Yao is an ancient ethnic group, mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of several southern provinces in China, and is a typical southern mountainous ethnic group. They are mainly engaged in agriculture, rotating cultivation, hunting, fishing and gathering, and their handicrafts are relatively developed; The settlement area produces high-quality Redmi and medicinal materials.
In the past, Yao people often added corn, millet, sweet potato, cassava, taro and beans to rice porridge or rice. Sometimes, we also use "stewing" or "baking" methods to process food, such as stewing sweet potatoes and other potatoes, stewing bitter bamboo shoots, baking tender corn, baking Baba and so on.
Yao people living in mountainous areas have the habit of cold food, and the preparation of food is easy to carry and preserve. So Zongba and bamboo rice, which are both staple food and non-staple food, are their favorite foods. At work, Yao people have picnics on the spot, and everyone gets together to take out their own food and eat their own staple food.
The vegetables we often eat are all kinds of melons, beans, vegetables, radishes and peppers, as well as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, fungus, bracken, Chinese toon and yellow flowers. Yao area is also rich in all kinds of fruits. Vegetables are often made into dried vegetables or pickles. Some Yao people in Yunnan like to make their dishes very light, basically cooking them with salt and water. Some are directly boiled in white water and soaked in water prepared with salt and pepper to keep the original flavor of various vegetables; Meat is often processed into bacon. Yao people in Guangxi usually cook meat by dry frying, boiling, seasoning with salt and less seasoning. Meat should be made into a very rich dish, fresh meat or bacon, fried brown first, and then cooked.
Yao people like to eat pickled food. "Bird gizzard" is a famous food with unique flavor of Yao nationality, and it is made by curing bird meat. Wash the captured birds, dry them in the sun, mix them with rice flour and salt, put them in a small pottery jar, seal the jar with banana leaves, and eat them in a few days. Yao people often use "bird jars" to entertain their guests. Sometimes, pigs, cattle, mutton, etc. are also pickled in this way.
Yao people also like to eat insect pupae, such as pine pupae, kudzu pupae, wild bee pupae, bee pupae and so on. Yao people also like to make their own cane sugar, sweet potato sugar, bee sugar and so on by using the characteristics of mountainous areas.
Most Yao people like drinking. Generally, rice, corn, sweet potato and so on are used. And often drink it two or three times a day. Yao people in Yunnan like to brew water wine with mash, and often use bamboo tubes to hold water when they go out to drink.
Yao people also like to decoct tea with cinnamon and galangal, thinking that it can refresh their minds and eliminate fatigue. Yao people in many areas like to play with Camellia oleifera, not only eating and drinking by themselves every day, but also entertaining guests with Camellia oleifera. In Tomb-Sweeping Day, every family had to dye flowers and eat rice.
Banquets include the so-called "Yao Sanli" and "drinking tea, bathing and welcoming wine"; VIPs in the village "a bowl of wine, a bunch of meat"; "Fresh supply" of delicious food and exotic animals; A famous "dragon intestine" comes into view as a "dragon intestine mat". In addition, there is a "hanging wine at home" to mediate civil disputes, and it is announced that "fried beans and boiled eggs" will be cut off.
Among them, many dietary customs are quite interesting. For example, if you propose to bring a pack of meat and two gourds of rice wine, the woman will accept the meat if she agrees, and poke the gourds if she disagrees; Choosing a husband is often "burying eggs", and it depends on its changes to decide the choice; When the girl gets married, she gives the cooked soybeans to her neighbors. The divorce ceremony is a "broken bamboo tube". Both sides of the divorce bring a bottle of wine, exchange drinks and break the bamboo tube, and then break up amicably.
Yao people who worship Pan Hu's fasting dog meat and nail fish; Yao people who worship Milo don't eat pork and eagle meat; Most Yao people abstain from eating snake meat; Maternal fasting lard in the first few days after delivery; Dogs, cats, snakes and frogs are prohibited from offering sacrifices to gods; After hunting animals, you must pay homage to the mountain gods before you can eat them alone.
In the history of Yao nationality, it is generally not intermarried with other nationalities, and the custom of adopting foreign children is more common. There are no such backward regulations now. Young men and women are more free to fall in love before marriage. They use festivals, parties and country trips to find their spouses by singing. The two sides agreed to give each other tokens, "each with his own cooperation, not his own parents"; It is also necessary to obtain the consent of parents and the consent of the media before getting married.
Because there are many people in the festival, rice is generally not cooked in an iron pan, but steamed in a wooden steamer, which has a stronger aroma. Every holiday. Yao people still have to do Baba. Holiday dishes are mainly chicken, duck, fish, pork, tofu and vermicelli. Yao people in Wuling Mountain area like to make tofu balls (the first fermented bean curd of holy water-the 18th fermented bean curd of Yao family) and wrap them with "lotus paste (rice flour, meat)". Wang Pan Festival is held only once every few years. In the past, during the Wang Pan Festival, a large number of livestock were slaughtered and sacrificed. The Spring Festival is held every year, usually in the third month of the lunar calendar. At that time, young people will hunt in the mountains and catch fish in the river. Women want Bao Zongba and steamed five-color glutinous rice. On New Year's Eve, the flowers will give the dog a piece of meat and a ball of Baba, which is called a sacrifice for the dog, and then the family can eat it. They think that the seeds of grain are brought by dogs, and the first sacrifice for dogs is to pray for a bumper harvest of grain. Festive dishes should be colorful, besides chicken, there are fresh rivers, hunting of mountain birds and tofu.
In some places, Yao people still cook black rice on April 8. Yao girls in Jiang Shui County, Hunan Province eat flower eggs, make flower cakes and eat flower candy every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. Boys are not allowed to peek when girls are eating eggs, candy and Baba, and offenders will be punished. Playing karaoke hall is a large-scale entertainment activity to worship ancestors and celebrate harvest in Liannan Paiyao. Most of them are held after the lunar calendar1October 16, and the duration varies from 3 days to 9 days. At that time, every household will have water, wine and glutinous rice Baba to entertain guests, and many young Yao men and women will choose the right person by playing songs. Once men and women fall in love, parents can send pork and wine as gifts through matchmakers. When a wedding is held, there will be a grand banquet. According to the traditional custom, the elders in the village must be invited to the wedding banquet, and the bride and groom should drink a glass of wine.