Torch Festival
01 · Historical Records
Some scholars believe that the origin of the Torch Festival is related to people's worship of fire, its purpose being the hope of using fire to drive away insects and eliminate pests and to protect the growth of crops. The Torch Festival fully expresses the Yi people's national character of honoring and venerating fire, preserves ancient information about the origins and development of the Yi, and has important historical and scientific value. It is one of the most iconic symbols of traditional Yi culture, and a carrier of cultural elements such as traditional Yi music, dance, poetry, diet, dress, farming, astronomy and veneration. It is of great significance for strengthening the Yi people's consciousness of national self-identity and promoting social harmony. At the same time, it plays a practical role as a means of exchange between the Yi people and other ethnic groups and in promoting ethnic unity.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yi Torch Festival is a traditional festival of all Yi regions, popular in the Yi areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. The Bai, Nakhi, Jino, Lahu and other ethnic groups also celebrate this festival. The Torch Festival on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month is the most solemn, grandest and most ethnically characteristic festival of Chuxiong and the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. In ancient times the Torch Festival was also called the Xinghui Festival (the Stars Return). Some scholars believe that this festival was originally a New Year festival in the Yi ten-month calendar. The Torch Festival is the New Year's day of the first half of the year, hence also called “passing the great New Year”. During the festival, each village ties dry pine wood and pine knots into large torches and stands them in the village, and each household erects a small torch before its door; when night falls they are lit, and the whole village is brilliantly illuminated. At the same time, people carry small torches in a circuit around the fields and houses, planting the torches and pine knots at the corners of the fields. Young men and women sing to stringed instruments and dance around the big torch in the village center, all night without rest. During the festival there are also entertainments such as horse racing, bullfighting, archery, wrestling, tug-of-war and swinging on swings, and trade markets are opened. The four major categories of activities held during the Torch Festival — sacrifice, arts and sports, social interaction and product exchange — are a concentrated expression of the rigorous and complete Yi cultural system. The Yi Torch Festival has a long history, a broad mass basis, wide coverage and far-reaching influence.
Making torches
Before the festival, pine logs and resinous pine are bundled into large torches for the village square and small ones for each household.
Lighting torches and circling the fields
People carry small torches around the fields and homesteads, planting them in the corners so that the fire reaches every plot.
Singing and dancing around the bonfire
People sit in a circle around the great torch, men leading on a three-stringed lute while women dance, singing until dawn.
Horse racing and bull fighting
The daytime highlights: horse racing along the slope, and bull fights judged by strength and hide.
The festival fair
The final phase: livestock, produce and textiles traded at the fair, where marriage and credit are also settled.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Within Liangshan Prefecture, the Torch Festival mainly takes the Yi-inhabited basins (bazi) and mountain valleys as its venues, with each village setting up its own torch and comparing it with the others: big bundles of dry pine and pine knots are stood in the village, and small torches are erected before every door; at nightfall they are all lit together, and the whole village seems enveloped in a smell of pine resin. On the night of the festival people carry small torches in one circuit around the fields and houses, then stick the torches and pine knots in the corners of the fields, walking through field by field; wherever the torchlight reaches is taken to drive off insects and protect the seedlings. Late at night the open ground of the village is surrounded by young men and women, singing and dancing all night without dispersing; the next day gives way to horse racing, bullfighting, archery, wrestling, tug-of-war, swinging and trade markets, with the four categories of activities each taking up a full day in turn.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Torch Festival · Torch Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
After Liangshan Prefecture made the Torch Festival a prefecture-wide ethnic holiday, the former torch exchanges between villages and between ethnic groups turned into organized grand events: the prefecture uniformly arranges horse-racing slots, theatrical performances and market grounds, and counties and townships field teams to take part. The spontaneity born in the villages thereby gains a much larger stage, yet loses some of its ease — the torch is no longer just a small pile at each family's door, but a program that requires scheduling and registration. As for the relation between fire and farming, June is precisely the time when mountain crops such as maize and potatoes are most vulnerable to insects; the acts of tying torches, circling the fields and planting the flames survive to this day, and the festival's harvest-praying function has not vanished along with its staging, only been reordered within the sequence of ritual and performance: first sacrifice, then arts, then sports, and finally the market — the once-yearly prayer for harvest still rests in the first segment.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Pushunfa 04-1958
- Wang Xiuping
- He Yinggui
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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