Gelao people are good at weaving, embroidery and batik. Historically, because of the different colors and styles of clothing, they were called green gelao, red gelao, flower gelao and robe gelao respectively. The traditional costumes of the modern Gelao nationality are also very distinctive. Women wear long-sleeved collarless dresses with rich layers and different themes, and the techniques are batik and color embroidery. A pleated skirt, a pair of pointed shoes and a small waist are all embroidered and dyed. Men wear green double-breasted shirts, belts, trousers, white cloth or green cloth heads, gold ingot shoes or cloud hook shoes.
Girls like to wear black headscarves with red, yellow, green and purple colored lace embroidered on one end. Wear silver ornaments and pointed embroidered shoes. There are also short-sleeved clothes and pants in stone skirts. The sleeves are wide and short, and the lapels and shoulders are decorated with wide edges. Pants are short and legs are narrow. Gelao women are good at spinning, and the clothing fabrics are all self-woven and self-dyed, which are durable, simple and generous.
In the Qing Dynasty, men wore long braids, but after the Revolution of 1911, they gradually cut them off. Unmarried women wear long braids and drag them behind their heads or heads with colored ribbons, which is called "tasteful". Compared with the wedding dress board, it is called "raw edge", Cambodia hair net (commonly known as net bag), silver tube, wrapped in white cloth or green cloth. For the rich, women hold "fun", wear flowers, earrings, rings (commonly known as hoops) and hand thresholds (commonly known as circles); Men wear satin hats (commonly known as melon skins) and old people wear hoods. Before and after the founding of the county, men were mostly bald, and the Gelao people among public servants and students were "Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum" and "Sun Hat". Young women in towns comb their "sister heads" with long braids and use hairpins instead of silver ornaments. In the early days of liberation, young women liked to write long speeches. After the 1980s, the number of Gelao farmers wearing watches increased. Hairstyles change frequently, and urban young men burn "big buns" and "small buns"; Women's perms are "big waves", "letters", "curly clouds" and "chrysanthemums". Young men in rural areas tend to be "flat-headed", married women tend to have multiple plates and double braids, and girl Dozza has double short braids.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the poor wore barefoot or sandals, the rich wore cloth shoes and socks, and wore "spikes" (commonly known as shoes claws) in rainy days. Women wrap their feet and wear "inner shoes" and "cage shoes" with soft soles, and then "straw shoes" with embroidered shoes. Before and after the founding of the county, the bad habit of foot binding was gradually changed. Men wear sandals, women wear cloth shoes, and few people wear socks. In the 1960s, rubber shoes were popular in cities and towns, and "fur shoes" (made of old tires) were worn in rural areas. Since 1980s, rubber overshoes, leather shoes, plastic sandals, nylon stockings and mercerized socks have become very common in urban and rural areas. Most of the areas where the Gelao people live are in the slope zone of the transition from Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to Sichuan Basin, with complex terrain and humid climate. The economic life of the Gelao nationality is dominated by agriculture. Corn is planted in mountainous areas and rice is planted in flat areas. Therefore, these two crops are also the most important food for the Gelao people. In busy farming season, we eat three meals by solar eclipse and two more meals in slack farming season. In addition to dinner, there are customs such as "premature", "taking a break" and "midnight snack". Meat is mainly pork, followed by chicken, duck and mutton. Most people don't eat beef and horse meat and dead poultry and livestock meat. Love to eat sour and spicy, there is a saying that "if you don't eat sour for three days, people will salvage and flee (lāo chuān)." Ciba is often offered to ancestors and gods by parents, and it is also a hospitality and holiday food. Glutinous rice cake is an essential food in Gelao festival activities. During the Spring Festival, every household will make a big Baba with one liter or several liters of glutinous rice and put it in a dustpan or a square wooden plate to worship their ancestors. You can't eat it for three days. In western Guizhou, the Gelao people also planted grass on the cakes with lobster sauce leaves (flat bamboo leaves), indicating that their ancestors planted grass when clearing land; Gelao people in Guangxi also have the habit of adding Zongba and sweet potato to their offerings on New Year's Eve. All festivals, such as Dragon Boat Festival and Double Ninth Festival, should entertain guests, but they should all make Ciba.
Gelao people are used to steaming corn flour in a steamer, which is called corn dry rice; This is the main food on the dining table of the Gelao people all year round. In festivals, if guests from far away come to the door, they will add the same amount of white rice to the corn flour and steam it, which is called "bibimbap".
In order to get rid of moisture and keep warm, Gelao people need a pot of Chili soup for every meal. There are many ways to eat Gelao Chili, such as Chili porridge, moldy tofu Chili, bean Chili and so on. However, their favorite is Chili bone made of bone meal and Chili.
Gelao people love to drink, and most of them are brewed by themselves. In the first year, there was mixed wine with corn, sorghum, corn, millet and barley as raw materials. After the fermentation, the jar is sealed, and a bamboo tube is preset for drinking. Most of them are liqueur and shochu. Sweet wine, commonly known as "cold bad", is brewed with glutinous rice or corn and millet, and is mostly used to cook glutinous rice balls and eggs, or to drink with cold water. Soju, also known as soju, is brewed from corn or sorghum, and has a strong flavor, which is a must for entertaining guests and banquets. Men like smoking (also known as leaf tobacco), some middle-aged and elderly women smoke leaf tobacco, and the number of young people smoking cigarettes is increasing. Tea is divided into green tea and camellia oleifera. Green tea is often cooked with eagle tea, rattan tea, home-made tea or kudingcha. Camellia oleifera is fried with home tea oil, boiled in water, dried in the sun, repeatedly kneaded with the back of a wooden spoon into a paste, which is called "tea soup", then fried in oil, boiled in water, seasoned with salt, and seasoned with sesame, walnut kernel and pepper. You can eat it with Baba, Zongzi, sesame candy, melon seeds and so on. It can also be cooked with "Camellia oleifera eggs", "Camellia oleifera glutinous rice balls" and "Camellia oleifera porridge". Most local believers have the habit of "eating camellia oleifera" and regard it as a great pleasure to entertain guests. Some people will eat three meals during the eclipse, otherwise they will be depressed. Most of the Jilao people living in the old city and Longxing area do not have the custom of "eating camellia oleifera".
Banquets are often based on crispy buttons (also known as boiled white) and yesterday's buttons, with finished products such as slippery meat (also known as crispy meat), vermicelli, yellow flowers, fungus, beans, etc., to form "eight bowls" or "ten bowls", commonly known as "big water mats". They deliberately get drunk without paying wages, and the food is warm and rich. "Three tables" prevail in Daguan and Sanqiao, that is, the banquet is divided into three tables, the first time is after drinking tea, or the first time is after drinking tea. Camellia oleifera is served with cakes, sugar, dried fruits, sunflower seeds, wine with cold dishes, and rice with steamed bowl soup. Seats are mostly per table 10 (2 people in the upper and lower seats and 3 people in the left and right seats), each table 12 in the old city, Panxi and Yuanxi areas, and 8 people in the county seat.
Special diet
Camellia oleifera:
Gelao people in some areas like to eat camellia oleifera. The production method is to heat lard in an iron pan, mix it with eggs and meat, then mix it with water, add a little salt and sugar, boil it to make a drink, and add popcorn, popcorn, crispy food, sesame cake, peanuts and glutinous rice cake to serve guests in a dry and balanced way.
Shredded pork with lily is a famous dish with unique flavor in Gelao nationality area. Wuchuan lily powder, fine processing, loose powder, smooth and delicate, fragrant and delicious.
Wuchuan beef jerky: It has national flavor, reddish brown color and delicious taste. Because the beef in the mountainous area here is tender, Wuchuan beef jerky is sold to Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces and regions.
Daozhen Ancient City Ash Tofu Fruit: Tofu is made from soybean, tung shell ash, plant ash leaf ash and buckwheat stalk ash by traditional methods. Crispy texture, dark color, fresh and delicious. The Gelao nationality is widely distributed in Guizhou, especially in the counties in central and northern Guizhou, with great differences in language and customs, but the Gelao nationality comes from Gupu people. There is no consistent similarity between their customs. Let's talk about the festivals of the Gelao people: (according to the lunar calendar)
New year:
Generally speaking, on the fourteenth day of the first month, the main activities are: eating chopping board meat, going to the grave, offering sacrifices to ancestors (providing meals), offering sacrifices to four officials, and farming. Insert fragrant flowers at night, chase insects and ants, and chase fire insects. In the early morning of the next day (the fifteenth day of the first month), we poured tea, grabbed silver water and served rice. The new year is about lights.
On March 3:
On the birthday of Bodhisattva, some Gelao people offered sacrifices to King Shan in order to fulfill their wishes.
Tomb-Sweeping Day:
Hanging ancestral graves.
Duanyang Festival:
Usually on the fifth day of May, we eat zongzi to worship our ancestors.
Half a month:
Generally, on July 14, the new valley is cut to taste new things and worship the ancestors.
August festival:
Gelao nationality is an ancient nationality in China, which is recorded in the history books of Tang and Song Dynasties. The most solemn traditional festival of the Gelao nationality is August Festival (August 15-20). On the first day of the festival, all people, old and young, will put on new clothes and gather on the terrace of the stockade. Several young people brought a yellow ox with a big red flower, and the oldest person in the village, the clan elders, began to pray for a bumper harvest. The band played the Eight Immortals and set off gunpowder and firecrackers at the same time. Then kill the cow and cut off the heart of the cow, one for each household, indicating that the whole family is United as one. Later, the "clan elders" also led the people to hold pigs, old chickens and old geese to sacrifice under the bodhisattva tree. After the ceremony, the whole family got together for dinner until dark. The next day, after the family dinner, the women took their children back to their parents' home to give gifts. Men make friends, sing and chat in the street. It is said that the singing and dancing activities of young men and women continued until the last day of the festival.
Double ninth festival:
Generally, I will visit my relatives on August 15 (to see off Ciba).
Off-year:
Generally on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, the main activities are: eating chopping board meat, going to the grave, offering sacrifices to ancestors (providing meals) and offering sacrifices to Siguan Miao in the evening. The next morning, I poured tea, grabbed silver water, ate glutinous rice balls and offered rice. Fire is the most important thing in off-year.
China New Year:
The earliest Gelao people took October as an annual festival according to the law of crop growth. Jiajing's Guizhou Picturesque records that the Gelao people "start each year with the autumn harvest". According to the records of Anshun Prefecture in Qing Dynasty, the Gelao people "take October as the beginning of the year". Since the Qing Dynasty, the Gelao nationality gradually imitated the Han nationality to celebrate the New Year from the 30th of the twelfth lunar month to the first day of the first month, and the original custom of the first day of October was gradually abolished.
The New Year's Day went backwards and absorbed some New Year's etiquette, but many traditional customs of the Gelao nationality in 2008 were still preserved. Gelao people all over the country should make glutinous rice cakes for their ancestors during the Spring Festival. There are large and small glutinous rice cakes, and the quantity is more or less. Villages, surnames and even groups are held in the same village, which is carried out by each family alone, but more often it is carried out by each family alone.
New Year's Eve:
Every household has rich dishes, wine and rice on the Eight Immortals table in front of the shrine in the main hall. After burning incense paper to worship the ancestors, the whole family, men, women and children get together for a reunion dinner.
Gelao festival
Gelao people have two festivals in a year, one is the Spring Festival, and the other is the year of Gelao people, which falls on the third day of the third lunar month. The time and customs of the Spring Festival are roughly the same as those of the Han nationality, but there is a special content of "feeding trees". "Feeding trees", also known as "offering sacrifices to trees" or "worshipping trees", originated from the worship of animistic ancient trees (big trees) by the Gelao people. At noon on the 14th day of the first lunar month, the Gelao people in Longlin Autonomous County of Guangxi prepared rice wine, pork, fresh fish, glutinous rice and other offerings, brought red paper firecrackers and went up the mountain to worship trees as relatives and friends. After seeing the tree, set off firecrackers first, and then choose the tall and stout old tree to burn paper and incense and bow down. After the worship, sacrifice to the tree: one person cuts three holes in the bark with a knife, the other person "feeds" some meat, rice and wine at the knife edge, and finally seals the knife edge with red paper to weed and cultivate the soil for the tree. Answer different words for different trees when feeding. For fruit trees, say, "hey, string;" Feed you meat, take off the knot, "and say I wish you fruitful results. After feeding the tree, people gathered to enjoy a feast. In some areas, on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, people will hold ox hearts and new rice to worship the sacred tree "Bodhisattva Tree" next to the village, praying for a bumper year.
Insect eating festival
Every year, the second day of the sixth lunar month is the "Insect-eating Festival" of the Gelao people. On this day, there are several special dishes on every table-fried locusts, pickled grasshoppers, sweet fried pupae, fried rice loach and so on.
In some areas, "offering sacrifices to trees" is called "offering sacrifices to mountains", because the Gelao people have lived in mountainous areas for generations, and their love and respect for mountains is completely understandable. The specific object of "mountain sacrifice" is also a tall and lush ancient tree near the village, which is the embodiment of tenacious vitality. Sacrifice takes the village as the unit, and only adult men can participate. In addition to offering sacrifices, the wizard also sings "Song of Sacrifice to the Mountain", asking the mountain gods to bless the village peace, the harvest of crops and the prosperity of people and animals.
Eating New Year's Day
Every year in July and August of the lunar calendar, when the new valley of the Gelao nationality is ripe and the harvest is about to begin, the Gelao nationality will choose another day to eat new food (also called tasting new food), offer sacrifices to their ancestors, thank them for their kindness, and wish good weather in the coming year. On the memorial day, housewives will go to the fields to pick new grains and offer sacrifices to their ancestors. Some areas kill chickens and pigs, and even sacrifice cows and horses to heaven and earth. It is not Jinuo people who pick new grain on the first day of the New Year. New Year's Day is held in August and September when millet is ripe. On the morning of the festival, families go to the fields to pick new grains and vegetables for cooking and kill chickens for sacrifice. Pay attention to the direction of the steam coming out of the rice cooker: coming out of the east indicates the prosperity of future generations; The emergence from the south indicates a bumper harvest; The appearance from the west symbolizes the smooth hunting; Coming out of the north is a bad omen. After the meal is ready, parents will hold sacrificial activities to worship Zhazhai God, Blacksmith God and Tang Fire God. Legend has it that Jinuo people used to eat only sweet potatoes and wild vegetables. It was their dog who brought back a grain. They planted it, but they didn't get much. Later, a white-haired old man taught them the knowledge of planting millet, so they harvested new rice in Man Cang. Since then, they have a tradition of the New Rice Festival.
Dear vulture day
"Bird" is the totem of the Gelao people, and the first day of the second lunar month is the traditional "Bird Festival" of the Gelao people, where sacrificial ceremonies and traditional folk skills are held. In order to protect and inherit the intangible cultural heritage and national culture of the Gelao people, Yaoshang held the "Yaoshang Gelao Bird Festival" on 20 10. "Bird Worship Festival" is a comprehensive folk activity to worship the sparrow god handed down from generation to generation by the ancestors of the Gelao nationality, and it is a kind of sacrificial activity to pray for the descendants of the Gelao nationality, the prosperity of their family business and the bumper harvest of grain. According to the "Yao Shang Deng Family Tree", the Bird Festival has a history of at least 300 years. Bird Festival takes "bird worship" as the core, including the ecological environment, residential buildings and vibrant folk culture preserved by bird worship.
On the Baique Festival, the Gelao compatriots showed their unique activities to tourists: holding Baique Festival sacrifices, singing roadblocking songs, drinking roadblocking wine, performing trombone suona, Gelao Maolong, Gelao marriage customs, folk songs duet, Yao impression and so on. Carry out ethnic and folk competitive activities with unique rural characteristics such as bullfighting, pulling cattle, touching bars, arm wrestling, touching teeth and catching live chickens.
Mountain festival
In March of the lunar calendar, the spring mountains are bright, the spring rain is harmonious, the spring swallow returns, and everything recovers. This is the key moment of spring ploughing production, and it is also the day when the Gelao people worship the mountains. Mountain sacrifices are usually on the third day of March, and some are on the first or third day of March. Villages offering sacrifices to mountains are organized by their own units. There is only one surname in a village, and the mountain sacrifice is presided over by the long room hereditary; Multi-surname stockaded village presides in turn. Every year, several households are on duty, and the duty is decided by lot. Facing the sacred tree, the owner respectfully offered sacrifices, called on famous gods to enjoy the sacrifices, and prayed that the mountain gods would bless the whole village to be clean and safe, with abundant grains and prosperous livestock. Men could plow cattle and rake the ground, and women could spin and weave, and have more children.
The hillside where the sacred tree is located is regarded as a sacred place by the Gelao people and cherished. People are not allowed to be trampled by cattle and horses, to cut down trees on the mountain, and to enter the mountain to cut firewood and grass at will, which objectively plays the role of closing the mountain to facilitate afforestation.
Catch the spring water
The Gelao nationality in Hewuchuan Road Town, Zunyi County has the custom of "grabbing spring water".
On the first day of the lunar calendar "beginning of spring" in spring, every family cleans the house, picks up enough water and prepares firecrackers. On the day of "beginning of spring", I didn't wash clothes, thinking that washing clothes would dirty the spring water, sweep the floor or carry water. The person who "grabs the spring" is an unmarried man or woman in the family. If there are several unmarried men and women in the family, parents should appoint an honest, capable, witty and brave person. If there are no unmarried men and women at home, you should borrow one from your relatives or neighbors and invite them to live at home the night before.
When the rooster crows for the first time, the person who "grabs the spring water" gets up quietly, puts on tools filled with water and walks to the water's edge in the dark. Don't make any noise or rattle, otherwise it will disturb the "spring water". Then gently scoop water with a bowl, usually twelve bowls (thirteen bowls in leap month). After scooping it up, I opened my mouth and shouted, "grab the spring!" " Then lit firecrackers, the whole stockade crackled, whose firecrackers rang first, indicating that the family was fighting for "head water" and the dolls were diligent. People go to wells or springs to fetch water. On their way home, they shout "Spring water to my house, to my house …" When they get home, they immediately boil water and cook "Spring water". Then make a pot of tea. After the whole family gets up, everyone will drink a cup of "spring water" fragrant tea, another cup of honey rice tea and eat Yuanxiao, wishing the whole family peace.
Luheyan
The so-called "Liuhe" means "unity, forbearance, tolerance, sincerity and harmony, kindness and courtesy", which is the code of conduct and moral standard of the ancestors of the Gelao nationality and the most distinctive spiritual dependence in the Gelao culture.
Then, in order to commemorate the ancestors of the Gelao people who opened up wasteland to mow grass, people advocate "harmony" and "seven rules" (benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, loyalty, filial piety and resignation). Every year or at the end of the year, people will come up with their best meals and gather in the ancestral temple in the village to compete for wine and food, and tell the story of a year of hard work. Three or five days before the wedding, the Gelao girls began to "cry and marry". When getting married, the groom does not greet her personally, but sends a sedan chair to the woman's house before dark the day before the wedding. Before entering the door, the woman has a special person to preside over the "door-stopping ceremony", but also to propose a toast, lay a carpet, wait for you, and so on. Every program has a traditional greeting and must be sung according to the rules, otherwise she will be laughed at. When a girl gets married, she carries the sedan chair into the hall first, and the bride's brother or uncle "pulls" the bride out of the back room, kowtows to her ancestors' parents, and then "forcibly carries" her into the sedan chair to show that she doesn't want to go home. The bride's family carried the sedan chair out of the village before giving it to the man's sedan chair bearer. There are two men with broadswords in front of the sedan chair, surrounded by colorful flags and blue umbrellas. On the way, they blew their horns and fired guns, blowing and beating, and it was very lively. After arriving at the groom's house, the bride should dress up again, and then go to the spacious place in the village to let everyone laugh and establish friendly feelings with the villagers.
Weddings are more interesting in the Gelao nationality in northwest Guizhou. The groom rode his horse to the wedding reception, accompanied by four groomsmen, two of whom were holding bamboo brooms and the other two were holding wine and meat gifts. On the way, several strong men sent by the woman stopped the way to "rob" and ate the "robbed" wine and meat on the hillside, indicating that the woman's family was rich and didn't want this gift from you. When the groom arrived at the gate of the woman's village, a group of people surrounded him with sawdust, and the man held a bamboo broom to protect the breakthrough. When the groom ran into the woman's house, there was a "toast" immediately, and the bride and groom also toasted each other. After the toast, the groom "hugs" the bride on horseback, and the groom leads the way back.
There are two or three grand wedding banquets, that is, to eat two or three different seats in a row. The first is a tea mat, which only eats tea, fried food and dried and fresh fruits. The second stage is the banquet, where we should drink white wine and eat all kinds of cold dishes. The third table is the main seat. In addition to two bowls of braised pork, there are also various ethnic flavors of cooking and frying.
At the wedding banquet, the Gelao people also entertain guests with wine. Sucking wine is to seal the brewed wine and insert two bamboo poles in an altar where firewood, ash and yellow mud are mixed. After bending down all the time, the bamboo joints are not fully opened. When drinking, you can get through the bamboo joints, go straight into the air, and suck it in with your elbow. When drinking, a singer sings "slapstick songs" to make the guests feel warm. In ancient times, the Gelao people carried out cliff burial and sarcophagus burial. Although there are wooden coffins and sarcophagus in modern times, there are still remains of cliff burial and sarcophagus burial, and burial must be marked by stone foundation. Poplar trees should be planted at the grave, and thoreau tree, osmanthus trees and other trees symbolizing good feng shui should be planted in front of the grave. There are two kinds of cliff burial: natural burial and artificial burial. There are several kinds of artificial caves, such as cliff cutting caves, slate mosaic caves, lime bamboo arch caves and adobe arch caves. There are other shapes of slate inlays, such as "file bucket", "basket shape", "Hall of Fame", "Hall of Fame" and "Tibetan coffin". Stone inlay can be used by fathers, sons and mothers-in-law. The sarcophagus, made of slate, is usually buried in earthen ruins, hilltops, streams and also in rocky jungles. The existing cliff burial is famous for Qingqiu Cliff Tombs in Sanhui Township, Daozhen County. Graves were dug in neat rows on the steep cliff, and each cave was about1.2m high,1.7m wide and 2m deep. The tombs in the cave are inlaid with stones, arranged neatly, and the numbers are mostly singular, and some have 7 letters, 9 letters or even more than 10 letters. Wang Yinliang's Tomb in Daozhen County. The front wall of the tomb is made of bluestone and carved into a memorial archway, which is generally pagoda-shaped, divided into three layers, 5.5 meters high and 6 meters wide. There are three tomb gates on the ground floor, carved with historical figures, flowers, birds, insects and fish, and the top eaves are embossed with phoenix. Four pillars and three doors on the second floor, carving folk stories. On the third floor, there are two pillars carved with dragons and phoenix wings on both sides. Exquisite carving and ingenious design, used on steep cliffs, are suspected to be ingenious, but the carved dragons, phoenixes, grasses, flowers and figures are lifelike, originating from nature and life, which can be described as superb skills.