The origin of torch festival
According to historical records, Torch Festival belongs to the worship of fire. Torch Festival was called "New Fire Sacrifice" in ancient times, because fire is a symbol of light, representing ideals and hopes. It began in time, which should be in the ancient tribal period. The ancient ancestors took kindling and rekindled kindling in order to get rid of the old cloth and make the kindling never go out.
The story of "burning down the Songming Pagoda" is widely circulated among the people. According to legend, in the Tang Dynasty, Pelog, one of the six imperial edicts in Dali, attempted to annex the other five swamps. On June 24th, Pirog lured the imperial edict leader to the Songming Pagoda to drink and set it on fire. Mrs. Bai Jie, who was summoned by Roden, had already seen through Pirog's ambition and advised her husband not to go, but she had to go because of ancestor worship and the power of Nanzhao.
Mrs. Bojeff knew it was unlucky, so she put a shovel in her husband's hand and recognized her husband's body accordingly. King Nanzhao saw that his wife was beautiful and clever, so he forced her to be a concubine. Mrs. Bojeff pretended to promise, but when she went back to bury her husband, she led her people to fight bloody battles with the besieged Nanzhao soldiers. On June 25th, after running out of ammunition, she threw herself into the sea.
A sub-discussion on the origin of Torch Festival is "the uniqueness of the origin of Torch Festival". After the Torch Festival is simply classified as a Yi festival, a foolish inference is that the Bai Torch Festival originated from the Yi Torch Festival. The flaw of this inference is that the height of Torch Festival is inconsistent among Yi people. Inconsistent time and geographical distribution.
Yi people in Wumeng area have no custom of Torch Festival at all. Therefore, this inference can't explain the high consistency of the Bai Torch Festival in time and content form within the nation. In view of the influence of Nanzhao Dali Kingdom established by the Bai people over the past 500 years on Yunnan, the inference that the Yi Torch Festival originated from the Bai people is more logical and reasonable.
To take a step back, considering the great differences in appellation, related legends, time and celebration form of the Yi Torch Festival, except that the Yi Torch Festival in Dali Prefecture originated from the Bai nationality, it is likely that the Yi Torch Festival in other places originated independently. The universality of the ritual expression of fire culture in the northern nationalities of the Bianqiang family can produce more than one independent origin.
Legend of torch festival
People in China are always curious about legends, because every legend seems to be endowed with the shadow of legend, which is magical and as fascinating as Feng Shui. Different nationalities have different legends of Torch Festival.
The torch festival of Naxi nationality began on June 24th of the lunar calendar. Legend has it that the old Apu God was jealous of the happy life on earth and sent people to burn the world into a sea of fire, thus the Torch Festival was born.
The torch festival of the Bai nationality is held on June 25th of the lunar calendar every year. There is also the legend of the famous Anan (that is, Manan). The story is basically the same as the female legend "Manan" and "Burning Song Ming Pagoda", which is the result of the cross evolution of the legend of characters and the legend of Torch Festival.
The Torch Festival of the Yi people began on June 24th of the lunar calendar and lasted for three days. It is said that Sri Abi wrestled with assiba and Sri Abi was killed. When God Entiguez knew this, he flew into a rage and sent a large number of locusts and moths to eat the crops on the ground. On the night of June 24th in the lunar calendar, Attila cut down many pine branches and wild Artemisia branches, tied them into torches, led people to light them and burned insects in the fields. Since then, the Yi people have designated this day as the Torch Festival.
What are the customs of Torch Festival?
Day 1: Sacrifice fire.
On this day, all villages will slaughter cattle and sheep, share them collectively, and prepare wine and meat to worship their ancestors. When night falls, people near the village will set up an altar at the location chosen by the old man, tap stones to light the flame, and recite scriptures in the traditional way for sacrifice. Then, every household, adults and children will wander in the corner of the field with torches made of wormwood from Bimo, imitating Asher's legend of fire repellent.
The next day: spread the fire.
On this day, every family gathers under the sacred fire of the altar and holds various traditional festivals. Boys should imitate the legendary Atiba, horse racing, wrestling, singing, bullfighting, fighting sheep and cockfighting. The girls imitated the legendary Ashe, wearing beautiful clothes, holding a butter umbrella and dancing Doloho and Dato. As night falls, a pair of affectionate men and women, in the mountains, by the stream, under the butter umbrella, pluck Qin Yue, play the strings and tell each other about their lovesickness. Therefore, some people call the International Torch Festival "Valentine's Day in the East".
Day 3: Send fire
This is the climax of the whole Torch Festival. On this day, when night falls, everyone will run around with torches. Finally, people gathered their torches together to form a huge bonfire, and happy people gathered around the bonfire to sing and dance heartily. The scene is extremely spectacular. Therefore, it is also called "Oriental Carnival Night".