Legend of the origin of Torch Festival

The torch festival legends of various ethnic groups in Yunnan have their own characteristics. In fact, the legend of Torch Festival of Yi people is the sublation of the original cultural form by the new cultural form after the nomadism changed to farming. This legend retains the original information of the origin of the Torch Festival to the greatest extent, and is also the legend closest to the source of the Torch Festival. The proverbs of Naxi people about the legend of Torch Festival preserve important information about the origin of Torch Festival, which, together with the records in Yuxi Annals, Luquan Annals and Tunxi Annals, provide important clues for exploring the origin of Torch Festival. Although the legends about the Torch Festival in Dali and Kunming hide the origin of the Torch Festival, their "Chinese Valentine's Day" also reveals the origin of the Torch Festival and its profound culture. 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 would never 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.

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. Nanzhao King burned the Songming Pagoda, and the charitable wife was loyal to the country.

There were six tribes in Yunnan in the early Tang Dynasty, which were called "six imperial edicts". The southernmost tribe Meng Shezhao is also called Nanzhao. Nanzhao became more and more powerful. One day, Pelugo, the king of Nanzhao, invited five other leaders to get together. Mrs. Chariti, the wife of Deng Ruozhao, the tour leader, thought that Pelog had ulterior motives and tried to persuade her husband not to go. But the husband wouldn't listen. When she left, Mrs. Charity put an iron ring on her husband's arm with tears in her eyes to protect herself. Since then, Pirog did burn down the Song Ming Building where the leaders gathered, and all the leaders of the five imperial edicts were spared. Facing the ashes of Song Minglou, Mrs Charity wept bitterly. She threw herself into the ashes and took out the iron ring worn by her husband before recognizing his body and taking it home. Later, Pilog heard about this clever and virtuous charity lady and wanted to marry her. However, how can this kind lady be willing to remarry? After burying her husband, she closed the city and followed her dead husband, leaving only this touching story. After that, the Bai people in Yunnan celebrated the Torch Festival to commemorate the "Burning Song Ming Pagoda" and the historical story of the brave and clever charity lady.

Guo Jiangjun killed her husband to control his wife, and Mrs Zhen Lie set herself on fire.

Guo Shizhong, deputy commander of the Han Dynasty, killed Sheikh Ma Nana in Dali, and found that the Sheikh's wife, An An, was very beautiful, so he wanted to marry her. Mrs. Anan pretended to agree, but put forward three conditions for paying homage to her dead husband. But when offering sacrifices to her husband, Anan set fire to the mourning hall and jumped into the blazing fire to set himself on fire. An An's loyalty and courage have won people's admiration and admiration. Since then, on the day of Anan's suicide every year, Bai compatriots will light torches and travel around villages to commemorate them.

Warriors wrestle and fight demons, while others set fire to worms.

According to legend, in ancient times, a demon named Stanley destroyed people's happy life on earth. After people found out, they came forward to ask questions. Ten vigorously asked someone to wrestle with him arrogantly, and also overturned a strong cow in a demonstration (the first thing on the Torch Festival was bullfighting). His provocative behavior angered a Yi hero named Bao Cong. He walked out of the crowd and wrestled with the top ten for three days and three nights, still tied. So people played three strings, played piccolo, clapped their hands and stamped their feet to cheer for Bao Cong, and finally defeated the top ten countries. The devil got angry and released locusts and other pests to spoil the crops that people worked so hard to grow. So people gathered again, lit torches to burn pests, and finally burned all the pests to death. This day happens to be June 24th. Later, in order to commemorate this victory, people slaughtered cattle and sheep every day and held various activities of the Torch Festival, which reflected the struggle spirit of the Yi people who were not afraid of violence and pursued a happy life.

Killing taxes angers the gods, burning torches to kill insects.

Long ago, heaven and earth were interlinked. One year, the god Stiguge sent Sigaby to collect taxes on earth. Due to the famine in the world, people couldn't afford the rent, so a strongman who could eat copper and iron, Rabbah of Russia, killed the tax collector Sylvia Abby. The gods were furious. The first flood tried to drown people on the ground, but the flood was defeated. The gods released all kinds of pests into the world to eat people's crops. Russian Rabbah and everyone gathered around the fireplace to discuss ways to control pests. Unexpectedly, a bug fell into the fireplace and was quickly burned to death. As a result, the Russian Laba organization set everyone on fire, finally defeated the pests and achieved a bumper harvest. Over time, the Yi Torch Festival was formed.

The story of princess Anan

In Dali, there is a story about Princess Anan: "Yu Ye (now Dali) married Anan, the wife of Chief Manana. That was killed by a general in the Han Dynasty, and she wanted her wife to travel south. She can promise you three things: first, make a curtain to sacrifice her dead husband; Burn her husband's clothes and put on new clothes; Let everyone know that I got married with ceremony. Loyal as he said. Tomorrow people will get together, and Zhang Song will set fire to her husband. When the Nanzang Dao comes out, once it is blazing, it will burn her husband's clothes, that is, it will lead the knife to break his neck and fall into the fire. On June 25th, the people of China mourned it. Every year, they hung it with a Japanese torch and called it Chinese Valentine's Day. The formation of the customs and legends of the Torch Festival is related to the primitive worship of all ethnic groups in the Yi language, especially the belief in fire. In the Torch Festival activities of Yi ethnic groups in southwest China, the folk functions of fumigating fields with fire, exorcising evil spirits, killing insects, protecting seedlings, urging seedlings, praying for blessings, attracting light and welcoming Fu Rui are still maintained, 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. Whether it is the early magpie girl or later Anan and Mrs. Charlie, most of them have the same fate. On the one hand, this 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 legend of a heroic woman who has 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, people closely linked the fate of these kind and brave female characters with the legend of Torch Festival, expressing people's feelings and wishes of "promoting goodness and restraining prostitution" 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, even affecting festivals and customs in some areas, which makes the original ecological "sacrificial" Torch Festival attached with the derivative meaning of "commemorative festival". For example, Heqing legend attributed June 19, when women dyed impatiens nails, to charity.