The Yi torch festival usually lasts for three days and three nights, and is divided into three stages: welcoming fire, playing with fire and sending fire.
The first day of the Torch Festival: Fire Sacrifice. On this day, villages and hamlets will slaughter cows and kill sheep. At nightfall, people will set up an altar in the place chosen by the elders, and light the sacred fire in the traditional way by striking the stone to get the fire. Adults and children will take the torch made of artemesia grass from the hands of the Bimo, and roam around the corners of the fields and the ground.
The second day of the Torch Festival: Passing the Fire. On this day, families gather under the sacred fire for a variety of festive activities. The boys follow the example of the legendary Ati Raba, racing horses, wrestling, fighting goats and chickens. The girls follow the example of the legendary Ashima woman, dressed in beautiful clothes, holding up butter umbrellas, and dancing the Dasi dance.
The third day of the Torch Festival: sending fire. This is the climax of the whole Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival. When night falls on this day, everyone will hold a torch and race around. Finally, people will gather the torches together to form a pile of huge bonfires, and the happy people will gather around the bonfires to sing and dance to their heart's content.
Expanded:
The formation of torch festival customs and legends is related to the native cults of the Yi-speaking tribes with the same ethnic origin, in which there is a more direct connection with the belief in fire. The festival also serves the folklore function of welcoming the blessings of the people.
The Yi legend of the Torch Festival is actually the abandonment of the original culture by the new culture after the change from nomadic herding to farming. This legend has preserved the original information about the origin of the torch festival to the greatest extent possible, and it is also the one that is closest to the source of the torch festival.
The torch festival legend of the Yi people reflects the primitive worship of fire as a supernatural force with mysterious elements, and it still coalesces the original folklore genes of torch festival customs and legends, which belong to the early form of torch festival customs, and its cultural kernel is the fire worship.
Baidu Encyclopedia--Torch Festival