The festival is celebrated on June 24 of the lunar calendar every year and is similar to the Torch Festival of other ethnic groups, but it has its own ethnic characteristics. On the day of the festival, poultry and livestock, tools of production, and household utensils should all be shut down and collected, and should not be allowed to stay in the field, and things borrowed by others should also be recovered, and the family members are not allowed to go out. In addition to sending girls to the dry valley to pick millet spike or a few leaves, fruits and so on, the whole village who are not allowed to go to the mountains to work, are not allowed to go out to visit relatives. Because millet than dry grain ripened early, the first called millet soul, for fear of unclean people first take to eat, the annual harvest is not good. Millet ears, fruits and other fruits to get home to kill chickens, steamed glutinous rice, pounded poop, by the old man read the blessing called soul. It is taboo for guests to enter the house on this morning.
When night falls, every family should light torches, erected under the eaves of the house, the whole village as bright as day, followed by dry artemisia and incense ash scattered indoors and outdoors, to expel mosquitoes and flies. Young men and women take the opportunity of spreading incense ash to talk about their love for each other, old people go around in groups drinking and singing songs, and young people concentrate on kicking bamboo balls on the dance floor, immersing the whole village in a joyful festival atmosphere. Among the Wa festivals, Pink is the first big festival, which is regarded as a grand festival to exterminate disasters and drive away ghosts, to send off the old and welcome the new, to foretell the peace of the family, the abundance of grains, and the fullness of the six animals, and to regard it as the end of the old disasters, hunger, and diseases, and the beginning of the new auspiciousness, peace, and happiness.
Wa New Year's Day: "Receiving New Water"
The Wa and the Han Chinese have the same Spring Festival. Respecting the elders is a good custom of the Wa people. On the first day of the year, the first thing to do is to pay homage to the elders and give each other bananas that symbolize unity and harmony. Sticky rice and sugar cane. On the square, young men and women dance a warm and joyful circle dance, and elderly women line up in columns to move gently in the sound of ancient songs, enjoying the joy of the festival to the fullest.
The Spring Festival is called "Wol" in Wa language, and it is the most joyful and happy day of the year for Wa people. During the festival, Wa elders often recite the following words: "Putting on the teeth of Kung Ai, Jai Kung Ni, Wol Kung Sang". The word "Janga" is similar to the torch festival of other ethnic groups, "Ja" is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and "Wol" is the Spring Festival. The meaning of the toasts is that the "Zhaoya" festival is the oldest, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second oldest, and the Spring Festival is the third oldest. The Wa have three major traditional festivals throughout the year, with the Spring Festival being the third.
A few months before the Spring Festival, families begin to prepare delicious food, make water and wine, prepare holiday clothes for children and adults, repair their houses, and prepare enough firewood. As the festival approaches, women cut grass to prepare for the horses.
The Wa Spring Festival is also known as the "New Water Festival", "Welcoming New Water" and "Receiving New Water", and the most interesting part of the Wa Spring Festival is "Receiving New Water". The most interesting part of the Wa Spring Festival is "receiving new water". A few days before the Spring Festival, people prepare to receive the new water. The whole village holds a meeting, kills chickens for divination, identifies a household as the receiving household, and each person puts together a bowl of grain or a bowl of rice, a chicken, a tube of water wine, and a bamboo tree to make preparations. Early in the morning of the next day, the sorcerer took the offerings to the water source to worship the water god. After the sorcerer returns to the village, all the men in the village immediately come out to participate in repairing the water ditch, and at least one person from each family should participate. Except for special circumstances approved by the village meeting, those who do not participate without an excuse will be punished with double supplies. People dug ditches in the high places and used bamboo to build water troughs in the low places, and on that day, they must lead the water to the gate beside the village, but could not introduce it into the village. Those who do not participate in the water diversion are all involved in cleaning, cleaning the village, removing garbage, shoveling weeds, paving the road, in front of the house, inside and outside to clean up.
Early in the morning of the third day, the sun has just risen above the mountains, the whole village men, women and children are dressed in holiday costumes, from the village to the village, lined up in a long queue, will be the introduction of new water into the village. People were all smiles and cheered loudly for the arrival of the new water. The sorcerer who waited by the stream, holding a small bamboo tube in one hand and a banana leaf in the other, made preparations to welcome the new water. As soon as the new water arrived, he recited the following chant: "I have been looking forward to you day and night, men, women and children have been looking forward to you, and finally I have brought you to the village. I hope you will continue to flow, bring blessings to the whole village,......," while using banana leaves in the water surface constantly rowing to and fro, to show love and respect for the water. People planted four wooden pitchforks on both sides of the water flow and inserted flowers. The sorcerer receives a bamboo tube of new water and delivers it to the host family, pours it into the iron pot that already held the water, and then pours the meat and rice brought from each family into the pot to cook a big pot of rotten rice in preparation for entertaining the whole village.
After the sorcerer left the stream, everyone cheered and rushed to the new water, took a sip to taste the new water, and then washed their hands, faces, hair, and baths, and caught the water with bamboo tubes to go home. In addition to receiving the new water, the day of the first day of the Lunar New Year is a "taboo day" for the Wa, where no work can be done, no one can go out of the walled village, and outsiders should not enter the house at night. In the early morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, friends and relatives visit each other, and the new aunt pays homage to the old father-in-law, and at the same time starts the song called "Kao Ao Wo", which opens the prelude to the Spring Festival revelry.
Plugging Festival
In the overlapping mountains of A Wa, whenever the spring plowing season comes, the diligent Wa people are busy harrowing and plowing the fields in preparation for plugging in the rice paddies, and at the same time holding the interesting Plugging Festival, also known as "Yajima Island". It is also known as the "Jadao" Festival. On the day of the festival, everyone builds roads in the village, cleans the inside and outside of each house, and young and strong people automatically form several groups, some of which go up to the mountains to look for hunts and some of which catch fish by the riverside. The hunted and caught fish were boiled into thin rice and enjoyed by everyone***. If the hunters hit the big deer, wild boar, etc. return to the cottage, people are to the cottage door to meet, singing a hunting song. The "island" festival has a whole village activities and individual activities of each household in two forms. The whole village activities, to plagiarize a cow in the village square, and then cut the beef into pieces, according to each household to share a piece; each family alone "Jadao" festival, each housewife to their own fields, do some symbolic insertion of seed action. In the evening, a pot of wine is brewed to entertain those who come to help repair the house. In the evening, all the men, women and children of the village gather by the red fire pit to drink wine and sing songs of blessing. The leader must be an old man or a respected old singer.
The New Rice Festival?
The New Rice Festival is celebrated twice a year, from the seventh to the eighth day of the lunar calendar. In July, when the early rice begins to ripen, the first "New Rice Festival" is held. It is also known as "Tasting New Rice" and is called "Pengao" or "Boao" in Wa language. In August, when a large number of rice grains are ripe, the second "New Rice Festival" is held. It is also known as "Eating New Rice", which is called "Puntin" or "Owa" in Wa language. On the day of the "New Rice Festival", the hosts get up early to prepare chickens, pigs and beef for the festival, and then go up to the paddy fields to pick new grains with a bucket on their backs. On the way, pay attention to listen to the sound of animals, such as midway to hear suede or hornbill (bird), it is considered inauspicious, and immediately return home to push back the day of the festival. If there is nothing unusual, continue on the road. Picked the grain canopy offered in front of the shrine, with the hands of the ears of the grain rubbed out the grain, with an iron pot frying dry, pounded new rice, sprinkle some salt offered in the shrine a few moments after cooking into rice, and then scooped out and put on the chicken, pig, beef, sprinkled with salt, offered in the shrine, please Mooba read the incantation, which means that the ancestors of the deceased spirit back to eat new. Bless the family with peace. Without the presence of the devil, the master of the god of the platform "pop" a mouth, that the ancestors have come to eat rice. To the gods of the new rice, must let the devil and the old man at home to eat first, and then others can share a little taste, this is the rules of the family festival. No outsiders are allowed to enter the house during the family festival. The master has his own children "stand guard" outside the door. If outsiders come looking for them, the child politely refuses to enter the house. After the ceremony was over, the master opened the door and made the news of his family's "New Rice Festival" public to the whole village, inviting the village people to celebrate the "New Rice Festival". A steady stream of guests came with gifts to congratulate and celebrate the New Rice Festival.
Qingmiao Festival
From May 20 to 21, Gengma Dai Wa Autonomous County, Lincang City, held a celebration of the Wa Qingmiao Festival, a traditional festival of the Wa people in Sipaishan Township, and a way of praying for a bumper harvest of grains and the prosperity of all six animals in the coming year for the local Wa people.
Whenever the festival comes, the sound of wooden drums and pleasant songs will ring out, and the Wa people dressed in festive costumes will flock to the singing field, step up and dance, and dance with long knives to see their long hair, and in a moment, the meeting place will show a sea of joy. The splendid costumes were accompanied by the stretching dance, the sound of wooden drums, whistling flutes, songs, and the rustling sound of the silver bells, which was like a deep blessing. The smart and brave A Wa lads waved their long knives and danced with the pride of laborers, and the hardworking and simple Wa girls raised their long hair and twisted their bodies to step out of the joy of the A Wa people. At sunset, turnip fires were lit, songs and flutes were sung, and the Wa people did not stop striving for a moment, singing and dancing to their hearts' content. At midnight, a round of curved moon gradually rises, the Wa people leave the bonfire in groups, but they can't take away the joyful festival atmosphere of the song field.