Which province and nationality is the Torch Festival?

Torch Festival, the oldest traditional ethnic tourism festival in Yunnan, is the oldest traditional tourism festival in Yunnan, which is dominated by Yi and Bai people. It is usually held on June 24th or 25th of the lunar calendar every year. There are many opinions about the origin of Torch Festival in Yunnan. The main legend of the Yi people in Yunnan is that in ancient times there was a demon who harmed mankind, and a warrior named Bao Cong fought against the demon. They wrestled to decide the outcome, and it was still hard to compete for three days and three nights, so everyone played three strings, played piccolo, clapped their hands and stamped their feet to cheer for the samurai, and the samurai finally defeated the devil. The devil got angry and released all kinds of pests to spoil the crops that people worked so hard to grow. People gathered again to light torches and burn pests, and finally all the pests were burned to death. This day happens to be June 24th. In order to commemorate this victory, on this day every year, people kill chickens and sheep and hold various activities of the Torch Festival. Torch Festival embodies the struggle spirit of Yunnan Yi people who are not afraid of violence and pursue a happy life.

The Yi Torch Festival is the biggest in Shilin and Chuxiong, Yunnan. In Yi villages all over Yunnan, on the night of Torch Tourism Festival, a big torch with a height of more than 3 meters should be erected everywhere, and small torches of various families should be placed around the big torch to show solidarity with Qi Xin. People put on holiday costumes, sang and danced around torches and stayed up all night. Men, women and children should take part in various activities of the festival. Men wrestle, race horses, fight bullfights, shoot sheep and climb poles, while women sing, dance and toast. Torch Festival is also a festival for young men and women to choose lovers, and people love each other in the festival. At the peak of the festival in the evening, people hold burning torches and cruise in houses and fields, singing while walking, making loud songs and roars. The torch is connected into a dragon, which is very spectacular.

There are many other legends about Yunnan White Torch Tourism Festival, mainly from the story of burning the Songming Pagoda. It is said that Piluoge, one of the six imperial edicts in Dali, Yunnan, attempted to annex the other five imperial edicts. On June 24th, Pirog lured the imperial edict leader to the Songming Pagoda for drinking and plotting to set fire to it. Mrs. Bai Jie, the leader of the imperial edict of Luoden, had long seen through the ambition of Pirog and advised her husband not to go, but the leader of the imperial edict of Luoden was forced to go because of ancestor worship and the power of Nanzhao. Mrs. Bojeff knew it was unlucky, so she put a shovel in her husband's hand and recognized the body accordingly. King Nanzhao saw that his wife was beautiful and clever, so he forced her to be a concubine. Mrs. Bojeff made a false promise, buried her husband when she came back, and immediately led the people to fight bloody battles with the besieged Nanzhao soldiers and threw herself into the sea on June 25. Later, on this day, people in Dali, Jianchuan, Erhai and other places in Yunnan put on festive costumes and slaughtered pigs and sheep to celebrate the festival. Each village erected a 20-meter-high wooden pole in the center of the square, tied a big fire with straw and dried bamboo, inserted colored buckets symbolizing bumper harvest on it, and hung torches on pears strung with colored lines. In the evening, people lit a big fire, and the children ran and shouted in the fields with small torches, sprinkled handfuls of rosin on the flames and gave off bursts of red flames. There will be a boat race in the village near Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan. People remember the loyal and unyielding Mrs. Burch.

Torch Tourism Festival is also celebrated by Naxi, Linxi, Lahu, Pumi, Achang, Hani and other ethnic minorities in Yunnan, accounting for two-thirds of the total population of ethnic minorities in Yunnan, and it is the largest ethnic tourism festival in Yunnan.