Anan (that is, Manan). The story is generally consistent with the female legend Manan and the burning Song and Ming Pagoda, which is the result of the cross evolution of the legend of characters and the legend of Torch Festival.

Yi ethnic group

A long time ago, there was a Hercules named Sliabi in the sky, and there was a Hercules named assiba on the ground. Both of them are capable of pulling out mountains. One day, Sri Abi was going to wrestle with Attila, and Attila had something urgent to go out. When he left, he asked his mother to entertain Sri Abi with a plate of discus.

Sri Abi thought that Attila Ba must have great strength after eating discus, so she left quickly. After Atila Ba came back, she heard from her mother that Sri Abi had just left, so she ran after him and tried to wrestle with him. As a result, Sri Abi was killed When God Entiguez knew this, he flew into a rage and sent a large number of locusts and moths to eat the crops on the ground.

On the night of June 24th in the lunar calendar, Attila cut down many pine branches and wild Artemisia branches, tied them into torches, led people to light them and burned insects in the fields. Since then, the Yi people have designated this day as the Torch Festival.

King Shamet fought against aliens. His head was cut off. When the stars appeared, another head grew out to fight him. Finally, because of the traitor's betrayal, after cutting off his head with a sharp knife and sweeping his neck, King Samui's head could no longer grow and could not be resurrected. It is said that the red dot on the sharp knife grass is dyed red by the blood of King Samui. Later, on June 24th and 25th every year, Samui people would light torches to commemorate King Samui and look for his spirit.

Sani branch Sani torch festival;

Avanti, a good god, steals food from the sky, making the happy life on earth transcend the sky. The gods were furious and sent Hercules to vent their anger on earth. Appen hated Heracles for being overbearing, wrestled with him, threw Heracles to the ground and squeezed out a hole. Later, the rain turned the pit into a long blue lake (southern Shandong fresh water lake).

In order to commemorate this human hero, people hold bullfighting, wrestling, slaughtering sheep, burning torches and other activities on June 24 of the lunar calendar to show their mourning.

The torch festival of the Assisi branch;

Diao Na, the slave owner, put many poor brothers in prison. Poor Jane tied the torch to the horn and rushed to the distant mansion to burn the slave owner and the rope on the poor hand. To commemorate this victory, people marched with torches and followed the custom. [4]?

Magpie girl of Wu Luo branch;

In the Yi family, there is a beautiful and capable girl who has been in love with the Yi young man Long for a long time. However, men from the nearby 12 tribe came to propose marriage one after another, and one of them said cruelly that if he didn't agree, he would bloodbath the cottage and make the whole village suffer. The girl was helpless and promised a blind date on June 24.

The blind date came, and the girl put on a white dress, a short black coat, a flower apron on her chest and lit a fire. The head of the twelfth department has also arrived. The girl took a deep look at Aaron and then jumped into the fire. Aaron and several boys tried to catch her, but they just pulled off her skirt. People came from all directions, but she died of double suicide.

In memory of her, 12 boys lifted Daniel up and pushed each other in order to knock him down and win. Then kill cattle, drink, sing and dance. Later, the Yi people designated June 24th as the Torch Festival, and the skirt that Aaron tore off became the waist of the Yi women, and the smoke that burned the girl became the morning fog of the cottage. It is said that in the early morning when magpies are singing, a girl can be seen faintly in the distance in Yi Shan, so people call her a magpie girl.

Extended data

Torch Festival is an ancient traditional festival of Yi, Bai, Naxi, Jinuo, Lahu and other ethnic groups, which has profound folk culture connotation and is called "Carnival of the East".

Different ethnic groups hold Torch Festivals at different times, mostly on June 24th of the lunar calendar. The main activities are bullfighting, goat shooting, cockfighting, horse racing, wrestling, song and dance performances, beauty contests and so on. In the new era, the Torch Festival has been endowed with new folk functions and produced new forms.

reference data

Torch Festival Baidu Encyclopedia