What is the significance of Torch Festival? What are the customs of Torch Festival?
As the name suggests, the Torch Festival is a carnival with fire as the main character. It is also a festival that reflects the beliefs and folk culture of the ancestors of ethnic minorities. What is the significance of Torch Festival? What are the customs of Torch Festival? The sixth month of the lunar calendar is also known as: Qie Yue, He Yue, Fu Yue, and Jixia. Want to know every day of the sixth lunar month? Let’s go to the fortune teller website to look at the sixth lunar month of 2018.What is the significance of Torch Festival?For every Yi people, Torch Festival is a traditional festival that combines praying for a good harvest, worshiping ancestors and having fun. Among them, praying for a good harvest in agriculture is its most important core connotation. Subjectively, it adopts rituals such as worshiping heaven and ancestors, turning fields, lighting the year, and sending torches, and objectively plays a role in promoting agricultural production. First of all, the Torch Festival strengthens people’s concept of time in agricultural production and life by symbolizing the production sequence in a one-year cycle.During the Torch Festival, every village and hamlet erects torches two to three meters high. In a normal year, twelve torches are erected, and in a leap year, thirteen torches are erected, symbolizing the cycle of a year. This is a symbol of the aggregation of a year, and is expressed through the symbolic method of burning fire. When the twelve torches are burned out, it means the end of the twelve months of the year, which is consistent with the time order of a cycle of the sun. The Torch Festival is celebrated in Guoluba Village, Jijie Township, Yangbi Yi Autonomous County. "The torches are lit by villages or by three or five families at the intersections in front of and behind the village. The torches are about 10 to 20 feet tall and are tied into sets. In normal years, 12 sets are tied, and in leap years, 13 sets are tied. Paper buckets and colorful flags are inserted at the tips of the torches. On the four sides of the buckets are written words such as 'good harvest', 'prosperity of livestock', 'good harvest and longevity', and 'prosperity in all seasons'. The torches are hung with small buns wrapped with coins and various fruits. In addition to tying large torches, each household also ties small torches. Those with a small number of people tie a handful, those with a large number tie several, and some families tie a handful per person. Secondly, various sacrificial ceremonies are held during the Torch Festival to psychologically provide self-reminders and pray for a good harvest. The purpose is to illustrate that the Torch Festival is an important moment when all things mature and the sun returns to the sky. This moment is the critical season for the harvest in a year. We must not easily delay the final farm work, and we must not forget specific links such as pest control, preparation for harvest, and final timely harvest. Otherwise, there will be a poor harvest or even no harvest, which will directly affect people's survival and life. Finally, people go to the fields to play with torches and dance with torches, and on the last day, they perform a torch-sending ceremony, which symbolizes the concrete practice of actively burning pests in the fields. By sending away and burying the God of Fire (Hanba), they ensure a good harvest of crops. What are the customs of Torch Festival?1. Fire worship: the villagers will slaughter cattle and sheep, share the offerings collectively, and prepare wine and meat to worship the ancestors. When night falls, people from nearby villages will build an altar at the location selected by the elders, and light the sacred fire in the traditional way by striking stones to make fire. The Bimo (Yi folk priest) will chant scriptures to worship the fire. Then, every household, adults and children would take the torches made of wormwood from the Bimo and wander around the fields, imitating the legend of Ashimao using fire to drive away insects.2. Pass on the fire. Every household gathers under the sacred fire on the altar and holds various traditional festival activities. The boys want to imitate the legendary Atilaba by horse racing, wrestling, singing, bullfighting, sheep fighting and cockfighting. The girls imitated the legendary Ashmao, wearing beautiful clothes, holding up butter umbrellas, and dancing the "Dolohe" and Dati dances. On this day, the most important event is the Yi beauty pageant. The elders will select the handsome man and beautiful woman of the year from among the boys and girls according to the legendary standards of Atiraba being hardworking and brave, heroic and handsome, and Ashmao being kind and intelligent, beautiful and generous. As night falls, pairs of lovers gather in the mountains, by the stream, and under yellow oil umbrellas, playing the moon guitar and mouth strings and expressing their love to each other. Therefore, some people call the Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival the "Eastern Valentine's Day"; 3. Sending fire is the climax of the Liangshan Yi International Torch Festival. When night falls on this day, everyone will run around holding torches. Finally, people put the torches in their hands together to form huge bonfires. The happy people gathered around the bonfires, singing and dancing to their heart's content. The scene was extremely spectacular. Therefore, it is also known as "Oriental Carnival Night". , |
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