Custom:
Folk people have the habit of "beating sheep" and "beating cattle" to welcome guests. If there are visitors, they must be killed first and then treated. According to the identity and closeness of the visitors, they are treated as cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens respectively. Before killing animals, bring live animals to guests, ask them to have a look, and then kill them to show respect. Wine is a welcome gift for guests. In Liangshan, as long as guests come into the house, the host must entertain them with wine first, and then cook various dishes. The fat pig is the most decent meal for the guests. In the middle of eating, housewives should always pay attention to the food in the guest's bowl, and replenish what they can't finish at any time to show their sincerity in hospitality. When eating, the elders sit on it, and the younger generation sits on both sides and below in turn, adding meals, serving dishes and soaking for the elders.
Marriage customs:
After the young men and women are engaged, they should make preparations for the wedding reception. Pigs and chickens are often used at wedding banquets, but mutton is generally not used (mutton is used for funerals). The Shiping Yi people in southern Yunnan have the habit of inviting men and women to eat and drink before marriage. Yi people in western Yunnan, who have married their daughters, want to build a shed with branches on the courtyard towel or dam for guests to drink, smoke, eat and sit around. People call this temporary shed made of branches a "green shed".
Food customs:
Most Yi people are used to eating three meals a day, and their staple foods are miscellaneous grains, noodles and rice. Yi people in Shousha River, Anning River and Dadu River basins often eat a lump of rice for breakfast. Lunch is mainly Baba, and all tables are available. Among all Baba, Baba made of buckwheat noodles is the most distinctive. It is said that buckwheat Baba has the effects of promoting digestion, relieving sweating and diminishing inflammation, and can be preserved for a long time without deterioration. Nuning, a traditional snack in Su Qiao, Guizhou Province, has become a well-known local snack.
Meat is mainly pigs, sheep and beef. Mainly made into "tuotuo meat", beef soup pot, sheep soup pot, or roasted sheep and piglets. Deer, bears, rock sheep and wild boar obtained by hunting are also supplements to daily meat.
The mountainous area is also rich in mushrooms, fungus and walnuts, and the vegetables produced in the garden make the sources of vegetables very extensive. In addition to fresh, most of them should be made into sauerkraut, which is divided into dry sauerkraut and pickled sauerkraut. Another famous dish "Swordfish" is also the most common dish among the people.
Yi people's daily drinks include wine and tea, and wine is used to entertain guests. There is a folk saying that "Han people value tea, Yi people value wine". The habit of drinking tea is more common among the elderly, mainly baking tea. Yi people only pour half a cup of tea at a time and drink it slowly.
Typical foods that Yi people often eat are: buckwheat cake, a staple food with Yi flavor; Paste sauerkraut meat, the home cooking of Yi farmers; Boiled suckling pig, a traditional food of Yunnan Yi people, is cooked in suckling pig and dipped in it. Crispy rice flour is a famous Yi-flavor snack in Yunnan, which is made of pea flour.
Clothing:
There are many branches of the Yi nationality, and the costumes vary greatly from place to place. There are nearly a hundred kinds of clothing differences, which are dazzling and unique. Generally speaking, women wear large-breasted or embroidered right-breasted jackets, black buns and earrings, and silver flowers on the neckline. Except for the Yi people in Xiaoliangshan, Yi women in other parts of Yunnan wear long skirts. Many branches of women's trousers are embroidered with delicate lace on their feet, and the skirts, cuffs and necklines of married women are also embroidered with exquisite and colorful lace, especially around the waist. In central Yunnan, unmarried women in southern Yunnan often wear colorful cockscomb hats decorated with red tassels and beads. Cockcomb hats are often cut into the shape of a comb with cloth shells and embroidered with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of silver bubbles. Yi people living in mountainous areas are used to wearing a kind of "ear-wiping tile"-sheepskin felt. It looks like a cloak, woven from wool, reaching below the knee, with fringed hair at the lower end, usually dark black. Before the age of 65,438+05, Yi girls wore red and white children's skirts with single braids. When they reach 65,438+05 years old, some places will hold a ceremony called "Shalalo", which means "changing skirts, braiding and pulling strings", indicating that the girls have grown up. After 65 years old, 438+05 will wear black in the middle.
Most Yi men wear black narrow-sleeved right cardigans with lace and pleated wide-leg pants. There is a lock of hair about three inches long on the top of the head, which is called "Tianbodhisattva" in Chinese and "Zier" in Yi language. This is a way for Yi men to show their gods. Never touch them. It is wrapped in a green or blue or black bun more than ten feet long, and tied into a thumb-thick long cone-shaped bun at the right front-called "hero bun" in Chinese. Men don't need to be beautiful, so they use their leisure time to pull out their beards one by one. They wear yellow or red ear beads with red silk thread strung on their ears and red silk thread under their ears.
Festivals:
Yi people used to worship animism and ancestors. There are many traditional festivals among the people, including October Festival, Torch Festival, regional festivals and sacrificial activities.
October: It is a traditional year of the Yi people, usually held on the auspicious day of the 10th day of the 10th lunar month. The festival lasts 5-6 days. In festivals, pigs and sheep will be killed, and rich people will kill cattle. At that time, they will dress up for dinner, visit relatives and friends and give gifts to each other.
Torch Festival: It is the biggest traditional festival of Yi people, which falls on June 24th of the lunar calendar every year. At that time, cattle and sheep were to be killed and ancestors were to be sacrificed. In some areas, landlords will also be sacrificed, and they will entertain each other, eat tuorou and wish a bumper harvest. Torch Festival usually lasts for three days. On the first day, the whole family got together. In the next two days, there are many colorful activities, such as wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting, boat racing and tug-of-war. Then, hold a big bonfire party and party all night.
Supplementary festivals: Yi people living in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou will have another festival on February 10th and 11th of the lunar calendar after the New Year, which is called "Malong Fire" in Yi language.
Among the sacrificial activities, the Dragon Boat Festival is the biggest. Dragon Boat Festival chooses a dragon day in the middle of February, March and April. Everyone in the village brought a bowl of rice and a small piece of salt, and the old man prepared incense and sacrificed collectively under the dragon tree. The Yi people in Yunnan choose the first Dragon Day of the first month to hold the Dragon Boat Festival. After the sacrifice, everyone sat on the floor, regardless of age, bringing their own food and eating meat. This is a large-scale rally.
The rite of coming of age for Yi girls: the mysterious ceremony of changing skirts
In Liangshan area, Yi girls will hold a mysterious "dressing-up" ceremony when they grow up, which is called "Shalalo" in Yi language, meaning to take off their childhood skirts and put on adult skirts. Before "Shalaro", Yi girls wore red and white children's skirts with braids and pierced ears. After the "dressing-up" ceremony, you should put on a long skirt with a black and blue middle part. The original single braid should be combed into double braids, embroidered hair bands should be worn and earrings should be hung.
After the ceremony of "changing skirts", the girls are free to go shopping, catch the show, watch horse races, make friends and fall in love. The time for "changing skirts" depends on the development of girls, generally between 15 years old and 17 years old, and most of them are single. Because in the eyes of local Yi people, "changing skirts" at the age of two will be disastrous and unlucky for life. As for the specific date of "changing skirts", it is still necessary to ask the elderly to make a good choice before they can finally set an auspicious day.
Because "changing skirts" is a symbol of a woman from childhood to adulthood, parents attach great importance to it. Especially, this mother, as her daughter's intimate person, knows her daughter's physiological condition best. Before changing her skirt, she enthusiastically prepared lace black Harper, new skirt, beads of different colors and silver medals for her daughter.