The customs and customs of the Torch Festival of the Yi and Hani people:
Before the festival, every family must prepare food; during the festival, they gather together, sing and drink. During the Torch Festival, each village uses dry pine wood and pine seeds to make large torches and erects them in the village. Small torches are erected in front of each house and lit at night. The village is brightly lit; at the same time, people holding small torches march in groups around the village. , mountains and fields, insert torches and pine trees in the corners of the fields. Looking from a distance, the fire dragon reflects the sky, winding and undulating, which is very moving. Finally, the young men and women gathered in the square and piled many torches into a fire tower. The flames were blazing. People gathered in a circle, sang and danced, and rejoiced all night long.
The main activity of the Torch Festival is at night. People either light torches to illuminate the sky to pray for good luck, get rid of filth and seek good luck, or they light bonfires and hold grand singing and dancing entertainment activities. During the festival, there are also entertainment activities such as horse racing, bullfighting, archery, wrestling, tug-of-war, swinging, and trade fairs.
1. Select handsome men and beautiful women
One of the important programs of the Yi Torch Festival is to select handsome men and beautiful women. The Yi people have their own unique aesthetics. The judges are composed of respected elderly people, and the selection results are absolutely fair. The condition of being handsome depends not only on the appearance but also on the character of words and deeds. For example, the conditions for beauty are: thick black hair, thick eyebrows, big eyes, high nose bridge, long neck, delicate and rosy skin, well-proportioned figure (not too thin), decent speech and behavior, good character, hard work and other conditions. The conditions for a handsome man are different: he is brave and good at fighting, has a dignified appearance, and has a strong body. You should be polite in your words and deeds, wear a hero's knot in your hair, wear a hero's belt and sword, wear a black wool cloak, and hold a horse in your hand. Today, this is a competition held every year during the Torch Festival in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan.
2. Three days and three nights of carnival
The Torch Festival generally lasts for three days and three nights. The first day is "Duzai", which means welcoming the fire. On this day, every village will hunt cattle, slaughter sheep and pigs, welcome the God of Fire with wine and meat, and worship ancestors. Women will also rush to make buckwheat buns and tsampa noodles. People outside will go home to have a reunion dinner and gather around the fire pit. Drink home-brewed wine, eat lumps of meat, and share joy and happiness together. When night falls, people from nearby villages will build an altar at the location chosen by the old man, hit flints in the traditional way to light the sacred fire, and Bimo (priest) will chant sutras and offer sacrifices to the fire. Then, in every household, the elders of the family take torches tied with mugwort sticks from the fire pit, and let the children and grandchildren take the torches from the hands of the elders. They first illuminate every corner of the house, and then walk across the fields, corners, and mountains. , use firelight to drive away diseases and disasters. Finally, they gathered on the hillside, played with torches, sang and danced, and played various games.
The second day of the Torch Festival is "Duge", which means praising and praising the fire. It is the climax of the Torch Festival. At dawn, men, women, old and young all put on festive costumes, brought cooked lumps of meat and buckwheat buns, gathered under the sacred fire of the altar, and participated in various traditional festival activities. Thousands of people gather together to organize horse racing, wrestling, singing, beauty pageants, pole climbing, shooting, bullfighting, sheep fighting, cockfighting and other activities. The girls wore beautiful clothes and danced "Doloho". On this day, the most important event is the Yi beauty pageant. The elders have to select handsome men based on the legendary image of the hard-working, brave, handsome and unrestrained black-bodied Laba. Choose a beauty like Ni Zhang Azhi who is kind, intelligent, beautiful and generous. When evening comes, thousands of torches form fire dragons, swarming to the same place from all directions, and finally form countless bonfires, burning the sky red. People dance and sing heartily around the bonfire until late at night. The scene is grand and joyful, so it enjoys the reputation of "Oriental Carnival". When the bonfire was about to go out, pairs of loving young men and women walked quietly into the hillside and into the trees. Under the yellow oil umbrellas, they plucked the yueqin, played the mouth strings, and expressed their love to each other. Therefore, some people call the Yi Torch Festival the "Valentine's Day of the East".
The third day of the Torch Festival is called "Duoha" or "Dusha" in Yi language, which means sending fire. This is the end of the entire Yi Torch Festival.
When night falls on this day, after worshiping the God of Fire and having dinner, each household lights a torch one after another, holds the torch, walks to the agreed place, gathers together, sets up a fire altar, holds a fire ceremony, chants sutras and prays to the God of Fire, and prays to the God of Fire. Ancestors and Bodhisattvas bestow health and happiness on their descendants, and grant harvests and joy to the world. People danced with torches and chanted congratulations, "Burn the plague, burn hunger, burn disease, and bring about a happy and prosperous year" to pray for the safety of their homes and the prosperity of their livestock. At this time, the chicken wings and feathers slaughtered on the first day are also burned together, and the evil elves and the gods of disease and plague are also burned. Then find a larger stone, and press the lit torch, chicken feathers, etc. under the stone to symbolize suppressing the devil and keeping the family prosperous, the grain harvest plentiful, and the cattle and sheep fat. Finally, torches like dragons from villages and villages on the mountain and down the mountain gathered together and burned into a big bonfire to show that everyone was united and worked together to prevent natural disasters.
3. Traditional activities
Traditional activities such as wrestling, bullfighting, and horse racing are held during the Torch Festival. These activities originate from the legend of the hero Heidi Laba who defeated the devil (or god). This hero wrestled and wrestled with the devil, and also taught people to light torches to kill locusts transformed by evil spirits, thus protecting villages and crops. To commemorate this event, the legendary story is symbolically reenacted every year during the Torch Festival, which has gradually become the main content of the festival.