The Fengnian Festival is the grandest and largest traditional festival of the aboriginal people of Taiwan, comparable to the Chinese New Year. It is also known as the "Harvest Festival", "Harvest Festival" or "Harvest Festival", and is held for about a week during the fall harvest season every year.
Basic introduction Chinese name: Fengnian Festival Celebrant: Taiwan aborigines Period: about a week Celebration time: Autumn Harvest Festival Also known as: Harvest Festival, etc. Origin of Fengnian Festival, Features of Fengnian Festival, Amis Fengnian Festival, Atayal Fengnian Festival, Paiwan Fengnian Festival, Bunun Fengnian Festival, Rukai Fengnian Festival, Peinan Fengnian Festival, Tsou Fengnian Festival, Dawu Fengnian Festival, Thao Fengnian Festival, Origin of Fengnian Festival and other festivals. Like all other ceremonies, the Harvest Festival ceremonies also originated from the belief in ancestors and deities. The ancestor worship of the Aboriginal people believed in the immortality of the soul and that everything has a soul, and that there are good and bad souls. Therefore, it is believed that hanging calamus in front of the chest when going out and applying ashes on the forehead when walking at night can avoid evil spirits from getting close to the body; using thatched leaves, chicken eggs and animal teeth to caress the affected area when sick; believing in omens and divination, and often deciding to act by divination; and believing that eclipses of the sun and the moon, the emergence of a comet, the sound of chickens at night, the howling of a dog, snakes coming out of their holes, the crossroads of birds and small animals, and the hanging of a person by a poisonous thorn, stumbles, and sneezes, etc., are all bad omens. In some tribes, children's heads are not to be touched; men are not allowed to touch women's spades, kitchen utensils and looms; and women are not allowed to touch men's bows and arrows, agricultural tools and weapons. Characteristics of the Fung Nian Festival The Fung Nian Festival, which is held to celebrate the harvest, has its own characteristics for each tribe and has become a window on folk culture, with the Fung Nian Festival in the Taitung area of Hualien and the Alishan area of Taichung in particular being the most lively. Most of the festivals are held in July and August, and each of the hundreds of tribes, large and small, stagger their schedules. Fengnian Festival Due to the different living environments and crops grown, the ripening and harvesting periods of crops are also different, and thus the festivals vary from place to place. However, they all have the same ****, that is, at the beginning or end of the various stages of harvesting, such as harvesting, tasting the new, and putting it in the barn, the corresponding rituals are held to pray to the ancestors and gods for a smooth harvest of the crops, and to wish for a good harvest of grains and prosperity of people and animals in the coming year. After the rituals, gatherings are held for meals, songs and dances, games and bonfires, etc. People raise their glasses and drink together, sing and **** and dance, immersing themselves in the festivities and joys of the festival. In the past, Taiwan's aborigines were also known as the Nine Tribes, i.e., Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Rukai, Peinan, Tsou (Tsao), Saisiat, and Dawu (Yamei), and later on the Shao were distinguished from them, as well as the Kavalan, Taroko, and Sedgwak, etc., and each of these ethnic groups has its own customs, habits, and languages and cultures. Each ethnic group has its own customs, habits, language and culture. The term "Aborigines" is the same as the mainland term "Gaoshan", which is a collective term for these ethnic groups. The Amis Harvest Festival The Amis Harvest Festival is held on the day of the full moon after the fall harvest. In the past, the festival was held during the millet harvest to celebrate the harvest and to honor the gods and ancestors, but it was later changed to the rice harvesting season, which is held in the seventh month of the lunar calendar in the Taitung area and in the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the Hualien area. Each tribe has its own unique way of organizing the festival, some for one day, some for seven days. Amis Festivals On that occasion, men, women, and children dressed in festive attire, led by a singer, follow each other, praising their ancestors and heroes, singing praises of the harvest year and praising their hometowns, and dancing the "hand-holding dance," locally known as the "Mali Kula". Kula". Being able to sing and dance is an important criterion for young Amis men and women to choose a partner, and is highly valued by the people. If any young man is favored by a girl, the girl will often take the initiative to stand beside him in silence and dance with him ****. The Amis festival has the important connotation of tracing the end of the year and passing on the flame. In the Amis tribe, men are responsible for protecting the safety of the tribe and are trained and raised through the ceremony. All men are divided into six age classes: children, youths, warriors, fathers of youths, elders and chiefs, and each age class has different responsibilities. At the "Fung Nin Festival", the elders sit in the center first, and the other young men in order of age group dance around the elders, and from time to time, toast to the tribal elders, who can take this opportunity to observe who has the ability to lead, and can become the next tribal leader. Atayal Nyan Festival The Atayal Nyan Festival is a combination of the traditional hunting and harvesting festivals, and is held in the second half of the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year. At this time of the year, men go hunting in the mountains and return home with their prey at the end of the second lunar month, while women also weave cloth and make millet wine before the festival. On the day of the festival, the tribesmen gather in the tribal square to dance and revel in the meat of the animals they have hunted, and in the afternoon, during the dance and revelry, the chief announces to the tribesmen that young men and women who are in love with each other will be married in pairs, and that other young people will not be permitted to pursue them any further, so as to fulfill their destiny. When the event comes to an end before sunset, the chief recites a ritual to thank the gods for their blessings and to look forward to a bigger harvest next year. The Atayal dance simulates various postures in life and expresses the state of life and customs of rituals, harvesting, fishing and hunting, etc. The Atayal men and women can sing and dance well. The Atayal men and women who can sing and dance well often sway their upper bodies from side to side during the dance, accompanied by exaggerated movements such as foot-stopping, waving, shaking arms and laughing with each other, making a complex dance with a special style. During the traditional festival, the Atayal people also engage in activities such as rice pounding, weight bearing, archery, cross-country running, wrestling, etc., most of which are related to their early life, and the scene is very lively. Taiya Fung Nin Festival Paiwan Fung Nin Festival Because millet is the traditional staple food of the Paiwan, the Paiwan Fung Nin Festival is held after the millet harvest in the second half of the seventh and eighth months of the lunar calendar. As the festival approaches, the men go hunting in the mountains, the women make rice wine at home, and the elderly kill pigs and goats and get busy with the preparations as early as possible. There are traditional songs, dances and hunting competitions, and some tribes also have swinging ceremonies. Paiwan Harvest Festival Harvest Festival began, the tribal chiefs to take the double bucket Laka le wine, hand dipped in wine, to the sky, earth, left and right sprinkled, expressed to the gods of heaven and earth and ancestor worship, praying for blessing of the harvest. Then, the head of the tribe towards the hero, raised Lakale, and he drank with the wine, to the crowd, "Oh -" a long call, for the opening of the festival. Ancestor Dance, Prayer Dance, Fortune Dance, Farming Dance, etc., vividly demonstrates the beliefs of ancestors, customs, heroic deeds and people's joys and sorrows. When dancing the Bountiful Year Dance, young children are in the inner circle, teenagers in the middle circle, and adults in the outer circle, showing the unity of the tribe, and young men and women can also join hands in the *** dance to pour out their feelings for each other and tie the knot. The last day of the festival is a field day with sawing, archery, wrestling, and other events, and a quilting contest is an even more exciting event. Freshly harvested sorghum is bundled into bundles of four or five hundred pounds and picked up in a quart of nearly one thousand pounds, and the race is to see who walks steadily, quickly and far. Those who won first place in the race were called heroes and left their records as a memorial for the annual harvest festival. In this way, the Pai Beng people, who are bold in their feelings, send off the Harvest Festival with songs and dances, and go on to welcome next year's harvest with songs and dances. Bunun Harvest Festival The Bunun Harvest Festival is called "Harvest Festival" or "Harvest Festival" and is very unique. The Bunun's staple food is millet, and the harvest festival is held when the millet is ripe, with the specific time agreed upon by the organization or the elders of the tribe. According to the traditional custom of the Bunun, in the fifteen days before the millet ripening and harvesting, family members are not allowed to go out; if there are special circumstances that make it necessary to go out, they are not allowed to eat food such as green vegetables, bananas, sweet potatoes, corn, salt, sugar, and so on, and can only fill their stomachs with red, green, and tree peas as well as unsalted meat. The day before the festival, each family to go to the millet field to tear off two ears of corn, sent to the village priests, into the public **** granary, to be sown the next year when the seed back to sow. On the day of the festival, the priest's family kills a pig and cooks new rice to serve the parents of each family. In the evening, each family kills a pig and cooks new rice to eat. Married daughters or sisters are usually expected to return to their parents' homes for the festival, and they may also bring back a share of the meat. After eating the new rice, the harvest can be started. Bunun Harvest Festival Rukai Harvest Festival The Rukai, who use millet as their main crop, hold a harvest festival around the middle of the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year to mark the end of the year and to welcome the new year. Rukai people who have been away from their hometowns return to their hometowns*** to celebrate the festival, thank the gods for the bountiful crops, and pray for peace. Before the festival, a strong festive atmosphere envelops the village, and families are busy sewing traditional dance clothes and brewing sweet wine from rice mixed with millet. On the day of the festival, traditional folk activities such as welcoming the spirits, offering sacrifices, mountain songs and dances, swing competitions, and throwing contests are held in turn until late at night. In the Harvest Festival, the baking of millet pancakes ("baked pancake divination") is an important event. Millet dough is brought to a specific place (usually in a wild area outside of the village), where a stone slab is laid on the ground, heated up, and then the millet dough is placed on top of it, covered with banana leaves, and pressed against the stone slab again, and after thirty minutes or so, it is removed. After thirty minutes or so, the stone and banana leaves are removed, and the millet cakes are baked as an indication of the year's farming and hunting. For example, if it is baked too dry, there may be less rainfall that year, and if it is baked warm, it means that there will be plenty of rainfall that year. The ceremony of baking millet cakes is restricted to men only. In addition, there are rituals such as the "spirit-guiding ceremony," the "soul-blessing ceremony," the "men's prayer for wealth ceremony," and the "sprinkling of holy water ceremony," which are all performed by men. There are also other festivals and events. In the past, harvest festivals lasted seven to fifteen days, but later they were mostly held on a single day, and most of the tribes held their festivals in mid-August. Later, only a few tribes kept the traditional "baking of cakes for divination," but most of the tribes changed to singing and dancing competitions. The Peinan Tribe New Year Festival The Peinan Tribe is concentrated in Peinan Township, Taitung County. In the early days, the Peinan New Year's Eve Festival was a general term for a series of activities organized by the eight Peinan societies, including the Good News Festival, Monkey Festival, Hunting Festival, Triumph Festival, Tribal New Year's Eve Festival, and Joint New Year's Eve Festival, which was the most important of all the New Year's Eve festivals. The Inter-annual Festival is held in late December and lasts until the New Year, hence the name. The Pe?an Fung Nin Festival The Tribal Fung Nin Festival follows the Triumph Festival. After the return of the hunting party, in front of the clubhouse plaza, everyone dances around the campfire*** in a traditional New Year's Eve dance. The dance is very lively with songs and dances mixed with betel nut and rice wine. The grandest joint New Year's Festival is held on New Year's Day and is organized by eight tribes, including the Nanwang, Baosang, Zhimen, Jianhe, Chulu, Penang, Tai'an, and Lijia, and is a gathering of all the Peinan people***, including performances of traditional dances and performing arts. Later on, the Peinan Fung Nin Festival was held in July every year. After preparations are made, at the opening ceremony everyone **** enjoys national delicacies, watches young people perform the warrior dance, and in the evening celebrates the harvest with songs and dances; on the last day, the chief priests offer prayers to the ancestral spirits, and the festival comes to a successful conclusion. Zou Tribe Fung Nian Festival The Zou used to be called the Cao Tribe, and were distributed in the southwestern foothills of Yushan and the Alishan area, with the Dabang Society in the Alishan Township being the tribe where the Zou gathered. Alishan Township, Dabang She, is a tribe of Tsou. The song "Alpine Green" sung in the song "Alishan girl as beautiful as water ah" refers to the Tsou girls. In the early days of the Tsou tribe, the Harvest Festival was held in August each year at the time of harvesting, a merger of various festivals throughout the year, such as the Harvest Festival, the Sowing Festival, the Weeding Festival, etc., and was held for three days in a row. During the festival, they have maintained a ceremonial collective dance, the "harvest dance", which fully expresses the joy of the Zou people of a good harvest. The Tsou (Cao) New Year's Eve Festival The Tsou New Year's Eve Festival was later held on 15 February of the solar calendar, alternately organized by the Dabang and Tefuno societies every other year. Every year on February 15, according to the tradition of welcoming the god festival, unity festival, send off the god festival, road festival and family festival, etc., after the end of the three-day all-night singing and dancing carnival, often attracting countless tourists to see. The Dawu Tribe Festivals The Dawu Tribe lives on Lanyu Island in Yilan County, southern Taiwan, and used to be known as the Yamei Tribe, but was renamed the Dawu Tribe in 1998. The festival is called the "Millet Harvest Festival" and is a day of thanksgiving. It is usually held after the millet harvest in May and June every year, with the main rituals being offerings to the gods and various prayer dances. The men's rice-pounding dance is rugged and powerful, the women's hair dance is unique, and the warrior's dance of the strong youth is bold and spirited, and there are also farming dances and hat dances, etc. In the past, the festival was held in families. These dances used to be held on a family basis, but have since been replaced by large-scale village-wide festivals. Shao Nian Festival The Shao are the smallest ethnic group in Taiwan, with a total population of about 300, living in the Toushe and Bugishe areas near Sun Moon Lake, and are a matrilineal clan, which is the most peculiar ethnic group in Taiwan. 2001 saw the Shao recognized as an aboriginal ethnic group, and since then, Taiwan's aboriginal people have changed from nine to ten ethnic groups. The Fengnian Festival is the grandest festival of the Thao tribe, which begins on August 1 of the lunar calendar and lasts for 18 days. During the festival, songs and dances are sung and drunk, and there are traditional activities such as the "Hunting Dance," "Wedding Dance," "Rice Pounding Dance," and "Mortar and Pestle Sound Dance. "The last day of the festival is the largest. As in other Thao festivals, the "Gongma Basket" is the object of worship. Each family has a "Gongma Basket" (Ancestral Spirit Basket), which contains the clothes and ornaments left behind by the ancestors and represents the ancestral spirits. The female priests, called "Mister Ma," serve the highest ancestral spirits and the ancestral spirits of the clan, offering confessions, exorcising demons, and seeking peace for the clan. With the evolution of time, there have been many changes in the Taiwanese aborigines' Fung Nian Festival. However, no matter how it changes, the strong vitality of Taiwan aboriginal culture has always been inherited, and the Fengnian Festival is one of the most wonderful branches.