What are the traditional festivals of Yao nationality? Characteristics and customs of Yao nationality.

Introduction: Yao, a minority, is one of the 55 ethnic minorities in China. Most of the Yao people are distributed in the south of China, and the residents have a long life span. Therefore, Yao is one of the oldest ethnic groups in China. So, what are the traditional festivals of Yao nationality? What are the characteristics and customs of Yao nationality? Come and have a look with me.

What is the traditional festival of Yao nationality?

The traditional festivals of Yao nationality include folk songs festival, singing hall festival, washing clothes festival, Ganba festival, Wang Pan festival, niujie festival, Danu festival, adult ceremony, old begging to change religion, begging for worship and so on. Yao nationality is one of the ethnic minorities in China, and it is a nationality living in mountainous areas. Its villages are generally built at the top of the mountain, halfway up the mountain and by the stream at the foot of the mountain. Yao men and women like to have long hair. It is recorded in ancient books that Yao men and women have long hair and tie their heads, which is called "vertebral bun".

Opera and karaoke festival

Guagetang Festival, also known as Guawang Festival, is a grand festival for Yao people in Liannan Yao Autonomous County and Lianshan Yao Autonomous County of Guangdong Province. It is also a festival for young men and women to find friends with songs. It is held every three to five years, usually in the autumn, around 10/6, and lasts for three or nine days.

Before the festival comes, every household must inform relatives and friends from far and near to visit in advance. When the festival comes, people in all villages will carry the ancestral tablets out of the temple for procession and worship. They took the newly harvested corn, sweet potatoes, rice wine, wild fruits and other items, and crossed the mountains in droves, and gathered in the pre-selected Gege Hall (a flat village), with guns rumbling and horns ringing.

In the sound of gongs and drums, Yao handsome guys with hair bun, red cloth and beautiful feathers are dancing in the cheerful long drums. Dressed in colorful flowers, flying butterflies, beautiful mountains and floating clouds, Yao girls danced and chose the right person. Sometimes there are eighty or ninety young people singing. The young man sang one song after another, and the girls looked at the young man carefully and secretly chose what they liked. The boys also sang heartily to win the hearts of the girls. After meeting in karaoke bars during the day, you can sing alone to woo girls at night. On the hillside, in the shade, they tell each other their love through singing. Others talk loudly while drinking wine, or sing Yao songs and look into the distance. The scene is very lively.

During the festival, every family will make 20 to 30 kilograms of glutinous rice cakes to entertain relatives and friends. Each household is also given a number of water wine (about seven pounds) for people to drink at will. In the "Playing Songs Hall", the rice wine provided by everyone is there for anyone to drink.

Laundry Festival

Every year on June 6th of the lunar calendar, Pan Yao, Guiping County, Guangxi, will solemnly celebrate the annual Clothing Festival. On the morning of the festival, the elders ordered the young people to move boxes, cabinets, clothes and shoes out of the house in an orderly way, dry the grain flat, spread it on bamboo mats or hang it on bamboo poles, and wait for the sun's exposure. The whole stockade is colorful and has become an "ocean" of clothes. Put the clothes back after drying for three or four hours. At night, the whole village stood in the valley where the sun was shining, waving to the sunset frequently to express their gratitude and reverence for the sun. Every household has to kill chickens and ducks to celebrate the "Clothing Day", which is boring.

Gamba Festival

Ganba Festival is an annual festival of Indigo Yao people in Yaoshan Township, Hekou Yao Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. It is held on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar every year.

They have been busy since the end of February in the lunar calendar. Let's decide whether to go hunting in the mountains or fishing in the river on the day of the festival, and then prepare separately. Those who decide to go hunting in the mountains set out to burn charcoal, repair guns, pound gunpowder and make yards; People who want to go fishing in the river also set their own utensils. Every household brews rice wine with excellent glutinous rice to celebrate the "Ganba Festival".

On the festival day, adult men hunting in the mountains, equipped with crossbows and muskets, took Baba and set off at dawn. If you get the game, everyone will like it. If you can't get the prey, you will be teased. In particular, "gatekeepers" (boys) should be despised by "gatekeepers" (girls). Therefore, the "master" who goes up the mountain always tries his best to return home with a full load. The same is true of people who go fishing for shrimp in the river. Old people and women stayed, busy preparing New Year's Eve dinner, cooking chickens and ducks, cooking colorful glutinous rice, making spring Baba and drinking.

In the evening, people return to the village, visit each other and congratulate each other. Everyone took out sweet rice wine and ate delicious glutinous rice flowers, the game on the day of the feast and the fish caught. If you can't finish eating, leave some, hang it by the fireplace, bake it dry and save it for later entertainment. In the evening, when night hangs over the hut, men, women and children all sit around the fireplace and sing touching Yao songs. After dinner, everyone gathered in the square. Men knocked on bronze drums and women danced. People enjoy happiness after work, wish a bumper harvest and celebrate festivals.

Half moon festival

The half moon festival in July of the lunar calendar is an important festival of Yao nationality (equivalent to the Spring Festival). On the eve of the Half Moon Festival, every household is very lively, and there are horns, gongs and drums and laughter everywhere outside the village. From the tenth day, fish, meat, wine, etc. Put it in every household to celebrate festivals or sacrifice ancestors. The fifteenth is the last day of the festival and the most lively night. On this night, every household will cook the best and most abundant meals, and guests and friends will gather together to wish each other family harmony, health of all ages and a bumper harvest of grain. After dinner, girls and boys in holiday costumes danced to the song, and people didn't fall asleep until Chen Chong cheered.

Characteristics and customs of Yao nationality

1, the marriage customs of Yao nationality

Since ancient times, men and women have been divided into men and women, and it is necessary for men and women of school age to get married. Traditionally, in China, it has been a constant rule for thousands of years that a woman marries a man and her children take their father's surname. However, among the ethnic minorities in China, there is a saying that men marry women.

Step 2 climb the stairs

Yao compatriots living in Dayaoshan, Guangxi, where the young people in Chashan "climb the building", have basically maintained their traditional customs in marriage because of the influence of their living areas.

Chashan Yao, who lives in Dayao Mountain, is a branch of Yao, meaning people who live in the mountains. In order to seek love, the young Yao people in Chashan are popular with the custom of "climbing stairs", which has a unique national style. Chashan Yao village is generally surrounded by mountains and waters, with large scale and concentration, and the houses are all two-story wooden buildings.

The facade and the hanging building are carved with dragons and dragons and painted with oil, like a sedan chair hanging on the mountain. The quiet hanging building is a place for adult girls to socialize. Walking into the gate of Diaolou, you will find that the Yao compatriots living in Dayaoshan, Guangxi, basically maintain the traditional customs in marriage due to the influence of their living areas. I live here in Chashan Kiln, Dayaoshan.

Marry a woman and a husband.

Yao Autonomous County is the earliest established Yao Autonomous County in China, and it is called "the hometown of Yao in the world" because there are five branches of Yao in the territory: Pan Yao, Hualanyao, Chashanyao, Shanziyao and Aoyao.

Fei Xiaotong, a famous sociologist, once said: "Yao nationality in Dayaoshan has many branches all over the country, and its folk customs are the most typical. At present, there are two national hotspots in human body research in the world, including Yao nationality. The World Yaoyan Center is in China and the China Yaoyan Center is in Jinxiu. "

Yao people have formed profound, simple and colorful Yao culture and customs in their lives. The marriage etiquette of Yao family covers the richness of Yao. Pan Yao's wedding dates are mostly after the autumn harvest and before the Spring Festival, which can be divided into "marrying a woman" and "marrying a husband". Before a formal wedding, you must go through the process of choosing a spouse, proposing marriage and getting engaged.

At the wedding banquet, there are three "regular drinks" and six "partial drinks" (breakfast and midnight snack). On the morning of the fourth day, when the guests left, the men each sent a "nipple gift" (also called Xiao Yuan gift), that is, eight to nine kilograms of sow legs and four to five kilograms of other pork to their father-in-law. On the fourth or fifth day, the husband and wife went back to the door for one night and went back to the rear to consummate their marriage.

4. Yao's religious belief.

Yao's religious beliefs are complex, and primitive nature worship, ancestor worship or totem worship occupy a certain position in some areas; Some areas mainly believe in witchcraft and Taoism. Taoism has a great influence on Yao nationality. All funeral ceremonies are basically carried out in accordance with Taoism, but some ethnic primitive religions are mixed.

Step 5 dance

Yao dances are mostly related to religious sacrifices, the most famous of which are Long Drum Dance and Bronze Drum Dance. Long drum dance is mainly popular in Panyao Yao area.