Yi costumes vary from place to place. In Liangshan and Qianxi areas, men usually wear black narrow-sleeved right-angled shirts and pleated wide-leg trousers, while in some areas, they wear small-leg trousers, with a small lock of long hair in the center of the front of the head and a pincer-shaped knot tied on the right. Women retain more national characteristics, usually wrapped in a bun, with a waist and a belt; Women in some places have the habit of wearing long skirts. Men and women wear jerva when they go out. Jewelry includes earrings, bracelets, rings, collar flowers, etc., which are mostly made of gold, silver and jade.
Religious beliefs and important festivals
Yi religion has a strong primitive religious color, worshiping many gods, mainly animism and ancestor worship. In the worship of nature, the most important thing is the belief in elves and ghosts.
The festivals of the Yi people mainly include Torch Festival, Year of the Yi People, Worship the Master's Club, Secret Festival and Song Dance Festival. "Torch Festival" is the most common and grand traditional festival in Yi area, which usually falls on June 24th or 25th in the summer calendar. Every Torch Festival, Yi people, men and women, old and young, wear festive costumes, play livestock and offer spiritual cards, and dance, sing, race horses and wrestle. At night, holding torches, we walk around houses and fields, and then get together to light a bonfire and dance.
the yi nationality is a descendant of the Qiang ethnic group who lived in northwest China in ancient China six or seven thousand years ago. Yi nationality is characterized by large dispersion and small settlement, and lives in a staggered way with other ethnic groups. Yi people have their own writing and language.
The Yi people belong to the mountainous ethnic group, and mainly make a living by planting crops such as corn, horse bells and wheat. There are about 4,75,7 Yi people in Yunnan, among which weichu in the west of Yunnan and Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the south are the areas with the most concentrated Yi population in Yunnan.
It has a wide source, a long history and many branches, which has created the richness of Yi culture; Large mixed residence, small settlement and wide distribution have created the differences of Yi culture. Worship tigers, respect for black, respect for fire and love for martial arts are several obvious characteristics of Yi culture. And the October solar calendar of the Yi people. It is comparable to the world-famous Mayan civilization.
Torch Festival-Carnival of the Yi people: "Torch Festival" is a grand festival of the Yi people, which is usually held on the evening of June 24th to 26th in the lunar calendar.
When night falls, people wave torches, flock around villages and villages, cross mountains and fields, sprinkle rosin powder on each other's torches, and have a torch fight, and the mountains and fields shine like day. According to the custom of the Yi people, sprinkling rosin powder on the torch will make the torch "bang" with a gorgeous spark and raise a fragrance, which is a good wish: the younger generation will show respect to the older generation and wish them a long life; The elders are caressing the younger generation, wishing them luck; Peers scatter each other, which is intimacy and friendship; Young men and women scatter each other, which is the beginning of love.
During festivals of Yi people in Lunan, Guishan and other places, people play the big three-stringed instrument, dance "A Xi jumps over the moon", and hold wrestling and bullfighting at the same time. The Yi people in Chuxiong, Maitreya and other places also hold traditional "fire sacrifice" ceremonies. On the night of the festival, in the depths of the mountains where the Yi people live together, there are "fire trees and silver flowers that never sleep" everywhere, and the scene is very spectacular.
costume festival-the fashion show of Yi girls: There are costume festivals in two places in Yizhou, Chuxiong. One is the costume festival in Zhiju Village, Yongren County, which is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. One is the Saizhuang Festival in Santai Township, Dayao County, which is held on March 28th every year.
The costume festival provides an opportunity for young men and women who live in scattered places and seldom have the opportunity to get together and get to know each other. And what girls can show themselves best is to see whose clothes are the most beautiful. Yi women's clothing depends entirely on hand-made peach blossoms and embroidery, and it often takes one or two years to make a suit. Therefore, whoever has many clothes and good patterns will be regarded as hardworking, capable and ingenious.
Different from the way of competition in the past, people no longer wear all their clothes on their bodies, but keep changing new clothes. Some girls have to change five or six sets of clothes a day. As a result, there is another scene in the competition festival: by the mountain tube and under the green tree, the old people set up countless tents, cooked food and faithfully guarded their clothes for their girls.
The costume festival has the nature of competition from the beginning, which is the earliest fashion show. The difference is that Yi girls are not only designers and producers of clothes, but also "fashion models" in performances.
Dage-the most popular global folk dance: Every harvest, wedding or festival, the Yi people living in Yunnan, ranging from dozens to hundreds of people, are surrounded by piles of raging fires, with the quiet and solemn green hills and deep mysterious canopy around them as the background, and with the music beat played by lusheng, piccolo, yueqin and leaves, men and women hold hands and form a circle counterclockwise.
in p>1986, the American international folk art organization listed this kind of folk self-entertainment song and dance as one of the most popular "top ten folk dances in the world".
"Dage" is popular all over Yunnan, not only in Yi nationality, but also in Bai nationality, Naxi nationality and other ethnic groups, with different names, such as "Dage", "Left Foot Dance", "Stepping Song" and "Dancing Lusheng".
According to textual research, "Dage" is a transliteration of "Ta Ge". As early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, "Ta Ge" was a very active folk song and dance in the Central Plains and South China. However, the "Yunnan Feather Dance" cast on the bronze drum-shaped shell container unearthed in Shizhai Mountain, Jinning, Yunnan Province, and the copper buckle ornaments of 18 hanging-tailed people dancing arm in arm and ring unearthed in Lijiashan, Jiangchuan, as well as the dance patterns solidified on cliff paintings in Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, are all the same as the image of "Dage" of the Yi people, which may be used as evidence of the ancient origin of "Dage" of the Yi people.
Up to now, there is still a "song-walking map" drawn by the Qing Dynasty on the mural of Longtan Temple in Weibaoshan, Weishan County, Yunnan Province, which is very similar to the song-playing of the Yi people in Weishan today.
The October solar calendar of Yi people comparable to Mayan civilization: the calendar is the symbol of human civilization. One of the essences of the world-famous Mayan culture is the calendar. In the past, the Lunar New Year was used in most parts of China. However, in China's Yi people, there is still a little-known ancient calendar-Yi October solar calendar. It is speculated that this kind of calendar originated from the ancient Fuxi, with a history of about tens of thousands of years. It traces the history of China's civilization back to Egypt, India and Babylon.
the October solar calendar of the yi nationality is marked by 12 cycles of the zodiac, with three cycles of the zodiac as a period (month), that is, 36th is January and 3 cycles of the zodiac are a year. A year is 1 months, 36 days, and the end of 1 months, plus 5 days of "New Year Day", which is commonly called "October Year", and the whole year is 365 days. One more day is added every three years, that is, leap year (leap day), which is 366 days.
According to textual research, the Xiangtian Tomb of the Yi people is actually an observatory used by the ancients to observe the stars, which is closely related to the solar calendar of the Yi people. The October solar calendar of the Yi people is a long and mysterious ancient calendar, which has a deep relationship with China's Confucianism, Taoism and Yin-Yang theory. Up to now, there are still many "codes" to be deciphered and studied.
"Climbing the Flower Room"-the marriage and love of Yi men and women: "Climbing the Flower Room" is a unique custom of Yi people in Chu Dynasty. When a girl reaches the age of 16, her parents will build another thatched cottage for her to spend the night alone, while young men who have reached the age of 2 can climb the thatched cottage of their beloved girl at night to make love. They blew scorn together, tuned in and told each other about their love. Even if there are several young couples at the same time, everyone is at home. Once the love is mature, both men and women can get married with the consent of their parents, and their parents generally do not interfere with their children's choices.
The wedding of Yi people in Xiaoliangshan, Yunnan is quite unique. When getting married, the man should prepare a horse and bring gifts such as wine, cloth, meat and noodles to meet the bride. The girls in the woman's village can do everything they can to splash water on the wedding guests and catch them playing hard. All the people who send the bride off are men, and the bride can't enter the door until the sun goes down. Before entering the door, a wooden bowl filled with mutton, a handle and wine is held by one person and circled around the bride's head to show that she is rich after marriage. Then, the bride is carried into the house by her cousin.
"jumping vegetables"-a song-and-dance meal of the Yi people: "jumping vegetables", that is, dancing to serve food. It is a unique form of serving food and the highest etiquette for banquets among Yi people in Wuliangshan and Ailaoshan, Yunnan Province, and it is a long-standing traditional food culture with a perfect combination of dance, music and acrobatics.
when entertaining guests, square tables are usually laid out along two lines, and guests sit around three sides, leaving a "food jumping" channel in the middle. Three gongs kicked off the "vegetable jumping": gongs, lusheng, sanxian, stuffy flute, leaves and other folk music played together; Amid the shouts of girls and boys "Woohoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo They joined the simple and honest folk music concerto, made funny faces on their faces, and danced back and forth with relaxed, beautiful, smooth and coherent steps, and appeared in tandem. The two partners, who are dancing with towels, are full of strange behaviors, and they are like butterflies playing with flowers, rushing forward, backward, left and right to escort them.
A pair of food handlers will serve four tables, and their partners will arrange 32 bowls of food into a Bagua array, each bowl of food is like a "chess piece". Has its own positioning, all according to the ancient rules one by one off the table, no chaos.
Tuzhangfang-a unique residential building of the Yi people: The Tuzhangfang of the Yi people is very similar to the Tibetan stone building, with the same flat roof and the same thickness. The difference is that its wall is made of soil, but it is not fixed by splint when it is built, and the earth wall is formed after the filling is compacted and raised layer by layer (so-called "dry laying"). The flat roof is also similar to the stone building, and it also has the function of threshing ground. Tuzhangfang is distributed in central and southeastern Yunnan. The fine soil and moderate dry and wet conditions in this area provide a lot of convenient and accessible materials and conditions for the construction of earth palm houses.
Most Yi people have three or five houses. In the middle is a hall, where family members get together and receive guests. On the left side of the wall, there is a fire pit, and three pieces of stones stand in a tripod shape on the side of the fire pit, and the pot is supported on it, which is called "pot village". It is forbidden for people to trample over the pot farm, otherwise it is considered unlucky. Above the pot farm, a rectangular wooden frame is hung with a rope and covered with bamboo strips for baking dried meat of wild animals or garlic, pepper and chili pepper. Firepits are used for cooking, tea, heating and lighting. Yi people, old and young, often sit around the fire pond to celebrate their family happiness, and the fire pond has become a place for Yi people to pass on their culture. Generally, Yi people lay a straw mat by the fire pond and sleep in a blanket.