Introduction: The Yao people are an ethnic minority and are considered one of the oldest ethnic groups among the 55 ethnic minorities in my country. Most of the Yao people are distributed in South China. The residents are very long-lived, so the Yao people are the longest-lived ethnic group in China. one. So, what are the traditional festivals of the Yao people? What are the characteristics and customs of the Yao people? Come with me and check it out.

What are the traditional festivals of the Yao people?

The traditional festivals of the Yao people include the Folk Song Festival, the Getang Festival, the Clothes Drying Festival, the Ganba Festival, and the Panwang Festival. Niu Festival, Danu Festival, Coming of Age Ceremony, Doliao Guiji Festival, and Dou Nian Prayer Festival. The Yao people are one of the ethnic minorities in my country. They are a mountain-dwelling ethnic group. Their villages are generally built on the top of the mountain, halfway up the mountain and by the streams at the foot of the mountain. Yao men and women like to have long hair. There are records in ancient books about Yao men and women growing their hair into knots on their heads, called "vertebral buns."

Shuogetang Festival

"Shuoketang" Festival, also called "Shuawang" Festival, is a grand festival for the Yao people in Liannan Yao Autonomous County and Lianshan Yao Autonomous County in Guangdong Province "Shuogetang" is the transliteration of Yao language, which means to celebrate the harvest. It is also a festival for young men and women to sing to each other and find friends. It is held once every three to five years, usually in the golden autumn season, around October 16th, and lasts from three to nine days.

Before the festival arrives, every household must notify relatives and friends near and far to come and visit in advance. When the festival comes, people from various villages carry the memorial tablets of their ancestors out of the temples for parades and worship. They carry the newly harvested grains, sweet potatoes, glutinous rice cakes, rice wine, wild fruits and other items in groups and go over the mountains. Ridge, gathered in the pre-selected singing hall (a village with flat terrain), the cannon was used as a trumpet, and the horn song was played.

A handsome Yao guy with his hair in a bun, a red cloth on his head, and beautiful feathers danced a vigorous and joyful long dance to the sound of gongs and drums. Yao girls wearing embroidered clothes with colorful flowers, flying butterflies, beautiful mountains and rivers, and floating clouds dance gracefully to choose the one they like. Sometimes as many as eighty or ninety pairs of young people participate in singing. The young man sang one song after another. The girls looked at the young man singing carefully and secretly chose the one they loved. The young men also sing to their heart's content to win over the girls. After getting to know each other in the singing hall during the day, they can sing to the girls alone at night. On the hillside and under the shade of the trees, they expressed their love to each other through antiphonal songs. Others were drinking happily, talking loudly, singing Yao songs, and looking far into the distance. The scene was very lively.

During the festival, each family makes twenty to thirty kilograms of glutinous rice cakes to entertain relatives and friends. Each household also produces a certain amount of water and wine (about seven kilograms) for people to drink as they wish. On the "Shuoketang" stage, rice wine provided by everyone is placed for everyone to drink.

Clothes Drying Festival

Every year on June 6th of the lunar calendar, Panyao in Guiping County, Guangxi celebrates the annual Clothes Drying Festival grandly. On the morning of the festival, the elders from each household instruct the young people to move boxes, cabinets, clothes, shoes, etc. outside the house in an orderly manner, spread them out on bamboo mats or hang them on bamboo poles, and wait for the hot sun to expose them. The whole village is colorful. The beauty has become the "ocean" of clothes. After drying for three or four hours, put the clothes back to their original places. In the evening, all the people in the village stood on the sun valley flat and waved frequently to the setting sun, expressing their gratitude and respect for the sun. During the Clothes Drying Festival, every household has to kill chickens and ducks to celebrate, which is very interesting.

Ganba Festival

Ganba Festival is an annual festival held by the Blue Indigo Yao people (a branch of the Yao ethnic group) in Yaoshan Township, Hekou Yao Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. It is held every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar.

They have been busy since late February of the lunar calendar. Everyone first decides whether to go hunting in the mountains or fishing in the river on the festival day, and then prepare separately. People who decided to go hunting in the mountains started burning charcoal, repairing guns, pounding gunpowder, and making code; people who were going to go down to the river to fish also set up their utensils. Every household uses the best glutinous rice to brew rice wine and prepares to celebrate the "Ganba Festival".

On the day of the festival, adult men go up to the mountains to hunt, armed with crossbows, muskets, and their daddy, and embark on the journey at dawn. If you get game, everyone will enjoy it. If you can't get the prey, you will be laughed at. Especially "menqi" (young men) will be despised by "mensha" (girls). Therefore, the "comrades" who go up the mountain always try their best to return home with a full load. People who go down to the river to fish for shrimps do the same thing. The elderly and women stayed behind and were busy preparing New Year's dinner, roasting chicken and duck, cooking colorful glutinous rice, spring cakes, and fine wines.

In the evening, people returned to the village, visited each other and congratulated each other. Everyone took out the sweet rice wine, ate the fragrant glutinous rice, and had a delicious meal of the game and fish caught that day. If you can't finish it, leave some of it, hang it by the fire pit, bake it dry, and keep it for entertaining guests later. In the evening, when darkness envelopes the village, after a hard day's work, men, women, old and young, all sit around the firepit and sing beautiful Yao songs. After the meal, everyone gathered in the square, the men beat the bronze drums, and the women danced. People enjoy the joy after work, wish for a good harvest and celebrate the festival.

Half-Moon Festival

The Half-Moon Festival in the seventh lunar month is an important festival for the Yao people (equivalent to the Spring Festival). On the eve of the Half-Moon Festival, every household is very busy. The sound of horns, the sound of gongs and drums and laughter are everywhere inside and outside the village.

Starting from the tenth day of the lunar month, every household will serve fish, meat, wine, etc. to celebrate the festival or worship their ancestors. The fifteenth day of the festival is the last day of the festival and also the busiest night. On this night, every household makes the best and most delicious food. The most sumptuous meal, the guests of honor gathered together to wish each other family harmony, good health and a good harvest. After dinner, girls and boys dressed in festive costumes sang and danced antiphonally. It was not until the rooster crows at dawn that people fell asleep.

Characteristics and customs of the Yao people

1. Marriage customs of the Yao people

Since ancient times, it is a must for men and women of the right age to get married when they are old and when they are old enough to get married. thing. Traditionally in China, when a woman marries a man, the children born to her will take their father's surname. This has been a rule that has remained unchanged for thousands of years. But among the ethnic minorities in my country, there is a similar saying for marrying a man and a daughter.

2. Climbing stairs

Chashan Yao young people "climb stairs" The Yao compatriots who live in Dayao Mountain, Guangxi Province, are influenced by their living area and basically maintain traditional customs in marriage. .

Chashan Yao, who live here in Dayao Mountain, are a branch of the Yao people, meaning people who live in the mountains. In order to seek love, the young men of Chashan Yao have a popular custom of "climbing stairs", which is unique to the national customs. Chashan Yao villages are generally large and concentrated near mountains and rivers, and their residences are all two-story wooden buildings.

The facade and hanging tower are carved with dragons, phoenixes, and painted with oil, just like a sedan chair hanging in the mountains. The quiet hanging building is a place for adult girls to socialize. Walking into the gate of Diaoloulou, you will find that the Yao compatriots who live in Dayao Mountain, Guangxi basically maintain traditional customs in marriage due to the influence of their living area. Chashan Yao lives here in Dayao Mountain.

3. Marrying a daughter and marrying a man

The Yao Autonomous County is the earliest Yao Autonomous County established in my country. It is home to Panyao, Hualanyao and Chashan. There are five branches of Yao people including Yao, Shanziyao and Aoyao, so it is called "the hometown of Yao people in the world".

The late famous sociologist Mr. Fei Xiaotong once said: "The Yao people in Dayao Mountain have more branches and the most typical folk customs in the country. At present, the two ethnic hot spots in human research in the world are Among them are the Yao people. The World Yao People Research Center is in China, and the China Yao People Research Center is in Jinxiu."

The Yao people have formed a profound, simple, colorful Yao culture and customs in their lives. The Yao family's wedding etiquette covers the richness of the Yao people. Most weddings in Panyao take place after the autumn harvest and before the Spring Festival. They are divided into two types: "marrying a girl" and "marrying a man". Before a formal wedding can be held, the process of spouse selection, marriage proposal, and engagement must go through.

The wedding banquet includes three meals with "main wine" and six meals with "partial wine" (breakfast and midnight snack). On the morning of the fourth day, when the relatives and guests say goodbye, the groom's family each gives a "nipple gift" (also known as a small source gift), that is, eight to nine kilograms of pork legs for the parents-in-law, and four to five kilograms of other pork. On the fourth or fifth day, the couple return home to stay overnight and then return to the rear to consummate the marriage.

4. The religious beliefs of the Yao people

The religious beliefs of the Yao people are relatively complex. In some areas, primitive nature worship, ancestor worship or totem worship occupies a certain position; in some areas, they mainly believe in witchcraft. and Taoism. Taoism has a great influence on the Yao people. All funeral and sacrificial rituals are basically carried out in accordance with Taoist laws, but some elements of the ethnic primitive religion are mixed into it.

5. Dance

The dances of the Yao people are mostly related to religious sacrifices, the most famous of which are the long drum drum and the bronze drum drum. Changgu drum dance is mainly popular in the Yao ethnic area of ??Panyao branch.