Due to different geographical areas, each country has its own traditional festivals and customs. As one of the ethnic minorities, the Gelao people also have their own unique festivals and customs. Besides the Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Spring Festival, which are the same as those of Han people, they also have some other special festivals, such as New Food Festival, Gelao Festival, Bird Festival and other festivals with national characteristics. Next, let's take a look at the customs of different festivals in Gelao culture.
Gelao people are widely distributed in Guizhou, especially in the counties in central and northern Guizhou. Their languages and customs are very different, but they all come from Gups. Their customs are always similar. Let's talk about the Gelao Festival again:
New Year's Day: Generally on the 14th day of the first month, the main activities are eating chopping board meat, going to graves, offering sacrifices to ancestors, offering sacrifices to the four customs and rice fields. Planting incense at night, chasing insects and ants, chasing fire insects. The next morning, pour tea, grab silver water, have dinner, and serve. The most important thing in a year is the lamp.
March 3rd: On the birthday of King Bodhisattva, some Gelao people offered sacrifices to King Bodhisattva to fulfill their vows.
Tomb-Sweeping Day: There are green ancestral graves.
Dragon Boat Festival: Usually on May 5th, you eat zongzi. Worship ancestors.
Half a month: usually in July of 14, the new valley is cut and tasted to worship the ancestors.
August Festival: The Gelao nationality is an ancient nationality in China, which is recorded in the history books of Tang and Song Dynasties. The most solemn traditional festival of the Gelao nationality is August Festival. On the first day of the festival, the whole family, old and young, will put on new clothes and gather on the platform of the stockade. Several young people are holding a yellow cow with big red flowers. The oldest member of the village, the tribal elders, began to pray for a bumper harvest. While setting off gunpowder and firecrackers, the band played the song "Eight Immortals". Then kill the cow, cut off its heart and cut it one by one to show the unity of the whole family. Later, "clan elders" also led the masses to hold three sacrifices of animals, pigs, chickens and geese under the bodhisattva tree for sacrifice. After the ceremony, the whole family got together for dinner until dark. The next day, after dinner, women took their children back to their parents' home to give gifts. Men cross the street to meet friends, sing and chat. It is said that the singing and dancing activities of young men and women continued until the last day of the festival.
Double Ninth Festival: Usually on August 15, people call their relatives.
Year: Generally on February 30, 65438, the main activities are eating chopping board meat, going to the grave, offering sacrifices to ancestors, and paying homage to the four customs and the wonderful emperor at night. The next morning, I poured green tea, grabbed silver water, ate glutinous rice balls and sent rice. For a whole year, I was in full swing.
Spring Festival; Spring Festival; the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year
According to the growth law of crops, the earliest Gelao people took October as an annual festival. Jiajing's Guizhou Picturesque says that the Gelao people "start from the second day after the autumn harvest every year". In the Qing Dynasty, the Annals of Anshun County called the Gelao nationality "October is the beginning of the year". From the Qing Dynasty, the Gelao nationality gradually imitated the Han nationality's custom of celebrating the New Year from February 30th to1October 30th at 65438+ 1, and the custom of +00 on June 30th was gradually abolished.
During the New Year's Day, I went back to study some New Year's ceremonies in China, but many traditional customs of the Gelao people still exist. Gelao people all over the country make glutinous rice cakes for their ancestors in the New Year. Glutinous rice cakes vary in size and quantity. Every village, every surname and even the collective is held in the same village. Each family holds two kinds of games, but each family holds more personal games.
On New Year's Eve, every household will put rich dishes, wine and rice on the Eight Immortals table in front of the shrine in the main hall. After burning incense paper to worship the ancestors, the whole family, men, women and children get together for a reunion dinner.
Gelao festival
Gelao people have two festivals in a year, one is the Spring Festival, and the other is the year of Gelao people, which is celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month. The time and customs of the Spring Festival are roughly the same as those of the Han nationality, but there is a special content of "feeding trees". "Feeding trees", also known as "tree sacrifice" or "tree worship", originated from the worship of ancient trees by the Gelao people. Gelao people in Longling Autonomous County of Guangxi prepare rice wine, pork, fresh fish, glutinous rice and other sacrifices at noon on the 14th day of the first lunar month. They took red paper firecrackers and made an appointment with relatives and friends to worship trees in the mountains. After seeing a tree, set off firecrackers first, and then choose a tall and thick old tree to burn incense and bow. After the worship, "feed" the tree with sacrifices: one person cuts three holes in the bark with a knife, another person "feeds" some rice and wine to the leaves, and finally seals the leaves with red paper to weed and fertilize the trees. When greeting, different trees should have different answers. For example, for fruit trees, people should say, "Hey, tie a rope; I'll give you meat and make it into pieces, which means I wish you to eat more fruit. After greeting the trees, people get together for a big meal. On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, some areas will also hold ox hearts and new rice to worship the sacred tree "Bodhisattva Tree" next to the village and pray for a bumper harvest.
Insect eating festival
The second day of the sixth lunar month is the "Insect-eating Festival" of the Gelao people. On this day, several other flavor dishes-fried grasshoppers, pickled grasshoppers, sweet fried butterfly pupae, fried aphids, rice loach and so on. At the dinner table of every family.
In other areas,' Tree Sacrifice' is called' Mountain Sacrifice' because the Gelao people have lived in mountainous areas for generations, and their love and respect for mountains is completely understandable. The specific object of "mountain sacrifice" is also a tall and lush old tree near the village, which is the embodiment of tenacious vitality. Sacrifice was held in the village, only for adult men. In addition to offering sacrifices, wizards will also sing' folk songs' and pray for the mountain gods to bless the village's peace and prosperity.
Eat a new festival
Gelao people choose one day to eat new grain every year, and the new valley will be harvested in July and August of the lunar calendar. They offered sacrifices to their ancestors, thanked them for their kindness, and wished good weather in the coming year. On the day of the festival, housewives will go to the fields to collect new grain and do a good job in ancestor worship. Some areas kill chickens and pigs, even offering sacrifices to heaven and earth. Jinuo New Food Festival is held in August and September when millet is ripe. On the morning of the festival, every family goes to the fields to pick new grains and vegetables and kill chickens as sacrifices. Pay attention to the direction of steam emitted by spinach when steaming rice: coming from the east symbolizes the prosperity of children. From the south, indicating a bumper harvest; Westbound symbolizes the success of hunting. Coming out of the north is a bad omen. After cooking, parents will be responsible for offering sacrifices to gods, such as village gods, blacksmith gods and fireplace gods. Legend has it that Jinuo people used to eat only sweet potatoes and wild vegetables. Their dog brought back a grain of rice. They planted it, but they didn't get much. Later, a white-haired old man taught them the knowledge of planting millet. As a result, they harvested new rice from Man Cang. Since then, they have a tradition of the New Rice Festival.
Dear vulture day
It is the national totem of the Bird Gelao people. The first day of the second lunar month is the traditional "Bird Worship Festival" of the Gelao people, where sacrificial ceremonies are held and traditional folk arts are performed. In order to protect and inherit the intangible cultural heritage and Gelao culture, Yao businessmen held the "Gelao Bird Worship Festival" on 20 10. "Bird Worship Festival" is a comprehensive folk activity passed down from generation to generation by the ancestors of Gelao nationality to worship the sparrow god. This is a kind of sacrificial activity, praying for the descendants of the Gelao nationality to thrive, have a rich family, and have a good harvest. According to Yao Shangdeng's genealogy, the Bird Festival has a history of at least 300 years. "Bird Sacrifice" takes "bird worship" as the core, including the ecological environment, residential buildings and vibrant folk culture preserved by bird worship.
At the Bird Festival, the Gelao compatriots showed their unique activities to their heads.
In March of the lunar calendar, the spring mountains are bright, the spring rain is harmonious, the spring swallow returns, and everything recovers. This is the key moment of spring ploughing production, and it is also the day when the Gelao people sacrifice to the mountains. Mountain worship is usually on March 3, but it is also on March 1 or March 3. The villages in Jishan are organized separately. If a village has only one surname, the sacrificial mountain is presided over by the patriarch. This stockade with many surnames is managed by turns. Every year, several families draw lots together to determine the responsible person. Facing the sacred tree, the owner respectfully offered sacrifices, summoned the famous gods to enjoy the sacrifices, and prayed that the mountain gods would bless the whole stockade with clean and safe food and sufficient food, so that six animals would flourish, men would plow cattle and rake grass, women would weave cloth and have more children.
The hillside where the tree is located is regarded as a sacred place by the Gelao people and is well protected. People are not allowed to trample on cattle and horses, cut down trees on the mountain, or go into the mountain to cut wood and grass at will. Objectively, it has played the role of closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation.