Introduction: The Dai people are one of the 55 ethnic minorities in my country, and they are also one of the ethnic groups whose names and festivals we can call, because the Dai Water Splashing Festival is famous at home and abroad. So, what are the traditional festivals of the Dai people? If you want to know what the festivals and customs of the Dai people are, come and take a look with me.

Traditional festivals of the Dai people

Major festivals of the Dai people include the "Close-Door Festival", the "Open-Door Festival" and the Water Splashing Festival. The "Close Door Festival" is in mid-July, which is the busy farming season. Most Buddhist festivals are also concentrated during this time, so that we can concentrate on production. At the same time, grand "Buddha" activities are also held, with food, flowers, Silver coins, banknotes, etc. are offered to the Buddha. The "Close-Door Festival" lasts for about three months, ending with the "Open-Door Festival" in mid-October. The most grand festival of the Dai people is the Water Splashing Festival. It takes place in April every year. Calculated in time series, April in the Gregorian calendar is equivalent to the first month in the Dai calendar.

What are the festivals and customs of the Dai people

Close-Door Festival

In Dai language, it is called "Jinwa", which means the Lord Buddha enters the temple. The traditional religious festival of the Dai people in Yunnan is held every year on the 15th day of the ninth year of the Dai calendar (mid-July of the lunar calendar) and lasts for three months. According to legend, on the ninth day of every year in the Dai calendar, the Buddha went to the West to preach to his mother, and would not return to earth until March. Once, when the Buddha was in the West to preach, thousands of Buddhists went to the countryside to preach. They trampled on the people's crops and delayed their production. The people complained and were very dissatisfied with the Buddhists. When Buddha learned about this, he felt uneasy. From then on, whenever the Buddha came to the West to preach, he would gather all the Buddhists and stipulate that they were not allowed to go anywhere during these three months, and could only repent to atone for their previous sins. Therefore, people call it "Closing Day".

Opening the Door Festival

In Dai language, it is called "Chuwa", which means the Lord Buddha leaves the temple. A traditional religious festival of the Dai people in Yunnan. It is held every year on December 15th of the Dai calendar. The activities are the same as the Close-Door Festival. On the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month in the Dai calendar, the things placed behind the Buddha's seat when entering the cave were taken out and burned, indicating that the Buddha had emerged from the cave. On the 16th day, the monk emerged from the cave, and the whole family, men, women, old and young, went to the mausoleum to worship the Buddha. On the 17th, a grand "Catching the Buddha" event was held. Because on this day the Buddha returned to the earth after preaching in the West for three months, every village and village had to beat gongs and drums and hold a grand meeting to welcome the Buddha. In the room, the sins of the past year were confessed to the Buddha; the monks took this time to preach the doctrine to the young men and women.

During the Opening Festival, the busy farming season has passed, the weather is getting colder, and there are not many Buddhist activities. Young people can fall in love or get married, while adults go out to do errands or Visiting relatives and friends. This is the time when the Dai people have the most cultural and entertainment activities. People set off sparklers, light lanterns, raise lights and travel around the villages, which is very lively.

Longshi

In some places, it is also called "Longshi". "Long" in Dai language refers to a tree or a forest, and "shi" or "rush" both mean sacrifice. Therefore, "longshi" means offering sacrifices to the tree god. In ancient times, when the Dai people established a village, they would plant trees to commemorate it. Therefore, the Dai people regarded the trees planted as the protector of the village.

The time of "Longshi" is in the second month of the lunar calendar, and the specific time varies from village to village. Usually led by the descendants of the Lizhai people, all men in the village go to a special tree to offer sacrifices. During the "Longshi" period, they visit each other's relatives and send each other festival congratulations. Young men and women go to villages and mountains to sing folk songs and find partners. On the second day of "Long Shi" in Dashun Village, young men and women are invited to fish and shrimp in the river. Until evening, they take a small amount of each caught fish and shrimp and put them into the river, hoping that the river will be full of fish and shrimp in the coming year. There was endless catching and catching, so we had dinner by the river that night, where young men and women ate and had fun together. During the "Longshi" period, guests are not allowed to come in but are not allowed to leave. They must leave their warm hospitality behind to satisfy their wishes.

Called Valley Soul

Also called "Calling Valley Soul". Every year in the tenth month of the lunar calendar, when the grain is brought into the warehouse, the Dai people choose the last dragon day at the end of the month to be called the soul of the grain. On this day, each household will go to the field to kill a hen and light a pile of straw or grain as a sacrifice. After the sacrifice, a small amount of grain is taken home and placed in the warehouse. To show that Gu Hun has returned home, he can open a position and use it later.

Dual Song Festival

Every May on the Dragon Boat Festival, young men and women of the Dai ethnic group on both sides of the Red River gather at the Na Bing Da Long Pond in Wuwan Village, Majie Township to have a "Double Song Festival". Festival". On the day of antiphonal singing, young men and women from each village come in costumes to compete in antiphonal singing between men and women and between villages, from sunrise to sunset. The elderly and children brought dry food to listen to the singing. The Antiphonal Song Festival is an excellent opportunity for young men and women to make friends and find a partner.

Water Splashing Festival

Water Splashing Festival is the New Year festival of the Dai people and the most important festival of the Dai people. It falls every year in April of the lunar calendar (equivalent to May of the Dai calendar). Held, usually for three to four days. The first day is "Mai Day", which is similar to the Lunar New Year's Eve. In Dai language, it is called "Wanduo Shanghan", which means sending off the old days. At this time, people have to tidy up their houses, clean the house, and prepare for the New Year's dinner and various activities during the festival.

The second day is called "Chu day", "Chu" means "empty". According to custom, this day neither belongs to the previous year nor the next year, so it is called "empty day"; the third day is called "empty day". Maipayawanma", it is said that this is the day when the heroic spirit of Payawan returns to the world with the new calendar. People are accustomed to regard this day as the arrival of the king of days, and it is the New Year's Day of the Dai calendar.

The Water-Splashing Festival originated in India and is a ritual of ancient Brahmanism. It was later absorbed by Buddhism and was introduced to the Dai ethnic area of ??Yunnan, China via Myanmar from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century AD. With the deepening influence of Buddhism in the Dai area, the Water Splashing Festival has become a national custom and has been passed down for hundreds of years. In the process of the spread of the Water-Splashing Festival, the Dai people gradually combined it with their own national myths and legends, giving the Water-Splashing Festival a more magical meaning and national color.

To this day, there is still a very interesting myth circulating among the Dai people: In ancient times, there was a demon in the Dai area. People hated him, but they couldn't deal with it despite trying many methods. Later, the devil took possession of seven folk girls as wives. The girls saw the miserable lives of their compatriots and determined to find a way to destroy the devil. The clever seventh girl discovered the devil's fatal weakness from his words, that is, only the devil's own hair can kill him.

One night, the devil was drunk and fell into a deep sleep. The girls bravely pulled out a hair from his head and tied it tightly around his neck. Sure enough, the devil's head fell off immediately. But as soon as his head hit the ground, a fire broke out on the ground. Seeing that disaster was about to happen, the girls immediately picked up the heads, the fire was extinguished, and the devil disappeared.

In order to prevent the fire from reigniting and harming the people, the sisters decided to take turns holding the devil's head, changing them every year. During the annual replacement, people would give the girl holding her head a flush of water to wash away the blood on her body and the fatigue of the whole year. Later, in order to commemorate these seven witty and brave women, the Dai people splashed water on each other on this day every year. Since then, the Water Splashing Festival has been formed as a grand festival for the Dai people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.

Xuntianba Festival

Xuntianba is an annual traditional New Year song gathering festival for the Dai people. In the early morning of the 13th day of the first lunar month, Dai men and women who are good at singing and dancing, dressed in festive costumes, gather under the big green trees in the village, beating gongs and drums, and are full of joy. Singers carried fragrant rice wine and sang joyful spring songs and songs of the four seasons. People danced to the beat of the drums.

When the golden sun rises and an elder loudly announces the start of the "Tour Dam", people intoxicated with singing and dancing automatically form a team, consisting of eight people carrying colorful flags. The young people took the lead, and everyone blew trumpets, beat gongs and drums, fired firecrackers, and set off muskets, marching toward Tianba... "Tianba Inspection" can be said to be the Dai people's "inspection" of agricultural spring plowing production. Through this activity, combined with the actual production, Villages and villages also formulate some township rules and regulations.

For example: all early rice in Bazi must be planted before the 13th day of the first lunar month; water is released for irrigation, and no water is stolen or grabbed; no one is allowed to cut down a tree in the restricted area. Violators will be fined by the general public. Thirty bowls of wine and thirty pounds of fresh meat; village cadres were fined double the amount. "Xuntianba" embodies the traditional virtues of the Dai people that attach great importance to agricultural production.

Woba Festival

It is a festival for the Dai people to pray for good fisheries and rice harvests. It is held every year on the seventh day of the third lunar month in Dayao Wanbi. Legend has it that in ancient times, when foreign invaders invaded, the ancestor of the Dai people, King Lubai, died in battle. The Dai family, led by Prince Qingge and Princess Hongmei, continued to fight bravely, but in the end they were outnumbered and retreated to the Jinsha River. Qing Ge and Hong Mei were also captured by the enemy and imprisoned in a riverside cave. In order to kill all the Dai people, the enemy colluded with a kind of demon called caddisfly in the river cliff to harm the Dai people.

Caddis moths are making waves, black clouds are rolling, rivers are swollen, waves are surging, flash floods are breaking out, and rocks are collapsing. The Dai people who have been tortured are about to suffer disaster. At this moment, Brother Qing and Hongmei rushed out of the cave and fought desperately with the caddisfly. They finally killed the caddisfly, caused the river to recede, and stabilized the rock. The dark clouds cleared, the river receded, the flash floods stopped, and the Dai family was saved. They settled down by the Jinsha River and lived a good life with good weather.

But during the fight with the caddisfly, Qing Ge and Hong Mei were magically transformed into blue fish and red fish. In order to commemorate the achievements of Qing Ge and Hong Mei in saving the Dai people, every year on the seventh day of the third lunar month, Dai men, women, and children wear bright national costumes, carry delicacies and wine on their backs, and come to the Jinsha River to sing and dance and hold commemorative celebrations. Celebrate the victory of the Dai people over the devil. In the early morning of this day, people came to the Jinsha River early. When the sun shone on the river, the grand festival ceremony began.

Under the command of a respected Dai elder, two strong Dai men carried two large wooden fish on their shoulders, one was a blue fish and the other was a red fish. With three musket shots as a signal, The whistle guides the way, and the wooden fish is carried to the beach by the river with blows and blows. The crowd followed to the river, and under the leadership of the elders, they brought water from the river in basins and poured it on the wooden fish one after another while singing joyfully.

Then the elder chanted auspicious words in Dai language, dipped green pine branches in the river water, and gently sprinkled it on everyone's heads. People splashed water on each other to send good wishes. Men, women, old and young, accompanied by suonas, gongs and elephant foot drums, danced the joyful "Gayang Dance" to wish for good weather, baskets full of fish and a bumper rice harvest in the new year. Today, the Woba Festival gathering place has become a place for cultural and material exchanges between people of all ethnic groups in Chuxiong, Lijiang and adjacent areas of Sichuan and Yunnan. More than 10,000 people come to participate in the festival and trade local products every year.

Flower Street Festival

Also known as "Reshuitang Flower Street Festival". This traditional folk festival of the Dai people in Yuanjiang, Yunnan Province is held every year on the seventh day of the first lunar month and lasts for one day. The Dai Ya people also celebrate the Flower Street Festival, and the activities are basically the same as those of the Dai people, but the festival falls on the sixth day of the fifth lunar month. The main purpose of the Flower Street Festival is to get rid of the old and welcome the new. On the morning of the festival, when the sun rises, men, women, old and young, dressed in festive costumes, gather on the hot water pond lawn on the east bank of Yuanjiang River to celebrate the festival with joyful songs and laughter.

The old people talked about the past, the young people sang and danced, and the children chased and played games, enjoying themselves. People also bathe in the hot springs of hot water ponds to get rid of the filth of the old year and welcome the new year cleanly and refreshingly. On this day, unmarried young men and women also perform antiphonal songs to find partners.

Summer Festival

It is called "Haowa" in Dai language, which means the beginning of summer. It starts on September 15th of the Dai calendar (mid-July of the lunar calendar) and lasts for three months. According to legend, every year in September of the Dai calendar, the Buddha went to the West to preach to his mother, and it took him three months to return to the world. Once, when the Buddha was in the West to preach, thousands of Buddhists went to the countryside to preach, destroying the people's crops and delaying their production. The people complained and were very dissatisfied with the Buddha. When Buddha learned about this, he felt uneasy. From then on, whenever the Buddha came to the West to preach, he gathered all the Buddhists together and stipulated that they were not allowed to go anywhere during these three months and could only repent to atone for their previous sins. Therefore, people call it "Closing Door Festival".

Summer Festival

It is called "Angwa" in Dai language, which means coming out of summer. It originated from the ancient Buddhist habit of living in peace during the rainy season. The time is December 15th of the Dai calendar (about the middle of the ninth month of the lunar calendar). It symbolizes that the three-month rainy season has ended and the taboo on marriage between men and women since the "Door-Door Festival" has been lifted, so people call it the "Open-Door Festival". After the taboo is lifted, young men and women can start free love or hold weddings. On the festival day, young men and women dressed in costumes go to Buddhist temples to worship Buddha and offer food, flowers, wax strips, and coins. After the worship is completed, a grand cultural gathering is held to celebrate the end of the Anju fast since the Close-Door Festival.

The main contents include setting off sparks and soaring, lighting Kongming lanterns, singing and dancing. The young people will also dance around the village with lanterns in the shapes of various birds, animals, fish, insects, etc. At this time, the rice harvest is completed, so it is also a festival to celebrate the harvest.

Introduction to the Dai Nationality

The Dai Nationality is a unique ethnic group in Yunnan. They mainly live in the fertile and fertile Bazi areas with tropical and subtropical climates - Xishuangbanna, Dehong Prefecture, Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and Geng Ma, Menglian and other places. The ancestors of the Dai people are one of the ancient Baiyue people. "Dai" means people who love freedom and peace. The Dai people have distinctive and prominent national characteristics. People generally love singing and dancing. Their dances are vivid and emotionally delicate, and their movements are mostly simulations and beautification of animal forms. The extremely popular ones include "Peacock Dance" and "Elephant Foot Dance", especially the "Peacock Dance" has entered the hall of elegance. Its graceful dance and delicate emotions vividly simulate the beautiful animal like the peacock. The anthropomorphic beautification brings people into a poetic realm, which makes the audience in the metropolis fall in love with it. The Dai language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, the Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family. The Dai people have their own written language, which the Dai people use to record rich historical legends, religious classics, and literature and poetry. The Dai people are not only good at singing and dancing, but also created a splendid culture. They are especially famous for their Dai calendar, Dai medicine and long narrative poems.