How the Yi people celebrate the Torch Festival

The "Torch Festival" of the Yi people is celebrated for three days:

1. The first day of the Torch Festival: fire sacrifice.

On this day, everyone wears their favorite dress and is happy. Every village will slaughter cattle and sheep, and prepare banquets with all kinds of meat and fragrant and sweet wine. These are fragrant and fragrant. If you worship it to the gods, the gods will be full of praise. When night falls, people from nearby villages will build an altar at the location selected by the elders, and light the sacred fire by striking stones to make fire in the traditional way. Bimo (a folk priest of the Yi ethnic group) will chant sutras and offer sacrifices to the fire. Then, in every household, adults and children would take torches made of wormwood from Bimo's hands and wander around the fields, imitating the legend of Ashmoo using fire to drive away insects.

2. The second day of the Torch Festival: spreading the fire.

On this day, every household gathers under the sacred fire of the altar to hold various traditional festival activities. The young men should imitate the legendary Altiraba, horse racing, wrestling, singing, bullfighting, sheep fighting, and cockfighting. The girls imitated the legendary Ashima, dressed in beautiful clothes, held up butter umbrellas, sang "Duoluohe" and danced the body dance. On this day, the most important event is the Yi beauty pageant. The elders must select the annual beauties and beauties from the boys and girls according to the legendary standards of Altiraba's industriousness, bravery, prowess, and Ashima's kindness, intelligence, and beauty. As night falls, pairs of loving men and women, in the mountains, by the river, under yellow oil umbrellas, play the yueqin, play the mouth strings, and tell each other how much they love each other. Therefore, some people call the Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival the "Valentine's Day of the East."

3. The third day of the Torch Festival: sending fire.

This is the climax of the entire Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival. When night falls on this day, everyone will hold a torch and run around. Finally, people gathered their torches together to form huge bonfires. Happy people gathered around the bonfires to sing and dance to their heart's content. The scene was extremely spectacular. Therefore, it is also known as "Oriental Carnival Night".

1. Basic information about the "Torch Festival"

1. The Torch Festival of the Yi people in Liangshan is the second Star Festival of the Yi people in the solar calendar. It takes place during the hottest period of June in the lunar calendar. Pass. Yang Shen, a poet of the Ming Dynasty, once wrote a poem about "Star Return Festival every June". According to historical documents, the Torch Festival has meanings such as "taking advantage of the agriculture with the color of fire", "holding a fire to illuminate the fields to pray for good luck", "carrying a fire to illuminate the fields to avoid insects", etc.

2. The Torch Festival is a grand festival with the largest scale, the richest content, the most spectacular scenes, the largest number of participants, and the richest ethnic characteristics among the many traditional festivals of the Yi people. Every year on June 24th of the lunar calendar, Liangshan Yi compatriots dress up in festive costumes, sing and dance, hold grand beauty pageants and competitions in clothing, horse racing, wrestling, and archery, and light torches at night to parade in the wilderness to commemorate their hearts. hero.

3. The Torch Festival is a traditional festival of the Bai, Naxi, Lahu, Hani, Pumi and other ethnic groups. The Yi, Naxi and Jinuo people hold the festival on June 24th of the lunar calendar, the Bai people hold it on June 25th, and the Lahu people hold it on June 20th. The festival lasts for two or three days.

2. Activities of the "Torch Festival"

The Yi Torch Festival in Xichang has opened up to Liangshan, promoted economic and trade exchanges, and been in line with international standards. The "Liangshan Festival" held every three years has "International Torch Festival" has given this traditional festival a new era style and new connotation.

1. Beauty pageant

(1) The Yi people have loved and pursued beauty for generations. "Beauty pageant" has been the most important and distinctive activity in the traditional torch festival of the Yi people since ancient times. . It is different from the "beauty pageant" activities in today's world that combine commerciality and artistry. The traditional folk "beauty pageant" of the Yi people, which has lasted for thousands of years, has very strict requirements. Beautiful Yi girls are dressed up, holding yellow umbrellas, and slowly dance around the fire on the lawn to perform "Dole He". The judges are all from the village. Reed is a respected old man. Their selection is both picky and natural. It depends not only on the girl's figure and appearance, but also on their dress; it also depends on their usual filial piety towards their parents and elders; and more importantly, based on their usual moral character and reputation for hard work. to judge.

(2) Since the reform and opening up, previous Yi Torch Festival "beauty pageants" have not only retained the original style and characteristics, but also made breakthroughs and innovations on the basis of inheriting and developing traditions. The contestants have lived their daily lives. Wearing costumes and stage costumes, it fully displays the characteristics of costumes from various places in the Yi area, with colorful and wide varieties, just like a costume exhibition, which is refreshing.

(3) In order to give the Yi Nationality Torch Festival "Beauty Pageant" culture new connotation and the flavor of the times, and make this event both traditional and contemporary, the 2004 China Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival "Beauty Pageant" In order to mobilize the audience to participate in the event, the most beautiful audience award was specially set up so that visitors from all over the world can show their style on the field. At the same time, not only are the beauties and handsome men selected by expert judges, but the audience present also has the opportunity to vote, letting flowers become the spokesperson of the audience and choose their favorite beauties and handsome men.

2. Competition of strength

(1) Bullfighting

A loud horn sounded, the two bulls stared at each other with anger, and roared , two pairs of specially sharpened horns collided suddenly. The surrounding audience cheered and cheered, and the cow was stimulated and encouraged, and its aggressiveness became fierce. Sometimes it attacked fiercely on the frontier, sometimes it confronted the enemy with force, sometimes blood spattered, and sometimes it waited for an opportunity to counterattack.

The victorious cow, with its head and neck draped in red and flowers, is led around the field by its owner, doubling its value and making it a great sight.

(2) Sheep fighting

Sheep fighting has a sense of humor and comedy. The two rams stumbled over with their heads held high as if there was no one around. When they spotted their rivals, they ran forward and separated with a "bang" sound, as if nothing had happened. This was repeated several times, and until the end of the fight, the two sheep rubbed each other in a dazed state, shaking hands and making peace, regardless of the outcome. It was really interesting.

(3) There are also horse racing, cockfighting, etc., which are all competitions of male power. They are the explosion of the inner vitality of the nation, the collision of enterprising fire and wine, and the sculptures of pioneering stubbornness and wisdom.

3. The value of the "Torch Festival"

1. The Torch Festival is called "Duze" in Liangshan Yi language, which means "fire sacrifice". The original form of the Torch Festival is simply the ancient fire worship. In today's mountainous society, we can still discover the belief concepts and cultural core of this festival's "fire sacrifice" from the investigation of various folk customs.

2. On August 4, 2010, thousands of people in Xichang City, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, dressed in festive costumes, danced songs and dances with unique ethnic characteristics, kicking off the 6th China·Liangshan Yi Nationality Festival The beginning of the International Torch Festival. The Liangshan Yi Torch Festival is one of the first intangible cultural heritage lists announced in China. It is one of the top ten folk festivals in China and the top ten famous festivals in Sichuan. It has been included in the "2010 World Intangible Cultural Heritage Approval Project" by UNESCO.

3. On June 20, 2016, at the 2016 Silk Road Tourism Promotion Night hosted by the Silk Road Tourism Promotion Alliance, the Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival won the title of "Top Ten Silk Road in the Eyes of Chinese People in 2016" "Best Tourism Brand Activities".