The origin and customs of March 3 festival in Guangxi

March 3 of the lunar calendar, also known as the "March 3 Song Festival" or "March Song Wei", is the traditional song festival of the Zhuang people. The Zhuang people have several regular gatherings of folk songs every year, such as the 15th of the first month, March 3rd, April 8th, August 15th, etc., of which March 3rd is the grandest.

Every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar (hereinafter referred to as "March 3"), the earth back to spring, the spring sun shade move. Part of China's Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities are in various forms to celebrate this traditional festival. March 3 from China's ancient "on the Si Festival (in ancient times to the first half of the lunar calendar in March Si day for the" on the Si ", also known as" repair chisel festival ") ", is the Zhou Dynasty Chinese folk a purging prayers amplitude of the festival! The original meaning of the festival is based on witchcraft beliefs held on the begging for marriage, fertility practices, after the evolution of China's ancient men and women fall in love with the song festival. Han Dynasty, March "on has been" identified as a holiday. After the Wei, will be on the Si formally designated as the summer calendar, the first three days of March

① that is, spring wedge, as the annual age of the important order of the festival. To the Jin Dynasty, on the Si Xiuji chisel Si evolved into a spring tour trekking and waterfront banquet entertainment festival. Song and Yuan, on the festival has been spring trekking gradually give way to the Qingming Festival, the flow of wedge games have not been limited to the third of March. Guangxi March 3, some places also known as the "March 3 Song Festival", is the traditional song festival of the Zhuang people; some places are ancestral tomb, is the traditional festival of tomb-sweeping and mountain worship, a different style, each with its own origins and different customs.

On the Zhuang "March 3" song Wei (or called song, song festival) of the origin, there are several legends: First, the ancient legend that singing can be happy God, can eliminate disasters and difficulties, and strive for wind and rain, and later developed into a regular March 3 song Wei. Two said, a long time ago, there is a pair of young men and women, love each other from childhood, they are very good at singing songs, talk about love are expressed in songs, but because of family opposition, they can not be married, they both died. Young people in order to commemorate the couple of steadfastness, every year in the day of their martyrdom, focusing on singing songs, and gradually formed the March 3 Song Wei. Three said, the Tang Dynasty out of the song fairy Liu Sanjie, to sing songs of praise for labor and love, and expose the sins of the rich, and thus the rich in hatred, while she went up the mountain to cut firewood, sent people to cut off the mountain vines, so that Sanjie fell down the mountain and died, the later generations in order to commemorate the song fairy, will be in the lunar calendar every year on March 3 - three days and three nights of Sanjie's death, singing songs, song polder thus formed. Song Wei was formed.

② four said that in ancient times, a family had three very beautiful daughters, the door to the proposal of an endless stream of people, but the parents do not see. Later, the father came up with an idea - let the proposal of the latter boy on the spot singing, who sang the best, the beautiful daughter will marry who. As a result, all three daughters found the man of their dreams through singing. Since then, singing has become a form of male courtship, and has developed into a song festival.

③ These legends, though not recorded in official history, are in line with the view of historical materialism.

The traditional March 3 song festival, ancient and modern places are held in different forms of song. Some of them are held on the slopes of the mine field song dike. Some in the village head song shed to pick up singers. Some along the side of the highway, the walled village held song pike. In the song dike around the field, vendors gathered, folk trade is active. Larger song dike, dozens of miles around thousands of men, women and children have come to participate in the sea of people, singing, lively. According to the preliminary statistics, among the 642 song dikes in the whole region, there are 96 song dikes with March 3 as the song dike day, accounting for 14%. They are distributed in 22 places in Donglan, 20 places in Wuming County, 19 places in Du'an, 7 places in Xincheng, 6 places each in Masan and Longzhou, and 5 places in Bama. There are fewer in Guixi, with only 2 in Jingxi County.

④ The traditional famous March 3 song pike has Wuming County, Na Yang, Ningwu, Xiaolu, Donglan Sanka Au, Masan Yongzhou, Bama's Panyang Riverside, Jingxi Huadong, Du'an's Cotton Hill, Jifa, Rongshui Sankong March 3, Xincheng Sanfeng, Yishan's Xijian, Liuzhou's Yufeng Mountain and other places. The traditional song pike on the race song, song appreciation; there are also young men and women singing love, song, touch eggs, talk about love, give each other tokens, to the object of love. In addition, there are throwing embroidered balls, touching the colorful eggs, acting Zhuang opera and other recreational activities, men, women and children in the lively and extraordinary atmosphere of the festival.

Contemporary March 3 Song Wei, some by the official regularly organized year after year. Such as the Nanning International Folk Song Festival, Wuming, Bama, Longan, Huanjiang, Liujiang and other counties every year "March 3" are held in the song festival or Zhuang March 3 Tourism Festival. For example, since 1985, Wuming County has held the "March 3" Zhuang Song Festival every year, with activities such as thousands of bamboo kong array performances and competitions, the third Guangxi King of Songs Competition, national sports and athletic performances, square cultural performances, and tourism and food festivals. Another example is Shanglin County, which has successfully organized six March 3 "Shimen Dragon Mother Festival" since 2006. In addition to the government-run, more folk spontaneous organization of the March 3rd Mountain Song Festival. Such as Liucheng County Yashan Scenic Area, Lipu County Wudeng Village, Fengshan County, Gaili Township Poxin Village, Changzhou Township Baile Village, Bailong Tun, Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Beijing Township square village, Luzhai County, Pingshan Township, Shidou Tun, and so on. The March 3rd Song Festival is not only held in Guangxi, but also in foreign countries. Such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc., also held in various forms of Zhuang March 3 activities every year. The largest and better organized first push Shanghai. The city since 2009, has been successfully held for five consecutive "Guangxi March 3 Song Wei sing big China" series of activities. Really: the motherland everywhere heard the song, romantic song dike full of China.

March 3 is not only the traditional song festival of the Zhuang, but also the traditional festival of the Han, Dong, Miao and other ethnic minorities in Guangxi. Han areas of Yulin City, in recent years, the folk also held a spontaneous March 3rd Song Festival, has been held for five consecutive sessions, March 3rd mountain song will resound Nanliujiang River. In Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, Fulu Miao Township holds the annual "March 3" event in the lunar calendar, which has been held for the 129th time, and is a unique traditional cultural activity in the Dong townships, with a history of three to four hundred years. During the festival, there are performances such as traditional dragon and lion show, Lusheng Stomping, Dong Song, Liujia Mountain Song, Caixiang, Gui Opera, Dong Film, Dong Opera, traditional storytelling, bonfire DuoYe Party, etc. In addition, there are thousands of people tasting tea, and the festival is also held in the Dong village. In addition, there are thousands of people tasting tea, cockfighting, birdfighting and other performance activities and strange stone exhibition, national costume display, commodity fair, Dong fragrant oil tea and other food exhibition.

Guangxi "March 3" is not only the song festival, but also the Zhuang ancestor tomb-sweeping festival. That day, Guanxi Chongzuo, Baise and other cities and counties of the Zhuang compatriots in each household are held a grand annual ancestor sweeping. The so-called tomb-sweeping means that each family and clan focuses on the graves of their ancestors in the cemetery. In the Zhuang language of southwestern Gui, tomb-sweeping is referred to as "grave-surveying" or "tombstone-surveying". The Tomb Sweeping Festival is the grandest and most solemn annual festival of the Zhuang people. People consider the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar to be the most important festival, when people in faraway places return to their hometowns to sweep the tombs, and this day is the day when the most people get together in the middle of the year. In the "Loud and Clear Song", which has been passed down for thousands of years among the Zhuang people, there is a song called "March Song - Steaming Black Rice and Paying Respects to the Mountain", which says: "On the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, every family steams black rice, and I share one or two balls of it, and take it to pay respects to the grave." This is the record of the March 3 grave sweeping custom of the Zhuang people. Tomb-sweeping of the Zhuang is very rich in content. Usually, young and old come to the cemetery with offerings, and the rituals mainly include: removing grass and adding soil, repairing the graveyard, burning incense on the grave, offering sacrifices, kneeling down to toast, burning money, inserting markers and hanging money, lighting firecrackers, and praying for the blessing of ancestors for the family's well-being and happiness. Whenever the Tomb Sweeping Festival, Guixi earth full of mountains and hills, the head of the tomb hanging money fluttering, the sound of firecrackers. It's an annual gathering to pay homage to the ancestors, but also a spring trekking.

Five-color glutinous rice is the Zhuang people in the March 3 this day in the ancestor of the essential offerings. As for the origin of the five-color sticky rice on the third of March, there are four legends: one is derived from the Zhuang "digging tail dragon" legend of the small flower snake that turned into a dragon, the body of the small flower snake has five colors: black, red, yellow, purple and white, so people in order to commemorate the filial piety of this small flower snake, on the third of March, the use of maple leaves and other plants will be dyed black sticky rice, Red, yellow, purple and white glutinous rice together to form a five-color glutinous rice sacrifice to the ancestors. The second is to commemorate the Zhuang hero Wei Da Gui. After Wei Dagui was persecuted to death by the landlords, the Zhuang people often took the glutinous rice to his grave to worship, one day, when worshiping, suddenly the wind and rain, lightning and thunder, the sap of all kinds of plants on the grave fell into the glutinous rice dyed into colorful, Wei Dagui from the grave out of the ground, turned into a huge dragon and went away in the air. Third, there is a filial youth every day on the mountain firewood on the back of his disabled mother in order to take care of, but the monkeys on the mountain always snatch the youth for his mother to prepare 'rice balls, in order to prevent his mother from starving, the youth came up with a way to use the maple leaves will be dyed black rice balls, rice balls from the monkeys to snatch, and then the people will be used to dye the rice balls with a variety of plants. Fourth, a young couple heard a basket of various grains complained that all kinds of plants have good-looking flowery clothes to wear, while the color of rice and monotonous and ugly, so pick a variety of plants in March 3 steamed glutinous rice to please the God of the grain, and from then on year after year of good harvests. From these four legends, the theme is to remember the virtues of ancestors, filial piety and parents and pray for a good harvest, these themes are the Zhuang people worship ancestors important content, so the five-color glutinous rice in the March 3 ancestor is indispensable to the enjoyment of the sacrifice.

The origin of the March 3rd festival in Guangxi

The origin of the March 3rd ancestor sweeping festival, some scholars have summarized as two kinds: one is the Zhuang snake totem sacrifice day. In this regard, Mr. Qiu Zhensheng in the "snake story of the Zhuangxiang test" in an article, he believes that "the Zhuang's March 3 worship is actually the snake God, from the snake totem sacrifice day". Zuojiang and Daming Mountain area have "March 3, the dragon worship mountain". There are two such Zhuang folk tales: In ancient times, there was a village called Sangka Zhai, living in an old Zhuang man called Li Tishe, by digging and hunting for a living. He raised a white-flowered snake with great pains. Later, the snake grew up, shed a layer of skin, turned into a big dragon, and left the old man. When the old man died of illness, the big green dragon flew back to mourn until the old man's coffin was buried, and then took off in the air. Every year on March 3, the big green dragon flew back to visit the old man's grave. Folks also came to accompany it, "March 3, the dragon worship mountain" is so passed down from generation to generation. There is also a similar story about a widowed mother who kept a broken-tailed five-flower snake (called Techu in Zhuang, meaning short-tailed person) as her companion. On the day of her death, a gust of wind blew the old man's body to the mountain rock for burial. After that, Tequi came to sweep the grave every year on the third day of March. In fact, this is the day of sacrifice of the snake totem. The second is the sacrifice to the god of thunder. Mr. Qin Shengmin believes that the third of March comes from the sacrifice of the God of Thunder. Longsheng Zhuang March 3 have killed pigs to sacrifice Shennong's custom; Yunnan Province, Wenshan Zhuang is sacrificed to the God of Thunder on this day, praying for smooth winds and rain, a good harvest, so it is also known as the Festival of the God of Thunder. The festival is also known as the Festival of the God of Thunder.

Why is the same March 3, some Zhuang areas in Guangxi is the Song Wei Festival, while some Zhuang areas is the Tomb Sweeping Festival? Mr. Qiu Zhensheng replied that due to the dilution of people's consciousness of the snake totem, the sacrifice of the snake totem on the third of March has gradually become a day for holding songs and pikes, so that the descendants have simply forgotten that it was originally a day for the sacrifice of the snake totem. Prof. Liang Tingwang also believes that "the song polder actually originated from the March 3 of ancestor worship." In the author's opinion, the "root" of March 3 Tomb-sweeping Festival not only originates from the snake totem sacrificial day of the Zhuang people, but also absorbs the essence of Chinese filial piety culture. As Prof. Weng Minhua said: March 3 on the Si Festival since the Qin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty is very prosperous. From the Song and Yuan dynasties, the cold food, Qingming, on the Si three sections show a tendency to merge and mix, and ultimately the cold food "and" into the Qingming, on the Si "hide" into the Qingming, Qingming in the traditional festivals in the status of the prominent, the external manifestations of the ancestor of the tomb sweeping, but still inside the courtship, the trial marriage, the content of the child on the Si The content of the last six of the child. Shangsi Festival from the center of the Han Chinese retreated to the surrounding areas, is still colorful and retained in the minority areas. Therefore, folk wisdom and folk power is to protect the traditional culture of the fundamental.

Expanded reading

The third of March of the Zhuang Nationality is Guangxi to create a show of national cultural charm, promote economic development, promote national unity, cohesion and development momentum of the event. Every year, more than 1,000 celebratory activities are carried out in the region during the "March of the Zhuang" period.

Festivals

"March 3 of the Zhuang" is not only an important traditional customary festival of the Zhuang people in Guangxi, but also an important traditional customary festival of the Han, Yao, Miao, Dong, Mulao, Maonan and other hereditary ethnic groups. It is mainly concentrated in Nanning, Liuzhou, Baise, Hechi, Chongzuo, Laibin, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and other areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, as well as in Wuzhou, Yulin, Hezhou and other Han areas. Over the years, the various ethnic cadres and masses in these places have always had the "March 3 of the Zhuang Nationality" as a traditional festival of Guangxi ethnic groups and to be a holiday wish. In recent years, more than 100 deputies to the National People's Congress of the autonomous region and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have put forward suggestions and proposals, requesting that "March 3" be recognized as an ethnic customary holiday in Guangxi and be given a holiday. Especially in 2013, during the "two sessions" of the autonomous region, 32 deputies to the National People's Congress and 32 members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference submitted relevant suggestions and proposals.

The Party Committee of the Autonomous Region and the Autonomous Region Government, after careful study, decided to designate "March 3 of the Zhuang Nationality" as a traditional customary festival of the ethnic groups in Guangxi, and to take a two-day holiday, which will be conducive to the inheritance and carrying forward of the excellent traditional ethnic culture of Guangxi, and will be conducive to the enhancement of the construction of socialist spiritual civilization in Guangxi, and to further consolidate and develop the equality of the ethnic groups in the region, unity, mutual assistance, harmonious socialist ethnic relations, and promote all ethnic groups *** with unity and struggle, *** with prosperity and development. It is also in line with the people's heart, is people-oriented, ruling for the people's specific embodiment, is the autonomous regional party committee, the government to implement the Party's national policy, the implementation of the Party's mass line of education and practice the results of the activities.

National Culture

The autonomous regional government made a decision: "March 3 of the Zhuang" is a customary holiday for ethnic minorities in Guangxi, from 2014 onwards, "March 3 of the Zhuang" in Guangxi. All citizens of Guangxi two days off.

The people's government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held its 23rd executive meeting on January 7, 2014, has basically considered and determined the "March 3 of the Zhuang nationality" holiday for two days of "measures (draft)".

The "Draft Measures on Holidays for Ethnic Minorities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region", which determined the two-day holiday, applies to all citizens in the autonomous region. The "Measures (Draft)" said that the two days of holiday identified can form a small long holiday by connecting with Saturday and Sunday, and can meet the requirements of the masses in Guangxi for ancestor worship and other related activities.

The reason why it is called "March 3 of the Zhuang" is because it is the customary holiday of the people of Guangxi ethnic groups, with strong ethnic and local characteristics. In order to reflect the festival's national characteristics and ethnic cultural characteristics, highlight the festival as the Zhuang Autonomous Region's national characteristics, should be in the name of the festival in the name of the main ethnic groups in Guangxi, namely, the name of the Zhuang.