What festivals do Yi people have?

Traditional festivals of Yi people are very rich, which can be divided into five categories according to their nature: productive festivals, social entertainment festivals, commemorative festivals, celebration festivals and sacrificial festivals. And each category contains 5- 10 festivals. For example, productive festivals aimed at developing and promoting production include the wool shearing festival (popular in Daliangshan, usually in the middle of June of the lunar calendar), the herb picking festival (popular in Xiaoliangshan, Yunnan, on the first day of the fifth lunar month, mainly collecting and selling medicinal materials), the Heijing Lantern Festival (popular in Heijing, Mouding County, Yunnan, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, mainly praying for more salt production), and the Year of the Sheep (in Mouding, Yunnan, on New Year's Eve and every year) Bawu Festival (popular in the eastern and western mountainous areas of Heqing County, Yunnan Province, held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, mainly to celebrate and pray for a bumper harvest), Niuge Festival (held by the Yi people in the mountainous areas of northwest Yunnan Province in early winter every year), Lama Festival (Lama means to celebrate the traditional festival of Niushen and the slang people of the Yi branch, held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year) and Mountain Protection Festival (popular among the Yi people in Longlin, Guangxi, held every March). Another example is the social entertainment festivals with the purpose of communication and entertainment in the form of songs and dances, entertainment and gatherings, such as singing contest (held by Lalu people in Jiujiang County, Yunnan Province in February of the lunar calendar), Valentine's Day (held by people in white in Napo County, Guangxi Province in March of the lunar calendar, and lovers exchange gifts), Daughter's Day (showing their youth and beauty in the street on the first day after the Spring Festival in Jinping, Yunnan Province) and Horse Racing Festival (Weining, Guizhou Province), the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year. Yi girls are all dressed up to see whose clothes look good), Flower Catching Street (Lesu people, a branch of Yi people at the junction of Eshan, Xinping and Shuangbai counties in Yunnan, are held twice every year on June 24th and July15th, which is a good opportunity for young people to fall in love), and String Song Festival (Yangbi Yi people in Yunnan Province celebrate the first day of the third lunar month every year. After dressing up, women gather on the local dense mountain with food, sing songs and taste food until the bright moon is in the sky), open a new festival (Yi people in Eshan, Yunnan Province will go to the market on the first day after the first day of the first lunar month every year, and spring ploughing will be finished after the festival), and worship their children (Yi people in Eshan, Yunnan Province, take the village as the unit on the second day of the first lunar month every year, and invite girls who get married within 3-5 years to come back to the village for collective worship). Another example is a commemorative festival with the main content of remembering national heroes and commemorating a historical event, such as the Flower Arrangement Festival (held by the Yi people in Chuxiong, Yunnan Province on the eighth day of the second lunar month every year to commemorate the legendary heroine Miyi Road who cured women's violence) and the Clothing Festival (held by the Yi people in Santaishan, Dayao County, and commemorated the ingenious tailor Amigues Ni and February 8 in Yunnan Province on March 28 every year (held on the eighth day of the second lunar month every year for three days to commemorate the battle of wits with the enemy). Celebrative festivals with the content of celebrating bumper harvest, congratulating people and animals for prosperity, peace and happiness include Yi Year, Old Age Festival, Year Taste Festival, New Rice Festival, Shahubi Festival and so on. Finally, there are sacrificial festivals to worship gods and pray for evil spirits, such as torch festival, secret festival, sacrificial festival and dance festival. Among them, the Year of the Yi people and the Torch Festival are the most common and grand festivals of the Yi people. ?

(A) Yi Nian

Known as Kush in Yi language, it is a traditional festival of Liangshan Yi people, which is held from October to November in the lunar calendar every year. Before the Li Dynasty, people made firewood for the New Year, prepared food for the New Year, and carefully urged pigs to celebrate the New Year. Three days of Chinese New Year, the first day: "set off fireworks", inform Zuling to go home and spend the holidays with future generations in the morning smoke; "Going door to door to kill Nian pig", the whole village (except the hostess who stayed at home) was surrounded by the pig killing expert "Weng Se Er Gu" who went door to door to kill Nian pig. The order of killing pigs depends on the seniority of the village. "Pine" is a sacrifice. Take some pork liver and pork and cook it, and bring it to the top of the fireplace to worship the ancestors. After that, everyone will have dinner together. When the sun goes down, they will worship their ancestors again with cooked meat and buckwheat Baba, praying for a bumper harvest and peace in the coming year. The next day: The children played the game of "Onsnagug", and young men and women got together in costumes, singing and dancing with kouxian, Qin Yue and huqin, and engaged in horse racing, swing wrestling and squatting wrestling. Middle-aged men team up for the New Year, and women entertain guests at home. On the third day, people get up early, send their ancestors back to their ancestral home with hot meals, prepare their travelling expenses and dry food, and pour oats into the barn as a symbol of feeding their spiritual horses. When sending away the ancestral spirit, the master prayed for the ancestral spirit to bless the family peace, bumper crops and prosperous livestock in the coming year. ?

(2) Torch Festival

The Yi people in Sichuan and Yunnan are generally held around June 24th of the lunar calendar, while the Yi people in Guizhou are held around June 6th of the lunar calendar. Sacrificing gods and fields, praying for a bumper harvest in the new year and sending worship to ward off evil spirits are important folk contents of Torch Festival. During the festival, in some Yi areas, the village will slaughter pigs and cows to sacrifice to the gods. In some places, every Yi family raises chickens in the fields to offer sacrifices to the mother of the land. On the Torch Festival of Liangshan Yi people, everyone outside will go home to have a reunion dinner, kill chickens to worship their ancestors before meals, and hold a ceremony to light the torch after meals. The head of the family lit a torch made of dried wormwood sticks, which lit up every corner from the top of the room, and read the words: burn all the sources of bad luck, the whole family will be safe, the grain will be abundant, and the six animals will flourish, then pass through the cowshed and sheepfold, and finally join the Torch Festival in the village, lighting torches at the edge of the village and the hillside of the field. Some people say that torches can kill pests, while others say that torches can drive away disasters and evil spirits. Now the Torch Festival is richer in content, including bullfighting, wrestling, horse racing, beauty pageant, duet, dance, archery, grinding children's autumn and other recreational activities, and some places also carry out commercial and trade activities.