The origin of torch festival

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Notes on torch festival

(Yi) Alei

Friend, have you ever been to Liangshan, the largest Yi inhabited area in southwest China? Have you ever participated in the Torch Festival there? If not, please listen to me in detail.

one

Torch Festival is an important traditional festival of Liangshan Yi people, which is usually held on June 24th of the lunar calendar. There are different views on the origin of Torch Festival. Judging from the torch festival ceremonies in Putuo, Puge and other places with very grand activities, in many legends and stories about the torch festival, God Entiguchi sent his minions to the mortal world to collect exorbitant taxes and fees and was killed. In retaliation, he released pests to harm people, but the mortal people did not compromise and invited them to burn pests with torches on June 24, which is a more real explanation.

two

A mountain, that is, the Torch Festival, is an oil painting with heavy colors and a song with clear and complicated voice.

You see, orange buckwheat fields, oats that are turning white and filling, white flowers and purple flowers in dark green potato fields; Listen, under the clear sky after the fresh rain, larks are singing happily, cuckoos in the mountains are echoing high and low, hunting dogs in the deep forests are eager to chase, hunters are full of passion and joy, cicadas in the trees are tireless, and grasshoppers in the flowers and grass are disturbed by the flapping of their wings. Smell it, the sweet buckwheat or round root that has been released and sown in the early potato fields, the smell of cooked buckwheat and the smell of flowers and herbs in a hot pot ... If you are a distant guest, not to mention the happy scene of the Torch Festival, this painting, this song and this fragrance alone are enough to make you intoxicated and linger.

three

On June 24th of the lunar calendar, all the men in the village gathered at the stream near the village to kill pigs, cattle and meat, except the old man and the shepherd boy who stayed at home. The shepherd boy, who was already full of grievances, reluctantly rushed the cattle and sheep to the grassy slope, and had no intention of playing with the lamb and the calf. He has no intention of listening to the Woods that drive away hounds. His eyes are always staring at the crowd crawling along the stream like ants and the rising smoke, thinking about sizzling barbecue, swallowing bubbling saliva and anxiously waiting for his brother or sister to replace them. But the sun seems to be deliberately against them. It is always nailed to that place and refuses to move. Finally, when the sun goes down, I finally look forward to taking over. There is no time to shift, only to see that the little feet that have been scrubbed white by dew have swung far away.

They fly home, first burn a cage to roast a lump of liver and kidney to satisfy their hunger, then take out the sacred Lu Hua castrated chicken or yellow hen wrapped under their backpacks with a mouthful of smoke and sweat, then fly to their own fields and say, "Sand cloth knife-sand smoke knife ①-"Honest children are meticulous, and every piece is turned around and wiped. The glib children came back after two symbolic turns. After I came back, without exception, I urged my mother who was busy digging potatoes, spreading roots or picking peppers to cook quickly. They are afraid that the handle will fall behind others at night and will be laughed at for being "tired".

As a result, the late-maturing kitchen smoke drifted on the roof of the tile, the roof of the tile and the roof of the thatch in the sunset, and wrapped in soft white gauze halfway up the mountain in the valley. Grazing people breathe deeply the smoke mixed with burnt wool and meat, whistle happily and shout greedy ewes who love to run before and after. Cattle and sheep crowded into the pen and were about to close it. A broken-legged dog was fighting for bones and minced meat by the stream, limping out of the smoky door, rubbing his head affectionately against Gui Mu's master and whispering grievances. The host had no time to comfort, so he quickly put away his umbrella, rolled up his sleeves and began to get busy.

There used to be a song that said, "The monarch and his ministers slaughtered cows, the rich slaughtered sheep, the poor cooked hens, the bachelor beat egg soup, and the widow made underwater pancakes with sea peppers." The basic situation of people's material life at all levels in the old society is vividly outlined from one side.

Nowadays, people under the roofs of tile houses, tile houses and thatched houses still kill pigs, castrate sheep and go to the market to cut a few catties of meat according to their own economic conditions. But no matter how to kill pigs, sheep and meat, every family should kill chickens to worship their ancestors, and predict the good or bad luck of the year according to the hyoid bone, gallbladder and femur. The ancestor worship must be clean, so the chicken used for the festival must be caught early in the morning and covered under the backpack to prevent it from pecking and scraping dirty things.

Chickens sacrificed to ancestors are killed, squeezed to death or suffocated with water, all according to the practice of each family, but before killing chickens, they must be cleaned with vinegar charcoal-the clean stones specially picked up are burned red, put in a ladle filled with clear water, covered with Ma Shuo branches from the main surface to the guest surface, and thrown out of the door after bypassing the chicken mouth, indicating that the house is clean and the chicken is clean.

When cutting a chicken, look for bitterness (if there is no bitterness, it is a bad omen, and you should kill another one). Then, roast chicken liver and chicken wings are sacrificed to ancestors, and finally, chicken soup and staple food are sacrificed to ancestors. Whether the staple food is boiled buckwheat buns or steamed rice depends on the practice of each family. If buckwheat buns are boiled in water, not only round buns are made, but also strip buns with nostrils at both ends. There are ancestors hanging in the house, worshipping ancestors, and those who have passed the ancestors worship ancestors outside the door. Every ancestor worship should be decontaminated and cleaned with vinegar charcoal. Pastors are generally limited to men. When there are no men at home and it is inconvenient to work for others, some women will sacrifice themselves. Sacrifice must be made for vara. During the prayer ceremony, they prayed that their ancestors would give their children peace, harvest and prosperity.

To respect the head of the ancestral family, first look at the good or ill luck of the hyoid bone and the femur of the chicken. The cartilage in the chicken's tongue bends slightly inward for good luck. There are four air holes in the femurs of two chickens, which are arranged in pairs and called Shangji. After seeing the hyoid bone and femur of the chicken, the whole family got together and began to eat. Some people who ate late only took a sip of soup, and some people just picked up the wooden spoon and heard the sound outside. The excited children seemed to hear the order, dropped the wooden spoon and the meat they were eating, lit their own Artemisia branches and rushed out.

The torch is tied in early spring, and it is willing to burn, with a clear fragrance of burning Artemisia branches. Every household has to order, and there can be no omissions. Lonely old people also deliberately left chicken thighs to reward neighbors and children who lit the handle for them. When lighting the handle, the family can only light one from the house, and the rest of the torches can only be lit when going out. The children scrambled to jump the torch and shouted, "Oh, come on, jump the torch." Is it because people who didn't light the fire are still licking the chopping block because there is not enough meat to eat-Doroho Togo-Dianbaolei-". The children roared from all directions and rushed into the open dam in the middle of the village. Men, women and children in the village also came between people, and even the new daughter-in-law who came to her husband's house for the torch festival for the first time shyly hid behind her mother-in-law and aunt to watch the excitement. After getting married, the Yi people in Liangshan usually start from the Torch Festival, that is, from the first day of the Torch Festival, they start to settle down and start their businesses.

People freely combine and play all kinds of games, and the formality between the older generation and the younger generation disappears in this festive atmosphere. As the saying goes, Torch Festival is a fun festival, and there is no reason to play wrong for three days.

You see, the old man who is "seventy years old and doesn't call chickens" is shrewdly bending down to protect a few small stones under him, surrounded by a group of boys who are eager to find opportunities to grab stones.

After some fierce competition, people were old and lame, and soon all the small stones were taken away by the boys. The old man straightened up and patted the ash, shook his head, pursed his toothless mouth and looked at people with a round face. Seeing him like this, even the new wives couldn't help laughing, covering their mouths with blankets and secretly laughing. This game is called "Defender of the Fox".

The children over there "Old Cow Hurdles" are also having fun, and "Buckwheat Master" is chasing and destroying his Buckwheat "Cow". The game can be said to demonstrate a complete story: after sowing buckwheat, the owner of buckwheat will visit the buckwheat field every day. How happy he was when he saw his buckwheat leaves as wide as a hat, its stems as thick as sticks and its grains as big as stone mortar. But one day, when he came to Jody again with the joy of bumper harvest, Zi Qiao had been destroyed by the cow. He followed the hoofprint to find the owner of the cow, but the owner lied that it was not his cow, so the owner of buckwheat went after the cow. Children who play "Master Qiao" and "Niu" must be strong, otherwise they can't run two laps. Other children form a circle hand in hand, playing the role of "owner of cattle" and "stall of cattle", and they are always tripped by the "owner of buckwheat" who is chasing "cattle".

It's a group of girls who pull out the roots. They chose a big girl with great strength as the round root, just like the radish in the primary school text. A round root plucker hooked a person's waist and struggled to pull it back. If anyone can't pull it tightly, she will pour a bunch at the back, which will cause a bunch of laughter.

In the game of "taking honey", the queen bee is played by a girl, and all children, regardless of gender, dress up as "little bees" as long as they are willing to participate. There is no limit to the number of "honey pickers", and anyone who wants to "pick honey" can become a "honey picker". The success or failure of "taking honey" depends on whether you can snatch the "queen bee" from the "little bee". Cousins of the "Queen Bee" are most keen on this kind of game, because they can steal their cousins' tender meat without being noticed in the chaos. When my cousin opened her eyes lightly and bit her lower lip to hate, she was even more elated and full of energy, which made the "little bees" guarding the "queen bee" scream.

Many "honey pickers" have been stung by the queen bee, leaving scratches on the back of their hands, but no one feels pain. On the contrary, they feel that My Sweetie in their hearts is sweeter than eating honey.

While watching the excitement, young mothers teased the baby's mouth with nipples and hummed children's songs: "The mother crow is black and bright, and the child is black and bright; Magpie mothers spend wings, and children also spend wings; Mother fox has a painted face, and so does her son. The rabbit mother gouged where whole pieces were missing, and the son gouged where whole pieces were missing ... "

When a crescent moon hung on the top of Dongshan Mountain, the revelers found it was getting late and had to go home to rest. Because there are more wonderful scenes waiting for them tomorrow.

four

The next day, when the rooster crowed for the first time, people put on festive costumes, carrying rice balls, thousand-layer cakes, chicken breasts and legs, pork, mutton, beef and fruit, and were surrounded by wrestlers in the village, scrambling to beat cattle and sheep with various ribbons tied to their horns. The riders pulled the horses with decent saddles and reins, and the girls carefully lifted their skirts with colorful butter cloth umbrellas.

On weekdays, girls think that butter cloth umbrellas look particularly good on people, so they love to hold butter cloth umbrellas regardless of rain or shine. Butter cloth umbrellas became their inseparable decorations, and the Torch Festival party became an ocean of butter cloth umbrellas. Yellow is indeed a beautiful color, especially through the light energy of pholiota adiposa, which adds a bit of hazy poetry. No wonder, in "Mother's Daughter", on the night when her daughter was born, she made yellow buckwheat buns and burned yellow hens to celebrate, wishing her to grow up to be as beautiful as rape blossoms in Huang Chengcheng. In the summer in full of green, girls' umbrellas are particularly harmonious and as refreshing as yellow flowers.

The venue of the Torch Festival is relatively fixed. The surrounding hills are natural stands, and the small flat dam in the mountains is an arena. People hold wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting and sheep fighting here, and the competition for strength causes cheers from time to time. Occasionally, defeated cows are scattered inside and outside the third floor, and people who are watching are scattered, causing people's panic and turmoil.

The bull fight won, the sheep fight won, the rider won, and the owner of the bull fight was in high spirits. For this day, the owner of the bullfight carefully raises his bullfight from morning till night. Every morning, he takes the bullfight to eat bare aquatic plants, and feeds it with raw eggs in addition to concentrated feed, so that the bullfight is strong enough to carry a pot of water on his shoulder. In order to defeat the opponent, the owner of the bullfight sharpened the horn and rushed to the venue before the festival to familiarize it with the venue. The owner of the racing horse would rather starve himself than wait on the horse first. Cattle and sheep won the battle, riders and wrestlers won the championship, and girls and boys were chosen as handsome men and beautiful women. This is not only the glory of that family, but also the pride of the whole family and village. They are surrounded by people, showing off everywhere and accepting people's cheers. In addition to organized prizes, there are also individuals who spontaneously reward the champion with property. The owner of the eliminated cattle and sheep and the rider wrestler who fell out of Sun Shan hid in the corner and had no intention of showing up again.

There were circles of girls singing around the periphery of the venue, and the butter cloth umbrella half covered her face. They wear bright dresses, each holding a scarf or gauze towel to connect the circles, and slowly turn with the lead singer and sing with heart. Most of them are girls who are going to sit at home with their in-laws. Who knows if I can meet my sisters again next year? Especially those girls who are dissatisfied with their marriage, what will their future be like? I dare say that they have integrated their feelings into the songs. You see, some of them are singing, and some are secretly wiping their tears with umbrellas. Only those little girls who are not familiar with the world are just for fun. You can see them following casually, singing absently, and occasionally showing their childish faces from under the umbrella to amuse the acquaintances around them.

The venerable old man pointed back and forth among the boys and girls, whispering to select the handsome men and beautiful women of the Torch Festival that year, and the handsome men and beautiful women selected by the impartial old man were obedient.

On the grass a little far away from the competition venue, elderly people wander around and talk about home. At the same time, they put the rich food they brought in front of their relatives and friends and enthusiastically advised them to eat and drink. It is thicker than chicken breast and bigger than chicken leg. Their main purpose is to meet relatives and friends here. Although they are indifferent to the lively scenes, they always interrupt the heated conversation and listen to the results of the beauty contest. They hope their son is more handsome and brave than other boys, and their daughter is more dignified and beautiful than other girls.

The boys outside the hotel were hooked away, staring at the rotating pholiota adiposa circle like souls, eyeing the opportunity to convey eyes to the lovers in the circle, and the girls in the circle made eyes at the lovers outside the circle with umbrellas. The girls and boys who come here play second, and the most important thing is to find the home of love here. Some of them fell in love at first sight and returned with joy, while others broke up with disappointment. Of course, there are also many people who are deceived and miserable.

five

On the third and last night of the Torch Festival, with the roar of "Oh, hey-Duo Luo-Duo Ge, it's so tiring to point it out", torchbearers scrambled to hold torches and shouted "Sha Bu Dao-Sha Yan Dao-"while dancing in front of and behind the house and in the crop fields. If you turn around in the same place at this time, you will see a series of rolling and swimming fire dragons on the surrounding mountains.

In places where evil spirits are burned, people open torches for their arrays, light bonfires, and burn feathers on wings, cuticles on chicken feet, chicken beak shells and chicken femurs symbolizing evil spirits. People believe that all the evil spirits are attached to the chicken because it turns around in the front and back of the owner's house and in the corner of the field.

Suddenly, the smell of burnt fur and the clear smell of burning Artemisia branches splashed on Mars and spread in the soft evening wind.

By the light of the bonfire, people set up rows of wooden troughs symbolizing feeding livestock with salt water and stone troughs symbolizing feeding pigs with Artemisia branches, and kept calling horses, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens in their mouths, praying for a bumper harvest of grains and the prosperity of six livestock. Some people also divine according to the fire. It is said that the bright flame indicates that the villagers are safe and sound, and the dark shadow in the flame indicates that someone in the village is about to follow their ancestors to heaven.

The three-day Torch Festival ended, but the joyful atmosphere did not come to an abrupt end. The village cadres took this opportunity to hold a short villagers' meeting to discuss the above policies and the problem of returning the granules to the warehouse. Then, the villagers discuss in groups of 35 who will start cutting buckwheat tomorrow. Their mutual assistance relationship is basically based on close relatives or good neighbors, so the mutual assistance relationship is relatively stable.

As for the children, they will also get together to discuss where to find the best Artemisia sticks to tie torches next year, and comment on who has the first number of torches this year, and sometimes even get red in the face. From then on, they began to look forward to the Torch Festival next year. ...

note:

(1) sand cloth knife, sand smoke knife-all evil things get out.

Three points to ensure fatigue: lick the chopping block.

③ Additional application: blanket. Vala: A wool cloak with tassels.

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