What is the festival on March 3rd in Guizhou? What are the customs on March 3rd in Guizhou
Guizhou Buyi people worship the mountain god
"March 3rd" was originally the Buyi people's sacrifice The day of the mountain god. Legend has it that the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar is the birthday of the three kings and gods. On this day, he will release all kinds of locusts and grasshoppers to damage the crops, so people will sweep the village and worship the gods to ask for mercy from the mountain gods. In the past, the Buyi people closed the village within a few days after sweeping the village to drive out ghosts, and outsiders were not allowed to enter the village, otherwise That is to say, it is considered that the village was destroyed and the village was cleaned, and the villagers must pay for the village to be cleaned again and apologize to the villagers. With the continuous changes of the times, "March 3" has changed from a sacrificial festival in the past to a festival for men and women to socialize. On March 3rd, young men and women dressed in festive costumes happily participated in a large-scale mountain tour, singing and making friends. The singers show their talents here, and most of the lyrics are improvised. Sometimes they can sing continuously for three days and three nights.
Most of the folk songs are love songs. Young men and women express their feelings, express their love and confide their feelings through love songs, and take the opportunity to show their intelligence and wit to win the favor of the opposite sex. It is said that whoever sings most beautifully will be given a golden voice if he impresses the singing fairy in the sky. From then on, wherever he worked, there was the singing of the golden voice. As long as the pests heard the singing of the golden voice, they would not dare to harm the crops. Therefore, "March 3" is also called "Song Fairy Festival".
During the festival, in addition to young people’s mountain tours, antiphonal singing, and socializing activities, there is also the custom of eating glutinous rice with flowers and boiled red eggs. Some villages still offer sacrifices to the mountain gods, offering sheep as sacrifices; some villages offer sacrifices to the water gods and dragon ponds, offering pigs or chickens to the gods. The village elders did not forget to use the occasion of the sacrifice to teach the villagers to protect public facilities such as forests, longtans, wells, roads, etc., and at the same time educate the younger generations to abide by the village regulations and civil covenants. March 3rd is also a good day for young men and women in Buyi to fall in love. On this day, the boys played bamboo leaves and played the huqin, while the girls sang Buyi folk songs and carried out activities such as "catching up with the watch" and "waving the whistle".
The Dong people of Guizhou use onion baskets as matchmakers on the third day of March
On the first day of March, housewives in the village are busy preparing new clothes for their children and husbands, grinding tofu, and preparing wine and vegetables. , it’s good to entertain guests when the festival comes.
The second day of March is the day when the girl sends the basket to her lover. After breakfast that day, the girls invited each other to catch fish and shrimps with baskets on their backs and shoes off. After helping each other, each person caught half a basket of carp and shrimp, and then each gave the basket as a gift to his beloved lover. When the lover gets this basket gift, he pours out the fish and shrimps and cooks vegetables and food on the slope with his boyfriends, then has a picnic and shares the joy of love. This custom of "giving baskets" is called "Haisu" in the local Dong language.
On the third day of March, the festival activities reach their climax. The girl carried a basket and went to various vegetable gardens to get half-blue green onions and a few garlic seedlings. She washed them white and clean by the dragon pond at the foot of the village, then put on a wide-brimmed short-skirt and lace-trimmed trousers, tied They wear colorful flower-embroidered aprons, put on round-top embroidered shoes, wear silver hoops, silver necklaces and silver flowers, and carry green onion baskets, and go together to the slopes near Moga Tree and Jintang Cave. The young people waited in groups by the mountain road.
The girls came over, and the young men asked the girls for baskets. The mountains and hills were full of people watching. If the loved one doesn't come to ask for a basket, and the girl doesn't give it to him, the nearby onlookers will make sarcastic sounds of "boo"
"Boo", which disappoints the young people who have no luck and cheers for the girl who is dedicated to love.
When the girls saw their loved ones coming to ask for swallows, they happily gave them to them, and the onlookers praised them with "oohoo" and "oohoo" sounds. After the lover gets the basket, he will make an appointment with his lover on a date, usually on March 8 or June 6, to meet on the slope to return the basket. At this time, the basket usually contains fabrics, candies, or silk threads for the beloved sister. This custom of "asking for a basket" is called "Xiechen" in Baojing Dong language, which means "onion basket as matchmaker".
The tradition of the Shangsi Festival on March 3rd
On the Shangsi Festival, activities such as offering sacrifices to Gaojin, worshiping evil spirits, drinking wine from the winding water, meeting men and women, peach gatherings, praying for a good harvest, etc. are mainly held. The Shangsi Festival coincides with the change of seasons. The yin energy has not completely subsided and the yang energy is "swaying". In this season, people are prone to getting sick, so they should go to the water to clean their bodies to prevent diseases.
This is also an important part of the ancient Shangsi Festival, "祓禊", which is a body cleansing ceremony held by the water to pray for disaster relief. In the chapter "The Book of Songs·Zheng Feng·Qinwei" there is a sentence: "Only Qin and Wei, they are in Huan Huan, only a scholar and a woman, they are in orchids". Xu Guang's "Historical Notes" also records that "on the third day of the third month, the water will clear away the evil spirits, and the evil will be trickled away."
This shows that the custom of "purging evil spirits" during the Shangsi Festival has a long history. As for why it was chosen on Si day, Ying Zhen’s explanation is because “Si means good luck”. Choosing this day is not only to cleanse the body and eliminate diseases, but also to pray for blessings. This view is recognized by modern scholar Wu Bing'an, who also believes that the Shangsi Festival is "an ancient health care custom used by the ancients to ward off evil spirits and eliminate plague in spring."
In addition to cleaning the body, eliminating disasters and avoiding evil, praying for fertility is also one of the important contents of the Shangsi Festival. In ancient times, witches were specially appointed to preside over the activities of the Shangsi Festival. One of the reasons is probably because women were organized to bathe by the river on this day. The main purpose is to use the peach blossom water in spring to wash away the impurity in women's bodies, drive away all kinds of evil spirits, and create conditions for childbirth. In name, it is to clean the body and wash away dirt, but in fact it is to exorcise ghosts and seek fertility. Therefore, Shangsi bathing is also considered to be an ancient water therapy for treating women's infertility.