Dragon Boat Festival
The biggest festival of Maonan nationality is Dragon Boat Festival from summer to the future every year. "Dragon Boat Festival", also known as "May Temple Fair", is a unique festival of Maonan nationality. It is held two days before the "Dragon Boat Festival" in the lunar calendar, mainly to worship gods and ancestors. Men and women in the village, married women and relatives and friends from afar all came to attend, which was grand and warm. On the Dragon Boat Festival, every household should steam five-color glutinous rice and steamed meat with flour and roast fragrant pigs. Fold the willow branches back in nave, knead the five-color glutinous rice into small balls and stick them on the willow branches to show fruitful results and pray for a bumper harvest.
On Dragon Boat Festival, Maonan men, women and children put on costumes, and young wives went back to their parents' home to reunite with them. They collect golden flowers and maple leaves to cook five-color glutinous rice; In the field, five-color glutinous rice and steamed meat are sacrificed to Shennong, praying for good weather and good harvests; Sanjie Temple at the head of the village kills cattle, and Sanjie Ye Gong, the legendary founder of Maonan cattle raising, prays for human and animal health; It also uses "Fado" (a leaf as big as a fan) to wrap five-color rice and steamed pork, visit relatives and friends, and celebrate festivals. Dragon Boat Festival is also a day for young Maonan men and women to reunite. Activities include singing at the top and foot of the slope. [4]
Dragon Boat Festival
Maonan people also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, but the significance of the festival is different from that of Han people, which is called "Medicine Festival" by the people. Every medicinal food festival, it is customary to take Artemisia argyi, Acorus calamus, Dioscorea zingiberensis, rattan and other medicinal materials to boil water for drinking, or chop up these medicinal materials and wrap them in jiaozi, which can detoxify and cure diseases.
On this day, the man went up the mountain to look for herbs. That woman is cooking rice cake at home. This glutinous rice cake is made from local shiteng and rice and boiled in a pot. It tastes delicious. The old man said that eating this glutinous rice cake can prevent diseases and epidemics. He also grinds realgar into powder and drinks a glass of wine to exorcise evil spirits. The old man said that the herbs collected by people in the mountains on this day were particularly effective, and both people and livestock could prevent diseases and drive away plagues. Boil the collected herbs in a pot. Bathing children with herbal water can prevent various skin diseases. Rich people will eat snake food on this day, buy poisonous snakes such as flat-headed wind and mountain wind, stew them in a pot outside the house and add herbs. The old man said that if he had eaten snake meat and snake soup that day, he would not have sores, rheumatism and other tinea diseases. Every household also collects maple branches and plants them near the gate to drive away all kinds of evil winds and poisonous gases.
Pumpkin day
The "pumpkin festival" of Maonan nationality is on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, which is the Double Ninth Festival. The shape of each harvest is different, and orange pumpkins are all over the floor, one by one. Young people go door to door and choose the "pumpkin king" from door to door. You can't just look at the appearance, but look at the melon seeds through the surface. When everyone's opinions are basically the same, a strong man will split the "pumpkin king" with a machete, and the owner will take out the gourd ladle and leave the full seeds for the next year. Then cut the melon into pieces and put it in the millet porridge pot. Simmer slowly and cook thoroughly. First, put a bowl in front of the incense hall to worship the "pumpkin king", and then everyone will share the meal.
Many ethnic groups in China regard the Double Ninth Festival as a festival for the elderly, and have a traditional custom of respecting the elderly. Maonan nationality is no exception, but the fashion is different. For the frail elderly who are over 60 years old, Maonan people generally "add meals to make up their lives" on the Double Ninth Festival.
On this day, children will set up several tables at home and invite friends and relatives to come. Tourists should bring a few kilograms of flour and rice or fresh fruit. The "100 grains of rice" sent by relatives and friends should be stored separately. When cooking for the elderly in the future, grab some and mix them into your own rice.
"Hundred rice" is finished. If the old man doesn't recover, he will continue to hold the ceremony of "adding vegetables to make up his life" another day.
Double Ninth Festival
Maonan ethnic group
Many ethnic groups in China regard the Double Ninth Festival as a festival for the elderly, and have a traditional custom of respecting the elderly. Maonan nationality is the same, but the fashion is different. For the frail elderly who are over 60 years old, Maonan people generally "add meals to make up their lives" on the Double Ninth Festival. On this day, the children set up several tables at home and invited relatives and friends to come. Tourists should bring a few kilograms of flour and rice or fresh fruit. The "100 grains of rice" sent by relatives and friends should be stored separately. When cooking for the elderly in the future, grab some and mix them into your own rice. "Hundred rice" is finished. If the old man doesn't recover, he will continue to hold the ceremony of "adding vegetables to make up his life" another day. This custom is actually out of concern for the elderly, in line with the moral and traditional concepts of the masses, and has been supported and valued by the local government. Maonan festivals have two obvious characteristics: first, ancestors must be sacrificed; The second is to carry out more singing activities. Generally, pigs, chickens, ducks, beef, wine and glutinous rice are used as festival sacrifices. Maonan people like to make tofu balls at festivals and hold happy events. The method is to mix and chop pork (or beef), dried shrimps, peanuts, garlic, coriander and pepper, add salt, mix well and make stuffing, wrap the stuffing with tofu paste and roll it repeatedly in your hand or bowl to make it round, and then fry it in an oil pan. When eating, put it in a pot to make soup, which is fragrant and delicious. It is not only a necessary dish for entertaining guests, but also a gift for each other. In festivals, Maonan people like to rinse beef with boiling water to receive guests, that is, according to local customs, put an iron pot on the fireplace. When eating, everyone gathered around the iron pot, poured the raw meat slices and lettuce into boiling water and rinsed them, then dipped them in the ingredients to drink. This is the most common banquet form of Maonan nationality. The biggest festival of Maonan nationality is Dragon Boat Festival from summer to the future every year. During the Dragon Boat Festival, every household steamed five-color glutinous rice and steamed pork, and some even roasted fragrant pigs. Fold the willow branches back on the nave, knead the five-color glutinous rice into small balls and stick them on the willow branches to show that the fruits are abundant and hope for a bumper harvest. Maonan people also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, but the significance of the festival is different from that of Han people, which is called "Medicine Festival" by the people. During the festival, people are used to collecting herbs such as Artemisia argyi, Acorus calamus, Dioscorea zingiberensis, rattan and so on, boiling water to drink turbid water, or chopping these herbs and wrapping them in jiaozi, which can detoxify and cure diseases. Maonan adult men like drinking, and there is a saying that not drinking is not enough to respect guests. Some people also brew their own sorghum and corn. But most of them are bottled liquor sold in the market.
Let the birds fly
The most meaningful activities of Maonan people to celebrate the Spring Festival are "attracting souls", washing guns, reading in the morning and flying birds, which bring happiness and joy to the festival.
Among the many festivals and customs of Maonan nationality, "Flying Birds" on the 15th day of the first month is the most distinctive and interesting. Legend has it that there once lived an old mage in Maonan Township. He has an ingenious and handsome only daughter who is good at weaving hundreds of birds with bamboo sticks and calamus leaves, and is called "Little Bird Girl".
She fell in love with a young man and planned to get married on New Year's Day. The old mage wants to test the ability of his future son-in-law. On New Year's Eve, he asked him to plant seeds in the mountains before dark. He should have planted millet seeds, but the young man was in a hurry and planted glutinous rice seeds by mistake. The old mage told him to pick up all the seeds so as not to spoil them. This time, the young man was stumped. Bird girl saw this scene, let her fiance go home and put all the birds they used to weave in a laundry list.
The girl blew a breath on the bird and whispered a few words to the young man. The young man took hundreds of birds to the mountain. These birds flew out quickly and picked up all the wax seeds. Before dark, the young people sowed again. The old mage looked happy and said, "Let's have a good reunion between father and daughter in the New Year. On the fifteenth day of the first month, I will send Bird Girl to your home to get married. " Since then, there has been a custom of "letting birds fly". Spring Festival is coming, and every household picks calamus leaves in advance. On New Year's Eve, "Hundred Birds" are woven with calamus leaves, stuffed with soaked sweet glutinous rice, Mi Dou and sesame seeds, and then steamed or boiled in a pot. After cooking, tie the "Hundred Birds" to a long cane with a string and hang it in front of the incense in the main room. "Hundred Birds" include partridges, pheasants, swallows, cormorants and thrushes.
On this day, give every child in the family a "bird" to satisfy their hunger; The daughter-in-law who got married and gave birth to a child went back to her family to get a "bird", hoping that the child would be as lively and lovely as a bird in the future. There are also offerings in front of the incense hall, such as Redmi and fruits, which are intended to pray for birds not to eat crops and ensure a bumper harvest in Fulai. Until the fifteenth day of the first month, the "Hundred Birds" were picked and cooked in a pot. Eating "hundred birds" at night is called "flying birds". When "Let Birds Fly", Maonan people will never forget to relive the legend of "Let Birds Fly".
Ganzuwei
The location of "Ancestor Market" is in Xian 'an. Lin Xia (called "Kalin" in Maonan) is located at the junction of two villages in Bochuan. There is a hill here, which is the highest point in the image. From the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, there are many stone graves. It's a big cemetery with a mountain stream in front and good scenery. Every year in the early hours of Tomb-Sweeping Day, Maonan people in Xia 'nan and Bochuan areas, with torches or oil lamps, come to the graves on the hillside to "go to the market".
The Mid-Autumn Festival is called "July 14th" by Maonan people. The real festival begins on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, gastrodia elata lit up, and the master took a pole with a sharp tip and inserted it in the mud on the stone steps of the gate. There is a bamboo hat on it and a handful of grass (or leaves) stuck in the middle. Then he lit three incense sticks and muttered, "How many men and women are there?" Somasuocunnai Namely: "male milk! The horse is here. "Say it's for the ancestors to come back and tie the horse. From this day on, the ancestors came back.
/kloc-on the morning of 0/5, the ancestors should be sent home. After the duck sacrifice dinner, the money paper ash (the core is first burned in a rotten pot) burned on the morning of the 7th to15th is wrapped with two taro leaves or bamboo shells, and small bamboo chips are used as small packages. In Maonan, it's called "bear eight old women", that is, the money burden of male milk is sent to the village head or stream, which means to send the ancestors home (that is, return). 15, children are forbidden to play by the stream, for fear of meeting their ancestors on the road and "taking them away".