"Knife and Pole Festival" is an annual traditional sports festival of Lisu people in Lunmashan, Yunnan. The time is the eighth day of the second lunar month. Knife and pole festival originated from a legend, to commemorate the achievements of Wang Shang, a minister of war who observed the sufferings of border people in the Ming Dynasty.
On this day every year, people dressed in festive costumes come to the "Knife and Rod Festival" in droves to watch the activities of "going up the knife mountain and going down the sea of fire". After several gunshots, seven or eight "Xiangtong" (knife-wielding performers) performed a "fire dance" for everyone.
Bare-chested and barefoot, they imitate the movements of various animals, jumping back and forth on piles of red-hot charcoal, occasionally grabbing charcoal fire and rubbing it on their bodies, and rolling round fireballs in their hands, but they don't care. Being baptized by fire means eliminating all kinds of disasters in the new year.
There are two thick wooden poles about 20 meters long in the center of the venue, and 36 sharp long knives are tied to the wooden poles. The blade is facing up, and the silver is shining, forming a formidable knife ladder. Just when people were in awe and worried, the necessary sacrifice to climb the gazebo began.
Dressed in red, wrapped in a red bun and barefoot, some brave men strode under the knife pole, knelt in front of a portrait of an ancient military commander, raised their glasses above their heads, muttered to themselves, and then gulped down the wine. Then, they jumped up, climbed up the arbor lightly and nimbly, held the blade with both hands, stepped on it with both feet, and filed up.
The first person to reach the top will also do a difficult handstand and set off firecrackers. Thousands of spectators looked up and cheered from time to time. This ancient and peculiar "Knife and Pole Festival" has been officially designated as a traditional sports activity of Lisu people by relevant departments.
So it was handed down from generation to generation, forming a pole section. During the festival, Lisu people, ten miles away, dressed in festive costumes, gathered in the knife pole field on the bank of the Yangtze River from all directions. When night fell on the earth, many bonfires were lit inside and outside the arboretum. Suddenly, the flames of four big stoves in the center of the square rose and shone on the crowd in spring. Then the gong sounded, and the people on the knife pole field joined hands and danced a brisk three-string dance around the bright fire.
On the spot, when only flaming coal was left in the four fires, the host announced that "jumping into the sea of fire" began. At this time, five brave barefoot men immediately broke into the fire on the field and kept bouncing inside. They stepped on countless sparks and splashed around like flying meteors.