In Guizhou, the sixth day of June of the Buyi people is celebrated on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month in most places, but there are also places where the Yin day or Mao day of June is celebrated. The June 6 Festival usually lasts several days. Almost all of June has a place to celebrate it, so it is also called the June Festival.
The Liuyueliu Festival is celebrated by many ethnic minorities in South China, but the Buyi ethnic group is particularly known for their observance of it. It is typically celebrated in most parts of Guizhou on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month and can last for several days. Different tribes of the Buyi ethnic group celebrate the festival throughout June, leading some to refer to it as the June Festival.
Romantic June 6, chaff bags are flying on the Acacia Cliff. (Zhang Fan/Photo Gallery of Guizhou)
Legend about the June 6th Festival
There are many legends about the June 6 Festival. This time, the author only collected and sorted out two legends that are more common and reliable among the Buyi people.
The first legend is to commemorate Yu's birthday. It is said that Yu's birthday is on the sixth day of June. The ancestors of the Buyi nationality are the ancient Yue nationality, and the ancient Yue people are descendants of Yu. So every year, on the sixth day of June, Yu's birthday, the Buyi nationality will hold a grand celebration. The Buyi people worship Dayu as a god, and even when offering sacrifices, they should imitate the step and salute posture of Dayu after he became ill from overwork in his later years, which shows the position of Dayu in the hearts of the Buyi people.
The second is to commemorate the victory over floods. It is said that in ancient times, there was a huge flood one year, which flooded all villages. The ancestors of the Buyi nationality sat on a log and floated halfway up the mountain to survive. It happened to be on the shore on June 6, so every day when they were rescued, they held a grand memorial activity.
This legend can be proved by a custom that has lasted from ancient times to today. After cooking rice dumplings on June 6, before offering them to ancestors, one should be taken to feed the dog, and a string of rice dumplings should be hung on the dog, and then the ancestors should be offered. After offering them to ancestors, people began to eat. It is said that the reason for this custom is that all the food was washed away by the flood at that time. When the ancestors of the Buyi nationality climbed onto the bank and looked back, a family dog also swam onto the bank. When people were worried about the lack of grain seeds, the dog shook the water on his body and shook three grains of rice on the ground. People had these three grains of rice as seeds, and then they had rice to eat. In order to be grateful to the dogs for helping our ancestors overcome difficulties, it is customary for people to give dumplings to dogs first and respect dogs.
Liu Yan (the first from the right), the inheritor of Buyi glutinous rice production, is making "rainbow flower glutinous rice dumplings". (Zhang Fan/Photo Gallery of Guizhou)
Eat, drink and celebrate the festival
June 6 is the largest national festival of the Buyi nationality, so like the Spring Festival, there are many kinds of delicious food. We will not list them here, but simply introduce the special food Zongzi.
The Bouyei people's zongzi have a variety of patterns and are full of variety. In appearance, there are triangular dumplings, pillow dumplings, square dumplings, etc; In terms of weight, some weigh one or two or five or six kilograms; The leaves that wrap Zongzi include small square bamboo leaves (also called Zongba leaves), nanzhu leaves, glutinous sorghum leaves, glutinous corn leaves, banana leaves, lotus leaves, etc. There are more things wrapped in Zongzi, and delicious things can be wrapped with glutinous rice. Common products include ham, sausage, bacon, fresh meat (pork, chicken), peanuts, walnuts, longans, red dates, lotus seeds, red beans, mung beans, etc. The Buyi people also have a kind of grey rice dumpling, which is made by burning glutinous rice seedlings after drying and then mixing them with glutinous rice. Although the color of this dumpling is grey and black, it has a special smell. According to relevant data, there was a kind of ash dumpling in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it was said that the ash used was rice ash, and the author only knew its surface. The ash dumpling used glutinous rice seedling ash instead of rice ash. The gray color of rice is black, and the taste is bitter. The gray color of glutinous rice seedling is gray, without bitter taste, and has a special fragrance. The waxy rice seedlings used must be before jointing (the main stem nodes of stem crops grow quickly at a certain stage of the growth period), and the ash of waxy rice seedlings after jointing will also have a bitter taste.
There are many ways to eat zongzi, such as burning, baking, frying, frying, steaming and boiling, all have different tastes, hot and cold. As the most important traditional food for the Buyi people to celebrate June 6, zongzi has developed a variety of flavors in the hands of intelligent Buyi people, and has become a Buyi specialty food sold far away.
Visit relatives and friends, romantic "wave slope"
Bouyei people pay great attention to emotional exchanges. On New Year's Day and New Year's Day, relatives and friends often visit each other, especially during the Spring Festival, the 6th June Festival and the Oil Mission Festival. In law, relatives must visit each other. If these three festivals are not visited, it means that there is something wrong with this relative and it has come to an end. Especially married girls must take their husbands and children back to their parents' homes to pay their respects. The hand gifts of daughter and son-in-law returning to their parents' home are still wine, chicken, pork and sugar. On the festival, my parents will give me something in return. On the 6th June Festival, I will give you rice dumplings. When other relatives and friends visit each other, only two pots of wine can be brought, and Baba is not required for farewell.
On June 6, ethnic minority compatriots in Zhenfeng County celebrated the traditional festival. (Jia Qingxiang/photo)
Like the Spring Festival, some villages organized "wave slope" activities on June 6. The content of the activity is the same as that of the Spring Festival, including singing and dancing, horse racing, martial arts, playing the suona and other competitions and performances. Because it is a hot day and the temperature is high, it is the time for girls and boys to show their beautiful clothes and body building. Young people wear their most beautiful clothes to participate in the "Wave Slope" activity, "slightly" and "bravely", and talk about love with their loved ones.
Sacrifice to Heaven and Ancestor to Inherit History and Culture
June 6 Festival and the Spring Festival are the most solemn festivals of the Buyi people, so it is necessary to hold ceremonies to worship heaven and ancestors. Like the Spring Festival, the festival was held in front of the "Baogengdui" (Temple of God) in the center of the stockade. Sacrificial offerings can be rich or simple. If conditions permit, live pigs, sheep, chickens, etc. can also be used. A piece of pork or a rooster can also be used, but there must be dumplings. The ceremony is still presided over by the old man of the village. The Moshe or the old man of the village recites the "Sutra of Visiting Yourself" and tells "Baogengdui" that the content is to thank God and God for the protection of the whole village, so that the old and the young of the village are healthy, the grain is abundant, and the six animals are prosperous. At the same time, he is asked to continue to bless the whole village. The priest is a respected senior or old monk in the village.
The special feature of offering sacrifices to heaven on the sixth day of June is that there are special requirements for the appearance, posture and chanting of the priests. In other days, offering sacrifices to heaven has no such requirements for the priests.
On the sixth day of June, when offering sacrifices to heaven, the priests wore old hats and coir raincoats, and held a "falling down" (a wooden ridge tool, which is called "falling down" in Buyi, much like the "digging fork" held by Yu in historical materials). They walked on Yu's feet to worship incense, and crouched on the ground to recite the scriptures and prayers of "Visiting Yourself". It is said that the special attire of "coir hat weng" and "turning upside down" is the image of Yu, because June 6 is Yu's birthday. It is said that Yu held a ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors on his birthday every June 6. As he was busy with water control, most of the worship ceremonies on June 6 were held at the water control site, so he wore an old hat and coir raincoat on his head and held the ceremony with a fork. From this custom, it can also be seen that the Buyi people's celebration of the Six June Festival is related to the worship of Yu.
The Buyi people worship the sky on the sixth day of June, which is called "visiting oneself". To sing the "visiting oneself" sutra is to worship the "self" god. In Buyi language, rainbow is called "E" (the sixth sound), and snake is called "E" (the second sound). In Buyi language, "E" is similar to "Ji". Rainbow is regarded as a living dragon god and a reflection of dragon. When the rainbow appeared, some old people had to kneel down in the past. They should not be rude to the rainbow. If they could not use their fingers, their hands would rot; You can't pee against the rainbow, or you will have no future. The scripture of "Visiting Myself" tells us all about offering sacrifices to dragons, praying that the dragons will protect the safety of people and animals in the village and enrich the grain. Therefore, "Visiting Myself" means offering sacrifices to dragons. The dragon is the "Son of Heaven", representing "Heaven". Sacrificing to the dragon is to sacrifice to "Heaven". Yu was deified as a dragon by the ancients. Shuowen: "Yu is also a worm". The ancients regarded the dragon as an insect, which actually refers to Yu as the dragon. According to Wen Yiduo's Fuxi Textual Research, Xia was a dragon family. It is said that Yu himself was a dragon, and the surname Si of Xia people was his own. "Ji" and "snake" were the same words in ancient times. Yu was deified as a dragon and a snake, so the Buyi people "visit themselves" to worship dragons and snakes is to worship the Great Yu God.
In the custom of "visiting oneself", there is also the custom of offering sacrifices to White Horse God. In addition to livestock, the sacrifice of "Visiting Oneself" also included half a bucket of rice, on which were inserted small paper horses cut from white paper and small five color pennants. At the time of sacrifice, the blood of the slaughtered chicken is smeared on the paper horse. After the sacrifice, the paper horse and the pennant are inserted into the rice fields in the village to avoid insect infestation. White paper horse symbolizes white horse, and chicken blood is painted on it to symbolize "blood white horse for sacrifice", so as to pray that white horse god will protect crops from pests. The Buyi people not only worship the white horse god on June 6, but also use paper horses cut from white paper for big festivals such as the Spring Festival, March 3, or big ceremonies such as funerals, which is obviously related to Xia Yu's worship of the white horse god. In the past, the sacrifice to heaven must be made by the "Son of Heaven", that is, the emperor himself. Yu was the god of heaven, the incarnation of the dragon, and qualified to sacrifice to heaven. Therefore, the priests of the Buyi nationality dressed up as Yu (wearing old hats, wearing old coir raincoat, and holding the "upside down" hand).
After the whole village has sacrificed the community god collectively, each family will return to their own home to worship their ancestors. It is simple in form, mainly offering sacrifices and kneeling for blessing.
The sixth of June is a traditional festival of the Buyi nationality, which is formed by the Buyi compatriots in the long-term farming and rice farming activities. It takes sacrifice, singing and dancing as the carrier, integrates religion, production and entertainment, and carries the culture of the Buyi nationality. From the way the Buyi people spend June 6, we can see that the Buyi people are low-key and introverted, full of wisdom, and live in harmony with nature and society. If you want to know about the Buyi nationality, one of the ethnic minorities in Guizhou, let's spend June 6 together.
Article | Wu Zhonggang
New Media Editor | Xu Jieyu
Second instance | Zhang Fen
Third instance | Zhao Lin
