Photographic helmet

We spent a Bai's "Central Plains" Festival in Dali and felt the "grand feeling" of the long-lost festival in the Central Plains.

July 16th (August 23rd) of the lunar calendar, the first day of the ancestors' return. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the gloomy sky in Jianchuan ancient city became darker. The rain in August is uncertain, and it was stormy when I was young.

Some arty boys with paper fans strode home and stood on tiptoe from time to time for fear of soiling their little white shoes. Outside the window, it's raining harder and harder. The raindrops hit the stone bridge in Galand, and the originally empty bridge deck was dusted off, as if the noise of the world had nothing to do with it.

In the rain, the unburned incense and paper money at the bridge head are mottled beyond recognition, and most of the ashes are taken away by the current, heading for another unknown world with nike blazer's blessing.

▲ Galand Bridge before the rain [Photo: There are points]

▲ Galand Bridge after the rain [Photo: There are points]

The boy said to himself, "This Mid-Autumn Festival is really a good time!"

Yes, it's the rainy season. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, it rained for 12 days in succession in Jianchuan, and it was sunny for three days from 13 to 15, which didn't give any chance to children and grandchildren who wanted to cry when they caught up with rainy days and cloudy days. Before this, in this pure land that the gods looked around, people had already greeted the arrival of the deceased ancestors with reverence.

Waiting for ancestors

In previous Jianchuan, the Day of the Dead was held on July 7- 14 in autumn, and reached a small climax on July 14. July 14 is called Ghost Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival. Friends of Jianchuan advised us not to go out of the city and go home early before dark, which is a holiday taboo faithfully observed by Jianchuan people for hundreds of years.

▲ On July 14, the streets were sparsely populated [Photo: There are points]

But people are not as good as heaven. Jean and I were locked out of the door and didn't go home until half our salary passed. Accompanied by Buddhist scriptures, we walked on the deserted streets of Jianchuan in the middle of the night, just like "strangers at the door" in Jianchuan. The two men walked towards the crowded place, but fortunately they didn't meet unexpected guests.

▲ Locked door [photo: divided]

▲ Mike who waited for a long time to come back [Photo: There are points]

▲ "Non-Buddhist Sutra" [Photography: There are points]

A hundred years ago, the people of Jianchuan "offered sacrifices to their ancestors, recommended food at the right time, and competed for fresh vegetables, fearing that they would not get them." Flat fashion and frugal families will also strive to become rich.

The proportion of Bai people in Jianchuan is very high, accounting for more than 70%. There is a strong wind of folk beliefs in the local area, and there is no trend of attenuation today. People who participate in folk activities are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, but under the influence of this trend, young people also participate.

Today, "July 14 is as important as the Torch Festival, even more grand", said a friend of the Bai people in Jianchuan.

For ordinary people, this is the slack season before the autumn harvest, and everyone has enough time and harvest preparation activities. Corn, green beans, pears and pomegranates appearing on the altar are all seasonal fruits and vegetables in this season.

▲ Rich cakes and fruit bowls are "consecrated" [Photo: Jean. g」]

The "14th of July" in Jianchuan, known locally as Chiwa Kizil West, has a short festival, including 14th and 15th of July.

Generally speaking, on the market day before July 14 (the market time is once a week, on a Sunday), white women in Bai Zi will go out together to buy paper money, incense sticks, bags, gold and silver paper, ingots, warm clothes, melons and fruits, sacrifices and other holiday items. This lively scene will last until the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

At the same time, every household uses paper money and baggage these days, and according to the number of three generations of ancestors, each ancestor is affixed with an intangible wealth burden. After pasting, it is necessary to specify the relationship between the contractor (usually the male owner) and the deceased, the name of the deceased and other specific information.

▲ Burning Bao [Photo: There are points]

Usually, in addition to the man's immediate ancestors, people will also prepare some for their deceased relatives and give them to each other two or three days before the festival. If the distance between the two sides is too far, you can also burn the ghost money of your dead relatives at home.

In the early morning of Mid-Autumn Festival, housewives (under normal circumstances, Jianchuan men don't cook) begin to prepare "eight bowls" and sacrifices, while men consciously abide by the taboo of "not traveling far" and help at home.

People in small towns began to meet God, and gradually entered the sacred realm of meeting God from ordinary secular life. In Jianchuan, devout people began to meet God on the second day of July, and finished it on July 12 at the latest (this happened within two days).

After going home to meet God, three meals a day are provided, and the dinner is more abundant. After the sacrifice at home, there will still be "a little food, burning incense and falling on the side of the road." At the same time, people worship hidden wealth and stacked ingots in halls or halls. At this time, people's thoughts have shifted to a state of piety and "extraordinary".

▲ "Give you fruit" [Figure: There are points]

Eat "eight bowls" with ancestors

During the festival, the patron saint and ancestors of each family will come back. They usually protect their children and grandchildren in the dark and deserve courtesy.

Generally speaking, housewives are very busy after breakfast. Today is the day for our ancestors to go home. We will make eight bowls for them.

It will take several hours to prepare the "eight bowls", but all the tables will be served at around 3 or 4 pm at the latest. "Eight bowls" are time-consuming and laborious, and require a lot of effort, but "these eight bowls should be cooked whether they are appetizing or not, and this is true everywhere in Jianchuan". Some people have as many as ten bowls

▲ "Eight bowls" upgraded to ten bowls [Photo: There are points]

In the past, there were at least red meat, ribs, vermicelli, steamed fish, crispy meat and beans (kidney beans or edamame) in the "eight bowls", and others, such as fungus tofu, were free to play. With the changes of the times, except for fans and beans, everything else is no longer a necessity.

According to the Bai old man, "when our ancestors went back, they used fans to make ropes, tied gold and silver and clothes to horses, and used beans to feed them." This is a conception of the life world of the soul and a symbolic restoration of the ancient tea-horse road. When it comes to the idea that the Bai people in Jianchuan may be descendants of the Qiang people, it is hard not to remind people of the story of the ancestors migration of Naxi and Mosuo people.

Among the Mosuo people, the memory of ancestors migrating from north to south to Yongning Bazi through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is preserved. Therefore, after death, Daba held a soul-sending ceremony for the deceased-Korean hand-waving dance, playing Depth Charge, who guided the deceased. Previously, perforated cloth shoes were prepared for the deceased to facilitate their travel.

▲ Leather armor worn by the bus in Korean swing dance [Photo: There are points]

▲ Punched cloth shoes [Photo: Divided]

After the soul-sending ceremony, a symbolic "horse-washing ceremony" will be held, praising: "You are a good horse in a hundred, running faster than thunder and swallows, and tigers and leopards can't compare with you. You have to take xx to Branava. "

As far as I can see, the sacrifice on July 14th can be held in the main hall, the hall or the courtyard, not facing the gate, but facing the "patio". Generally, there is no requirement for the opposite position, but the position is the same.

Bai people usually set the ancestral hall in the Ming hall on the second floor of the house. On this day, they will also burn incense and offer offerings, including a plate of corn sprouts and malt. Generally, on the day of the Kasahara Festival, a small hole will be dug between the flower buds and a candle lamp will be placed. "I started to make corn buds this year, and I can't stop the next year. I have to do it every year."

▲ Malt [Photo: Minute]

Sacrificial supplies are placed on the table of the Eight Immortals, generally including at least one cup of wine, one cup of tea, one plate of cake, two plates of fruit, three bowls of rice, three pairs of chopsticks and eight bowls. The prepared treasure bags, clothes and gold and silver ingots are also taken out and placed next to the altar (on the right).

▲ A cup of tea, a glass of wine, a plate of cake and two plates of fruit are the standard shapes [Photo: There are points]

How to worship ancestors? -Bring it when you're full.

After the sacrifice began, men, women and children at home began to kowtow and pray. After a round of kowtowing, the most important parents in the family began to read each package in a certain order:

(Positive) Missing person reported /xxx (honorific title and taboo)/Zhongyuan Lingjie prepared gold and silver ghost Qian Bao bag B /xxxxx (honorific title and taboo) Soul Summer/Fu Wei/Jianna/xxxx July14th.

Seal (back).

▲ Luggage [Photo: There are points]

The back bag was incinerated in the brazier, and clothes, shoes and ingots were bathed in the fire for the first time until they were all reduced to ashes, and covered with one or two melon leaves to prevent sparks from splashing. At this point, the ceremony came to an end.

▲ Paper clothes [Photography: There are points]

▲ Paper shoes [Photography: There are points]

▲ Gold and silver ingots [Photo: There are points]

▲ Pumpkin leaves on ashes [Photo: There are points]

During the whole process, children at home are forbidden to play and joke, and can only watch quietly.

▲ A solemn family in the sacrifice [Photo: Jean. g」]

In the process of burning buns, the new one is the most important.

In fact, the deceased gained a new feature while being hit by death. His body, originally living in an ordinary world, suddenly became extraordinary and frightening, and people dared not touch it for fear of bringing danger to themselves.

After the ancestor worship, some gold and silver ingots, incense, paper and clothes will be burned at the main entrance, and a bowl of rice and water will be poured on the roadside. This is a road sacrifice. Because some families lost their children, their ancestors became ghosts and wandered around the village. In order to minimize the harm caused by ghosts, it is necessary for villagers to sacrifice roads.

▲ Road Festival [Photo: There are points]

▲ Road Festival [Photo: Jean. g」]

Most of the offerings to ghosts and gods are food and money, in order to prevent them from harming others through bribery. "Bai people think that ghosts like rice as much as people. When they walk or sleep at night, they will scatter rice around them so that ghosts will not pester them. Therefore, rice is both food and a good' protection object'. "

Even when housewives can only burn their ancestors' buns at their husbands' homes because of the distance, rice plays an important role as a "guardian". Housewives often separate their parents' bags from their husbands' bags and enclose them with rice to avoid being bullied and disturbed by other ghosts.

▲ rice to ward off evil spirits [Photo: Jean. g」]

Whether in Jianchuan city or the surrounding countryside, there are custom requirements for dumping ashes. Generally speaking, they put the ashes burned last night in bags and pour them into the nearby river (people in the village prefer to pour them into the river outside the village). The ashes transported offerings such as gold and silver ingots and clothes with the river to the place where ghosts lived.

▲ River outside the village [Photo: Jean. g」]

A river lamp: a lonely soul

July 15 is the Kasahara Festival, and there is a lively river lantern festival in Jianchuan. As Zhou Xing said, "the beauty of lamp is closely related to its symbol of light and warmth, its appreciation and the festive and prosperous atmosphere it presents. From the perspective of folklore in China, it seems that there should be deeper reasons. " .

▲ Turn on the light [Photography: There are points]

During the Kasahara Festival, people will put river lanterns on the dead to turn over, and one lamp represents a lonely soul. Among the Buddhist stories, Mulian's story of saving his mother affirmed the ideal that China pursued diligently in mainstream life: filial piety.

On this day, people look at lanterns while comforting the dead and expressing filial piety; At the same time, it is also to teach future generations and promote filial piety.

▲ Children playing with lanterns [Photo: Jean. g」]

As a set of homophonic symbols and metaphors, "Deng" and "Ding" are inevitably applicable to festivals. As an ancestor's day to go home, the Bonihara Festival is actually about watching people. The excitement of the Lantern Festival is largely based on this. "People boast of their good lamps to each other, but they also boast of their good lamps." .

▲ Soul river lamp with the words "hard work" and "refueling" [Photo: Jean. g」]

River lanterns are often decorated with corn buds used to worship ancestors the day before, which shows that river lanterns also have the significance of sending away ancestors and illuminating the future. In Bai dialect (also known as Jia Min dialect), Ya 'er is pronounced Zanga, which is very similar to the pronunciation of "Go, Go" in Bai dialect.

So they also think that the corn bud is actually urging the ancestors to leave quickly. "It's time. We've finished eating, drinking and watching. Let's get on the road."

▲ Corn buds [Figure: There are points]

For the children in the ancient city, the activities of releasing river lanterns are full of joy from beginning to end. Every child is carrying a lamp, and they compete with each other to see whose lamp is big, bright, strange in shape or beautifully decorated.

"If death is a process that takes time, then the evil force it brings cannot disappear in a short time." What Hertz said is true. In Jianchuan, when the family members of the new deceased burn bags for them, the new bags are often larger, and the words "new deceased" will be marked on the cover.

When people pay homage to the dead, they are also paying homage to the gods of folk beliefs. In addition to praying for "folk gods to protect the old and the new", fear should also occupy a considerable proportion. The longer the death time, the more the deceased gradually adapts to the new world environment and becomes less dangerous. When burning buns, people are most concerned about the dead within three generations, and should also have such considerations.

After the death of the deceased for a period of time, people gradually adapted to the absence of the deceased in this world. From then on, people's attitude towards the dead is no longer dominant, but a kind of trust and awe.

The dead have passed away, but they also miss this caring world; The living naturally want to see it. The horror of where will you go lies in "I'm afraid I'll never see you again". With the fear of mysterious power, I am still looking forward to seeing the dead again. Standing on the side of people, this is probably the highest expectation of the living for the dead.

▲ The world is not far away [Photo: Jean. g」]