Songkran Festival: Dai New Year. From June 24th to 26th in the Dai calendar (mid-April in the summer calendar), the festival lasts for 3 to 5 days. In the early morning of the festival, men, women and children bathe and change clothes, and go to the Buddhist temple to worship the Buddha, that is, sprinkle water on the Buddha to wash the dust, and then splash water on each other to eliminate disasters. Later, splashing water was used as a play and staged as a festival. According to legend, in ancient times, the fire demon did evil and stole seven girls. Shannon, the youngest girl, learned the secret of killing the fire demon: pull out its hair and strangle it. The devil is in a fireball. Where it falls, it will catch fire. The girls threw water at each other and put out the evil fire. This legend became a habit along the river and gradually became the Water-splashing Festival. It is said that this custom originated in India, and Brahmins bathe in the river at this time of year to wash away their sins. When the old man can't go into the river, his children will splash water to wash their sins. Later, it was introduced to the Dai area in China.
Kaimen Festival: Dai language is called "Chuva", which means Buddha leaves the temple. Traditional religious festivals of Dai people in Yunnan. It is held on1February15th of the Dai calendar every year. Its activities are the same as the closing day. On the day of Dai calendar1February 15, what was put behind the Buddha when entering the cave was taken out and burned, indicating that the Buddha had come out of the cave. /kloc-on 0/6, the monk left the cave, and the whole family went to the cave to worship Buddha. /kloc-A grand "flower-catching" activity was held on 0/7, because the Buddha returned to the world after giving a lecture in the Western Heaven for three months, so all villages had to beat gongs and drums to hold a grand welcoming activity for the Buddha, and at the same time confessed their sins to the Buddha in the shack for one year. Monks take this opportunity to preach teachings to young men and women.
The opening day coincided with the busy farming season, the weather was getting colder, and there were not many Buddhist activities. Young people could fall in love or get married, while adults went out to do business or visit relatives and friends. This season is the time when the Dai people have the most cultural and recreational activities. People set off sparks, lit lamps, flew high and traveled around the village, which was very lively.
Closing the door: Dai language is called "entering the depression", which means that Buddha enters the temple. Yunnan Dai traditional religious festival, lasting for three months, began in the fifteenth day of the ninth year of the Dai calendar (mid-July of the lunar calendar). According to legend, every year on the ninth day of September in the Dai calendar, the Buddha went to the Western Heaven to give a lecture with his mother, and returned to the world in March. Once, just as the Buddha was going to the west to talk about his menstrual period, thousands of Buddhists went to the countryside to preach, trampling on the crops of the people and delaying their production. People complained bitterly and were very dissatisfied with Buddhists. When the Buddha learned about this, he felt uneasy. From then on, whenever the Buddha went to the Western Heaven to give a lecture, all Buddhists got together and stipulated that during these three months, they were not allowed to go anywhere but to repent to atone for their sins. Therefore, people call it "closing day" in seconds.
Entering the depression has been passed down from generation to generation, forming several fixed activities: every year in the early morning of September 15 of the Dai calendar, temples (Buddhist temples) beat drums to announce the Buddha's entrance to the cave. At this time, Christians must get up immediately or sit in bed. When the old man wrapped flowers, incense, candles and money paper into a package and sent it to the back seat of the Buddha statue in the coffin room, two hours later, the coffin room drummed again, and the believers could go back to sleep, while the old man stayed in the coffin room until dawn. 16, believers entered the cave to worship Buddha; On the eighth day, every household sent food to the Buddha, and then He Qing still read the Peace Sutra and told historical stories. They were very moved after hearing this and donated merits on the spot. During the three months of entering the depression, every eighth, fifteenth, twenty-third and thirtieth day, every old man has to go to the temple to worship Buddha once. The night before, they slept in a special house in the temple, and the young people brought meals to the old people. These activities follow the custom. Later, on the closing day, people will hold a grand event and offer sacrifices to the Buddha with food, flowers, wax sticks and money. During these three months, I will have a "small trip" every seven days.
After the closing ceremony began, it entered the busy farming season. In order to concentrate on productive labor, people have formulated many rules and regulations: young men and women are forbidden to fall in love and get married; Monks are not allowed to go out casually; People who worship Buddha in the mausoleum can't leave home or spend the night in other homes. No one is allowed to enter the Buddhist temple, go to the Buddhist platform, take Buddha's things, etc. It was not until three months later, the opening day, that people resumed all their daily activities before the closing day.
Traditional Dai festivals in the area of Qimaba, Lvchun County, Yunnan Province. It is held on the 13th day of the first lunar month every year, and the festival lasts for one day. This is a traditional festival unique to the local Dai people. On the morning of the 13th day of the first month, when the morning sun shines on the Dai water town, Dai men and women who can sing and dance put on festive costumes and gather under the big green trees in the center of the stockade. The gongs and drums are loud, and the singers are holding fragrant rice wine and singing Spring Festival songs and Four Seasons songs. The crowd danced the traditional dual dance on the drums, and the whole dam was full of joy. It was not until the sun rose high in the sky that the musical concert came to an end. At this time, an elder announced: "Dam patrol begins!" " After a while, people intoxicated with the singing and dancing immediately formed a very orderly team: eight young people holding colorful flags led the way, and the people behind them blew their horns all the way; Some beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers and gunpowder, and slowly walked to Tianba. After walking according to the predetermined route, people get together and make village rules and regulations during the busy period of spring ploughing to ensure that spring ploughing can be completed in season.
Huajie Festival: Also known as "Hot Water Pond Huajie Festival". The traditional folk festival of the Dai people in Yuanjiang, Yunnan Province is held on the seventh day of the first lunar month every year for one day. The Dai and Ya people also celebrate the Flower Street Festival, which is basically the same as the Dai people, but the festival is on the sixth day of the fifth lunar month. The main purpose of Huajie Festival is to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. On the morning of the festival, when the sun rises, men, women and children dressed in festive costumes gather on the lawn of the hot water pond on the east bank of Yuanjiang River to celebrate the festival with songs and laughter. Old people used to talk about the past, young people sang and danced, and children chased games and enjoyed themselves. People have also bathed in hot springs in hot pools to get rid of the filth of the old year and greet the new year cleanly and coolly. On this day, unmarried young men and women will also hold duets to find partners.
Social customs and habits
Dai people mainly live in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Gengma, Menglian and other places in Yunnan Province, and the rest are scattered in more than 30 counties such as Xinping and Yuanjiang. The population exceeds 1.025 million (the fourth census in 65438 +0.990).
1953 65438+1On October 24th, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture was established. Later, Yunnan Dehong Autonomous Prefecture (1July 24th, 953), Yunnan Menglian Dai Lahu and Wa Autonomous County (1June 6th, 954) and Yunnan Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County (1June 6th, 955) were successively established. Yunnan Yuanjiang Hani Yi and Dai Autonomous County (1980165438+122 October) and Yunnan Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County (1980 65438+125 October).
Dai is a nation with a long history. As early as the first century AD, there were records about Dai in China history books. In the Han dynasty, it was called "point moon" and "mountain"; In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was called "Golden Tooth", "Hei Chi" and "White Dress". It was called "Bai Yi", "Bai Yi" and "Bai Yi" in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. After 1949, it was named "Dai" according to the wishes of the Dai people. Usually, people refer to the Dai people in the mainland and the frontier as "Han Dai" and "Shui Dai" respectively. The former is called Han Dai because it is close to the Han nationality and absorbs more Chinese culture, but it is misinformed as "Han Dai", while the Dai people in Xishuangbanna, Menglian and Ruili, which maintain more national characteristics, are called "Shui Dai". Dai people call themselves "Dai Nuo", "Dai Ya", "Dai Na" and "Dai War".
Dai nationality dragon boat race
Dai people have their own language. Language belongs to Zhuang and Dai branch of Sino-Tibetan language family. Xishuangbanna and Dehong, two popular Dai languages, are pinyin characters, which evolved from Pali in southern India. Dai people can not only sing and dance well, but also create splendid culture, among which Dai calendar, Dai medicine and narrative poems are the most famous. Dai calendar year is solar calendar year, and month is lunar calendar month. A year is divided into three seasons: cold, hot and rainy, and September every three years is a leap month. This calendar is still widely used in Thailand, Myanmar and other places. Dai medicine, together with Mongolian, Tibetan and Uygur medicine, has become the four most famous ethnic medicine systems in China. There are many long narrative poems circulating in Dai areas, such as Zhao Shutun and Nanmu Nannuo, Lanjiaxi River and Ayi's Story. Dai opera has a history of 100 years. Most Dai people believe in Hinayana Buddhism.
The output of Dai rubber in Xishuangbanna has increased significantly. Pu 'er tea is well-known at home and abroad, and local and township enterprises have developed rapidly, including mining, machinery, electric power, chemistry, ceramics, leather, paper making and other factories and mines.
The main festivals of the Dai people are the Dai calendar New Year-Water-splashing Festival, Closing Festival and Opening Festival. The "Water-splashing Festival" is a traditional festival for the Dai people to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. The time is in the middle of April in the Gregorian calendar. The main activities during the festival are ancestor worship, sand piling, water splashing, packet loss, dragon boat race, lighting fire and singing and dancing carnival.
Taboo: it is forbidden for outsiders to ride horses, drive cattle, carry loads and enter the stockade unkempt; When entering the Dai bamboo house, you should take off your shoes outside the door and walk gently inside. You can't sit above or across the fireplace, enter the owner's inner room, or sit on the threshold; The tripod on the fireplace can't move, and the fire can't be pushed; Don't whistle and cut your nails at home; Don't use clothes as pillows, and don't sit on pillows; When hanging clothes, the coat should be hung at a high place, and the pants and skirts should be hung at a low place; Take off your shoes when entering the Buddhist temple, and avoid touching the head, Buddha statue, spear, banner and other Buddhist sacred objects of the young monk.
Daily Eating Habits Most Dai people have the habit of having two meals during the solar eclipse, with rice and glutinous rice as the staple food. Dehong Dai's staple food is japonica rice, and Xishuangbanna Dai's staple food is glutinous rice. Usually eaten immediately. People think that japonica rice and rice need to be eaten immediately without losing their original color and fragrance, so they don't eat overnight meals or rarely eat them, and they are used to pinching rice with their hands. Migrant workers often eat fish meals in the wild. They make glutinous rice balls out of banana leaves or rice, which can be eaten with salt, pepper, sour meat, roast chicken, Mi Nan (which means sauce in Dai) and moss pine. All dishes and snacks are mainly sour, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour pea powder, sour meat and wild sour fruit; I like to eat pickled cabbage. It is made by drying vegetables, then boiling them in water, adding papaya to make the taste sour, and then drying them and storing them. Put a little stir-fry or put it in soup when eating. This kind of sauerkraut is eaten almost every day by Dai people in some places. It is said that Dai people often eat sauerkraut because they often eat sticky rice food that is not easy to digest, and sour food helps digestion. The daily meat is pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, and don't eat or eat less mutton. Dai people who live in the mainland like to eat dog meat, are good at roast chicken and roast chicken, and are very fond of aquatic products such as fish, shrimp, crab, snails and moss. Eating with moss is a unique flavor dish of Dai people. The moss eaten by the Dai people is the moss on the rocks in the river in spring, preferably dark green. After fishing, tear it into thin slices, dry it, and put it on with a bamboo stick for later use. When cooking, the thick ones are fried and the thin ones are roasted with fire. Crushed into a bowl after crispy, then poured in boiling oil, then stirred with salt, and dipped in glutinous rice balls or bacon, which was extremely delicious. Cooking fish, mostly sour fish or roasted citronella fish, in addition to making fish chops (that is, grilled fish mashed with coriander and other spices), fish jelly, grilled fish, white sauce eel and so on. When eating crabs, they are usually chopped into crab paste with shell and meat for cooking. Dai people call this crab sauce "crab rice cloth". Bitter gourd is a daily vegetable with the highest yield and consumption. In addition to bitter gourd, Xishuangbanna also has a kind of bitter bamboo shoots, so there is also a bitter taste in Dai flavor. The representative bitter vegetable is a mixture of cowhide and cold dishes cooked with ingredients such as ox gall.
There are many kinds of insects in the hot and humid areas of Dai nationality. It is an important part of Dai food to make various flavor dishes and snacks with insects as raw materials. Insects that are often eaten are cicadas, bamboo worms, Okubo, soft-shelled turtles and ant eggs. Catching cicadas is every evening in summer. When the cicada community is in the grass, the cicada wings are soaked by dew and cannot fly. The women quickly picked the cicada into a bamboo raft and baked it in a pot to make a sauce. Cicada sauce has the medicinal functions of clearing away heat and toxic materials, relieving pain and swelling. Dai people generally like to eat ant eggs. They often eat a yellow ant that nests in trees. When taking ant eggs, drive the ants away first, and then take eggs. Ant eggs vary in size, some are as big as mung beans and some are as small as rice grains. They are white and bright, washed and dried, and fried with eggs. They are delicious. They can be eaten raw or cooked. Make a sauce when you eat it raw, and fry it with eggs when it is cooked. Commonly used sour fruit and bitter gourd.
Dai people are addicted to alcohol, but their alcohol content is not high. They brewed it themselves, and it tastes very sweet. Tea is a local specialty, but Dai people only drink big leaf tea without spices. When drinking, only stir-fry on the fire until it is burnt, and drink it slightly after brewing. Chewing betel nut, mixed with tobacco and lime, all day long. Because of long-term chewing, the lips and teeth are black and the mouth fluid is like blood, which makes people feel beautiful. Pottery-burning industry is relatively developed, and tableware is mostly fired by women.
People celebrate the Water Splashing Festival in the Dai calendar 1367.
Festivals, Etiquettes and Sacrifices Dai people generally believe in Hinayana Buddhism, and many festivals are related to Buddhist activities. Songkran Festival is the biggest festival held by Dai people every June. At that time, Buddhists will be worshipped, and monks, relatives and friends will be entertained to splash water on each other. During the Songkran Festival, besides wine and vegetables, there are many Dai snacks. If there is a kind of Ciba, it is a round cake made of glutinous rice and sugar stuffing, and it is wrapped with banana leaves coated with wax oil. It can be baked with fire or fried with honey. Shredding is to stir rice flour into granules with water, steam it, then mash it into balls, roll it into thin and big round cakes, cool it and stack it. When eating, blanch it in a bowl and sprinkle with various seasonings. Water-splashing Ciba is made of glutinous rice flour, steamed with brown sugar, wrapped with a layer of fried bean flour, and then wrapped with banana leaves as a reward. There is also a crispy rice made of fried glutinous rice paste. The more important festivals are the Harvest Festival (July in Dai calendar 15) and the Opening Festival (February in Dai calendar 15), both of which are Hinayana Buddhist festivals. Dai people in Xinping, Yuanjiang, Jinggu and Jinping celebrate the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Its content and activities are basically the same as those of the local Han nationality. Typical foods are dog meat soup pot, dried pork, salted eggs and dried eel. Dai festival
Every Dai family in Xishuangbanna should help build a house. Congratulations on the completion of the new house. First of all, the young man went upstairs, carrying a cow's head and singing a song of blessing. Mature men carry boxes, and married women carry bedding. The girls took the food in turn, then set up a tripod on the fireplace, put it on the table, bought wine and prepared dishes, and sang songs to congratulate the new house. The villagers also want to give some auspicious gifts to their owners.
"Catch yellow chicken" is a way for young men and women in Xishuangbanna to seek love by eating rumors, that is, girls take braised chicken to the market to sell. If the buyer is a girl's lover, the girl will take the initiative to take out a stool and let him sit next to him. Through conversation, if the two sides love each other, they will hold the chicken and carry the stool to pour out their feelings in the Woods; If the buyer is not the girl's lover, the girl will double the asking price; Another example is "drink some wine". When a man and a woman are engaged, the man picks up the dining tables and goes to the woman's house to treat them. When the guests dispersed, the man was accompanied by three men, and the woman and her three women set a table. "Eat some wine" means eating three dishes: the first one is spicy; The second way is to put more salt; The third course should have sweets. It means passion, depth and sweetness. On the wedding day, the wedding will be held in both parties' homes, mostly in the woman's home first. At the wedding reception, the table should be covered with green banana leaves, and the dishes include blood flourishing (white flourishing) symbolizing good luck, rice cakes and various dishes. Before the banquet, the bride and groom should make a tie ceremony, that is, the wedding uses a white line to bypass the shoulders of both sides, and two white lines are tied to the wrists of the bride and groom respectively, symbolizing purity. Then, the old man kneaded the glutinous rice into a triangle, dipped it in salt, and put it on the top of a tripod on the fireplace to let it fall off naturally after burning, symbolizing that love is as strong as iron. The bride in Daping Township of Yuanjiang should sit on the bench with the groom after entering the door, eat glutinous rice mixed with four eggs and drink two glasses of wine; When the bride of the Dai family on the Yuanjiang River enters the door, the man gives each farewell four pieces of meat, four ribs, four meatballs and four pieces of crispy meat, and then has dinner.
Dai gourd silk
Dai people also worship the village gods. Dai people call it "going to Raman" or "Piman", which is a kind of protector. They worship twice a year. Before sowing, they pray for a bumper harvest, and after the autumn harvest, they are grateful. They collectively kill a cow or a pig, and each family prepares a tribute and sends it to the room dedicated to the social god. After reading the sacrificial words, everyone will eat. New members of the club should provide chicken, wine and bacon strips to the god of society. In Menghai and other places, the custom of slaughtering cattle and eating fish hides still exists. In the western version of a tribal god, some sacrifices must be black cows and white pigs. The Dai people in Yuanjiang and New Equality generally worship dragon trees and dragons. When the Dai people in Yuanjiang sacrifice the dragon tree in the third month of the lunar calendar every year, the whole village will slaughter the red bull. Before slaughter, it will be covered with white ash and covered with red and green cloth. In the same month, in order to protect the safety of livestock, pigs will be sacrificed to Heaven and Earth.
Among the Dai people, especially in some remote areas, there are still some taboos in cooking, such as: burning firewood from the roots first; Don't cross the fire pit; You can't just move a tripod or something on the fireplace.
Typical food Dai hot and cold pickles have typical dishes and snacks. Such as: coconut casserole chicken, fried sesame crisp, beef skin, sour meat, grilled fish, pickled cow's head and so on.