Zaza Festival

Yunnan
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The "L Za Za" Festival, also known as the June Festival, is held in the middle of the sixth lunar month every year. It is a grand traditional festival of the Hani people in Honghe, just as lively and grand as the Spring Festival of the Han people. By then, the Hani mountain village is full of joy and excitement. People wear colorful festival costumes and gather in groups to the Mo Qiu field to play and entertain themselves in Mo Qiu and celebrate the festival. "L Za Za" means to welcome "E Ju" (an immortal) to visit the Hani world, exorcise evil and demons for the Hani people, and pray for "E Ju" to bless the village with peace, prosperity of people and livestock, and a good harvest. "L Za Za" is the June Festival of the Hani people. During this festival, every village and village plays on the swings. In addition, they also go from village to village and dance drums. "L Za Za" lasts for 3 to 5 days, starting on the first Monkey Day of May in the lunar calendar every year. At this time, the rice seedlings have just been planted and there is little farm work, so people take this opportunity to celebrate. The seedlings in the field turn from yellow to green, welcoming the arrival of the seedling pulling season. We wish the seedlings to grow vigorously and grow large and long rice ears, so that every household can live a good life with enough food and clothing. The main activity of "L Za Za" is swinging. On the first day of the festival, each village and village will go up the mountain to select a thick and straight pine tree to make a grinding pole. The pole has a specified size, and the length cannot vary by more than 3 to 5 inches each year. The pole wood is cut at night and carried back to the village before dawn. On the second day, every family kills two chickens and a duck to offer the swing wood, and then the swing swing is erected, the swing swing is rotated vertically, and the cowhide drum is placed on the earthen ridge slightly higher than the ground on one side of the swing field. The swing swing is made by planting hard chestnut wood on the ground, sharpening the top as the axis, and then chiseling the middle section of the several-meter-long pine crossbar on the rack. When grinding the swing swing, equal people sit or climb on both ends of the crossbar, and take turns to pedal the ground to make the swing swing rise and fall and rotate, like a mill, so it is called grinding swing. According to the rules of the Hani people, the autumn poles must be cut at night and carried back by the young men before dawn. They sang folk songs all the way and carried the autumn poles made of hard and sturdy wood to the autumn field beside the village. They planted a piece of wood in the soil, cut the top thinly as the axis, and then chiseled a long horizontal pole in the middle and placed it on top. The horizontal poles on both sides must be the same length and cut smooth to avoid scratching their hands. In the afternoon, the Hani people dressed in gorgeous clothes gathered shoulder to shoulder at the autumn field. According to the traditional custom of the Hani people to respect the elderly, several respected elders first "opened the autumn". After they symbolically swung a few times, pairs of young men and girls took turns to go up and turn. Grinding autumn is an interesting sports activity for the Hani people. It requires the number of people on both sides of the autumn to be equal. The people riding on it use their feet to push the ground, sometimes spinning rapidly, sometimes rising and falling, turning repeatedly, and swinging leisurely. The speed of the swinger is getting faster and faster, and the onlookers are also happier. The crowd shouts "Oh, oh, oh" from time to time to cheer them on, and the atmosphere is very warm. Those young men with high skills and courage and extraordinary skills often become the objects of admiration of girls. The turning autumn is more complicated. It is to plant a four-meter-long sturdy chestnut tree at a relative distance of three or four meters, chisel a slide groove on the top, use a piece of wood as a crossbar to put into the slide groove, and string four pieces of wood in an X shape of about two meters in the middle of the crossbar. A cable is tied to the top of each X shape, and people sit in it. Each end can sit one or two people, and the whole turning autumn can sit four or eight people. The people sitting face outwards, and the person whose feet land on the ground pushes the ground to turn over; it turns faster and faster, and when it is fast, it looks like a ball spinning, so it is called turning autumn. The swing is a kind of swing that the Han people often play. Tie one end of two strands of brown rope to a thick branch of a tree, and tie a small wooden board at both ends of the rope about 70 cm from the ground. People stand on the pedals, hold the brown rope with both hands, squat and stand, and the swing will start. On this day, the wall of the village gate is full of bamboo tubes, in which pine branches, rice seedlings, and pepper branches are inserted, praying for the fullness of rice. Before dark, when the bamboo tubes are taken home, the ceremony of offering sacrifice to Moqiu begins. At this time, a torch is tied to one end of the Moqiu, and the people next to it hold a bamboo dustpan filled with food to offer sacrifice to Moqiu. The host sprinkles cups of wine on Moqiu, wishing for a good harvest of grains and the health of people and livestock, and then turns Moqiu three times, so that the end with the torch lit turns high to the east three times, to welcome the arrival of the gods and protect the crops of the Hani people. On the third day, as soon as the sun rises, the rice planting horn is blown, and men and women rush to the swing field, and Moqiu flies and people laugh. After playing on the swing, the village tour begins! Some young men wore women's clothes, some painted their faces with soot from the bottom of a pot, some wore masks, some wore pants torn into strips, and some had bells hanging on their waists. In short, you can dress up however you want. Hani young men in various poses walked from village to village, and the girls danced the monkey dance to the beat of the drums to welcome the team. The young men took the flower towels from the girls and asked them to step aside. They shrugged their shoulders, tilted their necks, twisted their waists, and used their hands and feet to dance humorous drums. For a while, some people were dancing drums, some were beating autumn balls, and everyone was full of energy and joy, with laughter all over the place. As the sun set, a row of crisp gunshots rang out on the grinding autumn field, notifying people to come and sing and dance. The young men and women who had hidden in the woods to talk about love gathered in pairs, and the elderly and children also gathered. The old people sat around drinking and having fun, the children chased after the playthings, and the young people formed a circle and danced fan dance, bamboo stick dance, and music dance. The sound of gongs and drums, strings, and cheers intertwined and echoed among the mountains, and a sleepless carnival night began. On May 24, 2021, it was selected into the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative project list.

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