Scattered Memories of the Torch Festival
(Yi) A Lei
Friends, have you ever been to Liangshan Mountain, the largest Yi settlement in the southwest of the motherland? Have you ever attended a torch festival there? If not, let me tell you more about it.
A
The Torch Festival is a traditional major festival of the Yi people in Liangshan, generally held on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month. The origin of the Torch Festival said differently, from the activities of the very grand Butuan, Puge and other places in the Torch Festival ceremony, in the many legends about the Torch Festival story, the God of the heavens, En body Guzi sent his minions to the mortal world to collect exorbitant taxes were killed in order to retaliate, the release of vermin scourge of the people, and the people in the mortal world is not compromised, and invited to burn the vermin with torches on the day of the twenty-fourth of June this story is a more realistic interpretation.
Two
The Yi Mountains at the time of the Torch Festival are a painting of heavy colors and a song of complex sounds.
You see, the orange buckwheat, that is turning white grouting oats, and dark green late taro in the field of the white flowers, purple flowers; you listen to the fresh and transparent rain under the clear sky larks singing cheerfully, the mountain forests of the azalea that echoed the high and low, the hounds in the old forests in the mountains and the hunter's eager to chase the sound of passion full of joy and cheering, the bushes in the cicadas that tireless song, the grasses and flowers in the bushes startled grasshoppers, and the hunters are full of passion and joy. The grasshoppers in the bushes were startled by the sound of shaking wings; you smell, that has been vacated and sown on the buckwheat or round root of the early taro field in the humid mud, hot muggy dense buckwheat ripe breath and flowers and grasses. ...... If you are a guest from afar, not to mention the torch festival of the joyful scene, alone this painting, this song, this fragrance is enough to make you intoxicated and stay. The first thing you need to do is to get a good deal of money.
Three
On the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, all the men of the village, except for the old people who could not stay at home and the shepherd children, gathered at the creek beside the village to kill the pigs and slaughter the cows and share the meat. Originally a stomach of resentment of the shepherd boy was reluctant to cattle and sheep driven to the grassy slopes, no longer and lambs, and calves play, and do not care to listen to the hounds whisked to which the forest, the two eyes are always staring at the creek ants like writhing heap of people and rising smoke, thinking of sizzling oil roasted meat, can not help but swallow the salivation of the bubbling, anxiously waiting for their fathers, brothers, sisters, and brothers soon to come to replace them. However, the sun was intentionally against them, always nailed in that place and refused to move. It was not easy to wait until the sun was in the west, and finally expected to be replaced. The first time I saw them, their white feet, scrubbed by the dew, were already shaking a long way away. -The honest children meticulously turn around each piece of land, rubbing the chicken's feet are broken and bleeding; the slippery children symbolically turn around twice and come back. After coming back, all of them without exception urged their mothers, who were busy digging yams, spreading round roots or picking peppers, to hurry up and burn the fire to cook rice. They were afraid that they would be left behind when they lit the torches at night and be laughed at because they were "tired of pointing" ② and left behind.
So, under the setting sun on the roof of the tile roof, tile roof, thatched roof of the evening cooking wisps of smoke, to the valley mountainside wrapped in a soft white veil. The people returning to the herd inhaled y the smell of smoke mixed with burnt meat, whistled cheerfully, and ran forward and backward to yell at the greedy ewes who love to leave the herd. Cattle and sheep crowded into the circle is about to close the circle, in the creek for the bone scraps of meat scraps fight hurt the leg of the dog limping from the smoke filled doorway to welcome out, with the head of the intimate rubbing pastoral return to the master, "wooing" whispered grievances. The master had no time to comfort him, and after putting away his umbrella in a hurry, he rolled up his sleeves and got busy.
There used to be a children's song that went like this: "The gentleman and the minister slaughtered a castrated cow for the festival, the rich man castrated a sheep for the festival, the poor man burned a hen for the festival, the bachelor made egg soup for the festival, and the widow made a pancake under the water with peppers for the festival". From a side image outlines the basic conditions of the material life of people of all classes in the old society.
Today, under the roof of the tiled roof, under the roof of the tiled roof, under the roof of the thatched roof of the people are still according to their own economic conditions, there are killing piglets, there are playing castrated sheep, there are also to go to the market to cut a few pounds of meat. But regardless of the pig slaughter sheep cut meat, each family must kill a chicken to honor the ancestors, according to the chicken tongue, chicken bitter gall bladder, chicken femur divining the year's fortune. Offerings to the ancestors must be clean, so early in the morning you have to catch the chicken for the festival covered under the back of a wicker basket, lest it go to peck and shave dirty things.
To honor the ancestors of the chicken or killed or pinched to death or the head of the chicken pressed in the water smothered to death, according to the practice of the family, but before killing the chicken should be played vinegar charcoal decontaminated clean - will be picked up by the special clean stone red after clamping in the dipper with water, covered with Shuo Ma Zhi from the main side of the start of the circle around the pot to the side of the guest, in the chicken's beak around the mouth, and then The water is then poured out of the door, indicating that the house is clean and the chicken is clean.
Dissection of the chicken to see if there is no bitter gall (no bitter gall is a bad omen, you have to kill another one), and then, roast chicken liver, chicken wings in honor of the ancestors, and finally even soup chicken and staple food offerings. Staple food boiled buckwheat bun or steamed rice, depending on the practice of each family. In addition to making a round bun, the buckwheat bun is also made in the shape of a strip bun with the nose and eyes pressed out at both ends. The house of the ancestral spirit of the end to the ancestral spirit of the dedication, ancestral spirit has been over the family offerings to the door to the dedication. Before each offering, vinegar and charcoal are used to remove dirt and cleanliness. The offerer is usually a man, but when there is no man in the family and it is inconvenient for them to work for others, there are also women who offer sacrifices by themselves. The person offering the sacrifice must be wearing a kasher or a wala (3). While performing the rituals, they recite prayers to their ancestors to grant their children and grandchildren peace and good fortune, a good harvest, and prosperity for all six animals.
To the ancestors of a family first look at the head of the chicken tongue bone, chicken femur divining luck, chicken tongue in the cartilage slightly curved inward for the auspicious, two chicken femur **** four air holes and arrangement of pairs known as the upper on the auspicious. After seeing the chicken tongue bone chicken femur, the family will gather together to start eating. The meal opened late in the family only a mouthful of soup, some just picked up a wooden spoon, heard the clamor outside, could not hold back the excitement of the children as heard the call to drop the wooden spoon and is eating meat, light up their respective artemis pole torches rushed out.
The torches were made in the early spring when the restaurant was built, and they burned well and smelled of burning artemisia. Every family had to light them, and no one was left out. Widows and orphans even leave chicken thighs as a reward for the children in their neighborhood who light the torches for them. When lighting the torches, a family can only light one from inside the house, and the rest of the torches can only be lit when they leave the house. The children were eager to be the first to light the torches, and they danced the torches with great enthusiasm while shouting, "Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Those who haven't lit the torches yet are still licking the chopping boards because they don't have enough meat to eat - doroho - doge la - point bao tired la -". Doloho - Dogla - Dot Borei - ". The children roared in long and loud voices from all directions into the wide open dam in the center of the village. The men, women and children in the village also came to the village, and even the new daughters-in-law, who were brought to their in-laws for the first time to celebrate the Torch Festival, also used Gashi to half-cover their faces and shyly hid behind their mothers-in-law and aunts to see what was going on. Liangshan Yi people after marriage are generally from the torch festival began to settle down, that is, from the first day of the torch festival began to share the stove sit pot.
People are free to play all kinds of games, and the constraints between the upper and lower generations disappear in the atmosphere of this festival. As the saying goes, the torch festival is a festival of play, and there is no reason to play wrongly for three days.
Look, the old grandfather who has been "old man seventy not yell chicken" is vigilantly leaning over to protect a few small stones under his body, surrounded by a group of boys are eager to look for the opportunity to grab the stones.
After some fierce struggle, in the end, the old man legs are not nimble, in a short while the small stones were all grabbed by the boys, the old grandfather straightened up his waist patting the dust, shaking his head, open the toothless mouth, frowning at the dry round root of the general face looking at the people laughing and gasping for breath. Look at his appearance, even the new daughters-in-law can not help but laugh, with a felt cover their mouths secretly laughed. This game is called "Fox Protector".
The children's "old cow jumped the fence" is also playing lively, "buckwheat master" is chasing the buckwheat spoiled his "cow". The game can be said to demonstrate a complete story: buckwheat buckwheat master sow buckwheat, every day to patrol the buckwheat field, when he saw his buckwheat buckwheat leaves as wide as a hat, buckwheat buckwheat thick like a stick, buckwheat grain like a stone mortar is how happy. But one day he came back to the buckwheat again with the joy of the harvest, buckwheat has been spoiled by the cattle out of shape. He followed the hoofprints to find the owner of the cow, but the owner of the cow said it was not his family's cattle, so buckwheat masters on the chase to beat the cow. The children who played the roles of "buckwheat master" and "cow" had to be strong, or they could not run two laps. The other children hold hands and form a circle to play the "cow master" and "cow fence", sometimes tripping the "cow" chasing the "buckwheat owner The "Buckwheat Master" is a "cow master" and a "bull pen".
"Pulling the round root" is a group of girls, choose a big and strong when the "round root", like the elementary school text of the carrot pulling, pulling the round root of a hooked one of the waist to pull back hard, who is not hooked tightly to pull off, her back to be down! A series of bell-like laughter was stirred up.
The game of "fetching honey" was played by a girl as the "queen bee", and children of both sexes who were willing to take part in the game as "little bees". There is no limit to the number of "honey takers", and anyone who wants to "take honey" can be a "honey taker". The winner of the "Honey Taker" is whether the "Queen Bee" can be snatched out from the "Little Bees". The cousins of the "queen bee" are the most enthusiastic about this game because they can take advantage of the chaos to pull the tender flesh of their cousins without being noticed. When the cousin or cousin of the round-open almond eyes biting the lower lip hate them, they are more pleased and more energetic, squeezing the escort "queen bee" of the "little bees" squeaked and shrieked.
There is no shortage of honeymakers who have been stung by the queen bee and left scratches on the back of their hands, but none of them felt any pain, instead they felt sweet in their hearts, sweeter than eating honey.
Young mothers, while watching the show, teased the baby's mouth with their nipples, humming a song: "The crow's mother is black and bright, and the child is black and bright; the magpie's mother has flower wings, and the child has flower wings; the fox's mother has flower face, and the child has flower face; the rabbit's mother has an open mouth and the child has an open mouth..."
This is the first time that a baby has been stung by the sting of the King of Kings, which left a scratch on the back of his hand. ..."
When the moon hung over the eastern hilltop, the revelers realized it was getting late and had to go home to rest. For a more exciting scene awaited them tomorrow.
Four
The next day, at the first crowing of the rooster, the people put on their festive attire, bringing rice balls, lasagna, chicken breasts and legs, pork, mutton, beef and fruits, and clustering around the wrestlers of their villages, the bulls and goats with ribbons tied to their horns, the riders pulling their stallions with decent saddles and saddles and hackles, and the girls, with their yellow tarpaulin umbrellas, lifting up their dresses to tread carefully on the dew and wade through the streams and rivers. Wading through a stream, through a piece of forest, walking through a grassy slope, from all directions to the green grass, flowers, a small flat dam in the mountains.
On weekdays, the girls think the buttercloth umbrellas reflecting people look especially beautiful, so no matter out of the sun, rain or not love to hold a buttercloth umbrellas, buttercloth umbrellas have become their inseparable ornaments, torch festival party this day is into a sea of buttercloth umbrellas. Yellow is indeed a beautiful color, especially through the light of the yellow umbrella can make people add a few hazy poetry. No wonder the "mother's daughter" in the night of the birth of the daughter to do yellow buckwheat buns, roasted yellow hen to celebrate, I wish my daughter grow up as beautiful as yellow rapeseed flowers. In the mountains are all green in the summer, the girls umbrella like a yellow flower dotted in which looks particularly harmonious, refreshing, eye-catching.
The venue for the Torch Festival is relatively fixed, the surrounding hills are natural grandstands, small dams between the mountains is the arena, where people wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting, sheep fighting, the force of the competition from time to time stirred up a burst of cheers. Occasionally, a defeated bull rushes away from the three layers of people who are watching from the outside, causing a panic and commotion.
The bulls won, the sheep won, the riders won the championship, the bullfighting and sheep racing masters are happy. In order to this day, the owner of the bullfighting early in the morning and late at night to carefully feed their bulls, every morning to take the bull to eat dewy grass, in addition to concentrate feed also fed its raw eggs, so that the bull strong enough to shoulder can be put a basin of water. In order to defeat the opponent, the owner of the bullfighting bull also sharpened the horns of the bull, the festival before the bull rushed to the field so that it familiar with the playing field. The owner of a horse race would rather starve himself than serve his horse well. Bulls and goats won the fight, the rider wrestler won the championship, the girls and boys were selected as handsome men and women, not only the family's honor, but also the whole family of the village of the pride of the whole township. They were surrounded by people and waved all over the field to receive the cheers of the people. In addition to the organized prizes, there are individuals who spontaneously rewarded the champions with their belongings, and the owners of the cattle and sheep who were eliminated from the competition and the riders and wrestlers who lost their names hid in the corners with no desire to show their faces again.
On the outskirts of the field, there is a circle of girls with buttercloth umbrellas and half-hidden faces singing in circles, wearing bright dresses and skirts, each holding a side of the scarf or scarf in their hands to connect the circles, and following the lead of the girl singing slowly around, singing with all their hearts and souls. Most of them are girls who are going to sit in their in-laws' homes. Who knows whether they will be able to meet their sisters again next year? Who knows if they will be able to meet their sisters again next year? Especially those girls who are not quite satisfied with their marriages, what will their future be like? I dare say they have woven their feelings into their songs. Some of them raised their umbrella arms and secretly wiped their tears while singing. Only those young girls who are not yet familiar with the world are purely for fun, you see them carelessly follow the spinning, absent-mindedly singing along, but also from time to time from under the umbrella to light up the childish face to make fun of the acquaintances around.
The respected old man walked back and forth in the group of girls and boys pointing, talking to each other to select the year of the torch festival handsome men and beautiful women, by the impartial old people selected handsome men and beautiful women who are served.
On the grass a little far away from the competition field song and dance field, the older people are here in a circle there a bunch, one side of the family, one side of the rich food brought in front of friends and relatives enthusiastically persuade to eat and drink, and secretly than the chicken breast of who's family is thick, the chicken leg is big. Their main purpose was to come here to meet their friends and relatives, and although they were not tempted by the bustle of the scene, they interrupted their lively conversation at times to listen with their ears to the results of the pageant. They hoped that their sons would be more handsome and brave than the boys of other families, and that their daughters would be more dignified and beautiful than the girls of other families.
Outside the song and dance arena, the boys were hooked away from the soul like looking at the yellow umbrella circle rotating, see the opportunity to the circle of interest in the eyes of the frequent transfer of the circle of the girl with the umbrella half-covering the face of the circle of the sweethearts of the secret eye. The girls and boys who come here to play in the second, the main thing is still to find a home for love here. They have a love at first sight and return with joy, there are not happy with a deep sense of disappointment and return. Of course, there is also no lack of fraudulent and suffering.
Five
The third night of the torch festival, the last night of the festival, with the "Oh ho Yi - Duo Luo ho - Duo Ge la, point Bao Lei la! --" roar, fire people scramble to hold a torch in front of the house, behind the house, the crop field while dancing and shouting "Shabu knife - sand smoke knife! --", and then converge into a long line, to the village below the burning of the evil spirit of the village in the past years, all the way to throw the torch, threw picked up, picked up thrown, from a distance it looks like a rolling fire dragon. If you turn around in place at this time, then the pitch-black surrounding mountains reflect your eyes is a fire dragon rolling and swimming like this.
At the place where the evil spirits are burned, people dismantle the torches in their own formation, start a bonfire, and burn the tube feathers on the wings, the cuticle and the chicken's beak shells, and the chicken's femur bones that were left behind on the first night of the chicken's killing, symbolizing that the evil spirits are also burned. Because the chicken has been in the master's house in front of the house, field corner turn, people believe that all the evil spirits have been collected attached to the chicken.
At once, a share of fur burnt flavor and artemisia burning smell with the sparks burst, in the soft evening breeze filled with.
By the light of the bonfire, people use artemisia branches to set up rows of wooden troughs to symbolize the feeding of livestock brine and pig feeding stone troughs, the mouth kept calling horses, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, praying for a bumper harvest, the six animals to prosper. Some people also based on the light of the fire fortune-telling, it is said that the flame is bright predicts the village people safe and sound, the flame shows a black shadow predicts that the village will soon be followed by the ancestors to heaven.
Sending the fire, the three-day torch festival is over, but the joyful atmosphere does not come to an abrupt end. The village cadres took the opportunity to hold a short meeting with the villagers to talk about the policy of the higher authorities and the return of the grains to the warehouse. Then the villagers discuss in groups of three to five whose buckwheat they will start cutting tomorrow. The relationship between them is basically based on close relatives or good neighbors, so the relationship between them is relatively stable.
The children, too, got together to discuss where to find the best artemesia sticks to tie torches next year, commenting on whose torches came first this year, and sometimes even arguing about it. Since then, they began to look forward to the next year's torch festival ......
Note:
①Shabu knife, sand smoke knife - all evil spirits out of the meaning.
③ Point Bao Tired: the meaning of licking the anvil.
③ Gashi: draped in felt. Wala: a woolen cloak with fringe.
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