A Brief Introduction to Hani Festivals and Hani Culture

Introduction: Hani is one of the ethnic minorities in China, mainly distributed in Yunnan, China. People don't know much about this nation, so in order to popularize the festivals and customs of Hani people, I have brought the following introduction. If you want to know what Hani festivals are, let's take a look at the brief introduction of Hani culture.

Hani festival

June one year

The national festival of the Hani nationality is called "Kuzaza", and the time is June 26th in the summer calendar, so it is also called "June Year". June is also a happy festival. The red river area is called "bitter zhazha". The date is usually around June 24th, and the festival lasts three to six days. During the festival, cows are sacrificed to the "autumn room" of the village, and beef farmers are separated to worship their ancestors. Young people get together to "swing", wrestling, hunting, singing folk songs, and have fun.

Chixin valley

The Hani people along the Red River have the custom of "eating new valleys" on the first Dragon Day in the seventh month of the lunar calendar. On the day of eating the new valley, every household should pull a small bundle of rice with roots and ears from their own paddy fields according to the old rules when the oriental fish-belly is white. When pulling rice, you should choose rice holes with a single number of plants, and don't say hello when you meet strangers or acquaintances, otherwise you will feel unlucky.

In the afternoon, rub off the ears of rice picked up in the morning and bake them in a pot with a shell until the rice blooms. Everyone should give the dog some rice flowers before eating. It has been said since ancient times that the seeds recovered by the Hani people after a flood were brought by dogs, so we should thank them. After eating the fragrance of rice and flowers, you should also take out the melons, beans and vegetables you planted that year and try new ones. At the same time, you must eat a bowl of tender bamboo shoots, which symbolizes that the harvest in the coming year is as high as that of Hsinchu. I also want to kill the castrated big fat chicken, and hope that the life in the coming year will be full and happy.

October 1st.

The biggest festival of Hani nationality is "October Year", which lasts for six days. The specific date can be given to villages first. In October of the lunar calendar, Hani called it "Zallet". According to their ancient calendar, the first dragon day in October of the lunar calendar is the beginning of the New Year (equivalent to the first day of the Han nationality). During the festival, every village will hold a street banquet, which is called the "Eight Wonders".

In October of the lunar calendar, rice has just been put into storage, and every household makes glutinous rice and bakes sweet "canned wine" to prepare for the Chinese New Year on Dragon Day. On the first day of the New Year in China, people clean every corner of the house and stockade, then take a shower and change clothes.

Girls' Day

Hani people in Bibo Mountain, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province celebrate a unique Girls' Day every year on the fourth day of the second lunar month. On this day, before the cock crows, the man should take a handful of water first. When gastrodia elata dawned, they cut a bundle of firewood and came back. Then, they will make a fire and boil water, and respectfully bring the water to the woman who gets up slowly.

Then, men cook, wash vegetables, chop pig food, wash dishes and take care of children, while women stand by and do some needlework or command men to do this and that. Unmarried girls don't even do needlework.

Rima priest

The Hani people who live by the Red River worship cuckoo and call it "Hebo's grandmother" (cuckoo mother). Every spring in March, when the camellia is in full bloom, everyone, regardless of gender, age and age, will say "I heard it" when they hear the cuckoo's song for the first time, indicating their cheers for spring. It is said that this answer can make hardworking and kind Hani farmers have a bumper harvest of grain and livestock, and be safe and healthy all year round.

Grasshopper catching festival

"Catch the Grasshopper Festival", called "Po Year" in hani language, is held on the first day of the Year of the Rooster or the Year of the Monkey after June 24 of the lunar calendar. Hani people live in mountainous areas and grow one-season rice. After June, rice began to head. In order to ensure a bumper harvest of rice, the Hani people have adopted the way of "catching grasshoppers" to drive away and avoid pests.

Eating new rice festival

In the living area of Hani nationality, every year around July of the lunar calendar, when the grain is gradually maturing, every household should choose its own good day to carry out "Kadupi" (eat new rice) activities. During the festival, parents will go to the field with laundry baskets to pick up some ears of grain and hang them on the door. They will make "Wobaobo" out of ordinary rice sticks and put it in front of Zongge (Cang) for three times, indicating that they want to eat new grain and pray for the gods to bless the bumper harvest of grains, so that people will not get sick and livestock will flourish.

If you want to kill a hen laying eggs for dinner, you should also keep the pig fat intestines, pig ears and pig tails killed during the Chinese New Year as sacrifices. When eating new rice, mix old rice and new rice and cook them together. This is called "drinking all my concubines" (that is, alternating the old with the new), which means that I will pray for more than a year when I eat old rice in new Gu Mi.

Brief introduction of Hani culture

Characteristics of Hani folk houses

The residential style of Hani nationality reflects the characteristics of farming life. From the architectural form, the buildings of Hani nationality include thatched houses, mushroom houses, embankment houses, earth palm houses, hedgerow houses landed in thousands of feet, official buildings of Tusi regime, tile houses with one front and two compartments, etc. In the process of building a new house, the Hani people will hold ceremonies such as divining the foundation of the house, measuring the center of the main house, breaking ground, erecting columns, erecting beams and congratulating the new house.

Marriage and love customs of Hani nationality

Hani men and women generally start to change clothes at the age of fifteen or sixteen, indicating that they have grown up, and then enter the stage of love and marriage. Young Hani men and women are free to associate before marriage. There is a bar in the village for young men and women to engage in entertainment and exchange activities. Girls and boys can enjoy entertainment games and love in the hotel. Once in love, they can book in the hotel for life.

The wedding of Hani nationality still retains the custom of robbing relatives. The man organized a wedding procession to the woman's house to "rob the bride", and the care of the woman's relatives chased the relatives who robbed the wedding with glutinous rice balls, mud blocks and bamboo poles. When a girl gets married, the Biyue people of the Hani branch will use a refined basket to get married, and put brand-new bedding, clothes and other dowry in the basket, which will be carried by the girl herself and carried all the way to her husband's family.

Funeral custom of Hani nationality

The custom of cremation prevailed in Hani history. After the middle of Qing dynasty, it gradually evolved into coffin burial. Every village has a sunny mountain ridge not far from the village as a public grave.

Funerals of Hani people vary according to the gender and age of the deceased. It is extremely simple to give funerals to children, unmarried young men and women, elderly people without children and women, and people who died abnormally. The old man with a house full of children and grandchildren died, and the funeral was extremely grand. The funeral of Hani people generally includes the following procedures: keeping the sky, firing a gun to report the funeral, covering the coffin, reporting the funeral, attending the funeral, offering sacrifices, choosing the tomb site, reciting the direction and genealogy, funeral and burial.

Etiquette and habits of Hani people

Hani people are simple, sincere and hospitable. When the guests arrived home, the whole family, old and young, took the initiative to get up and give up their seats. The attentive host held a bowl of delicious "stew pot wine" in his hand and invited the guests to taste it. Then the host took out the teapot from the fireplace, poured a cup of strong tea for the guest, put the homemade tobacco into the cigarette holder, held the cigarette holder in front of the guest, and had a heart-to-heart conversation with the guest. When the guests leave, the host will also send Baba, bacon, crispy meat, tofu balls and other foods.

Hani people are very polite. People always greet each other with a smile when they meet on the road. Even if you don't know each other, you should say hello, make way and let the other side pass first.

The Religious Belief of Hani Nationality

Hani people generally believe in the primitive religion of animism, and nature worship, ancestor worship and soul concept constitute the main contents of belief. People think that there is a supernatural mysterious force that dominates nature, such as wind, rain, thunder, electricity, earthquake and human beings' own birth, illness and death. This mysterious force has two different attributes, namely "God" and "Ghost" (Elf), and it can be divided into good and evil.