Torch Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Yi people of Hezhang are an important settlement group in the Wumeng mountain area at the western foot of the Miaoling range. In the Yi language the Torch Festival is called "Duorengji," a directional name from the twelve-animal cycle; the festival is set on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month, exactly when corn is tasseling and tobacco is still green, so the purpose of carrying torches into the fields needs no explanation — the villagers understand at a glance. Yi people in different regions offer different accounts of the festival's origin: one links it to the New Year festival of the ancient ten-month calendar, another to the age-old practice of using fire to drive away pests and protect seedlings; the Hezhang area has left no more detailed records, mostly relying on the old precedent of "as it has always been" transmitted by village elders, who mostly speak of whose family lit the first fire and in which year the fire was biggest. The festival calendar is directly geared to local farming: the night the torches are stuck into the corners and edges of the fields is precisely when the corn is most vulnerable to pests, and wherever the firelight reaches is regarded as protecting the seedlings. Here the Chinese character "festival" is not an anniversary but a station in the agricultural calendar.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yi Torch Festival is the grandest traditional festival of the Yi people of Hezhang County, Guizhou Province, held annually on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month. The Yi are the most populous ethnic minority in Hezhang County and have preserved strong ethnic traditional cultural characteristics. The local Yi language calls the Torch Festival "Duorengji"; its origin, festival period, and festival activities are the same as those of the Torch Festival of the Yi people in other regions, and it is mainly observed in Yi settlement villages.
The date of Duorengji
The local Y name for the Torch Festival, fixed on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month when the corn is tasselling.
Making torches
Pine and bamboo cut to length and bound into great torches for the village square and smaller ones for each home.
Lighting and circling the village
Elders light the great torches and lead the people around the village, planting small torches in the corners of the fields.
Horse racing and bull fighting
Racing on the slope outside the village and bulls matched by horn, the losers of which traditionally treat the village to wine.
The festival fair
A fair timed to coincide with the local market days, dealing in livestock, produce and cloth and carrying news between villages.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Hezhang the Torch Festival is held only in Yi settlement villages, each village tying, lighting, and celebrating on its own: one village holds it for one day or three days; the wood for the torches is mostly pine branches and bamboo from the mountains, piled in the center of the village open ground, with the village singing and dancing circling around it. The day's proceedings are broadly similar to those of the Yi areas of Yunnan and Sichuan: at nightfall the fire is lit, first with elders leading people around the village and sticking torches into the corners and edges of the fields, then returning to the village to dance and sing; by day there are horse races, bullfights, archery, and wrestling, with a market held every other day. Hezhang lies on the mountain transport route of northwestern Guizhou, and the market days of its villages already differ in sequence, so the Torch Festival market is often linked with the regular fair day, and those who come to the market are largely the same people as those celebrating the festival. In terms of protection, the Hezhang County Cultural Center has registered, village by village, the craftsmen who tie torches and the elders who preside over the ceremonies; what remains are mainly the seasonal mnemonics and the craft lineage of torch-making, while few people can still recite the old Yi-language song lyrics in full, so the survival of the Torch Festival rests on the hands of a few villages.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Torch Festival · Torch Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The project is of great significance for strengthening the ethnic group's own cohesion and promoting unity among ethnic groups, and also has important value for research in ethnology, folklore, and astronomy.
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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