During the Spring Festival, Mongolian people call it "New Year". In ancient times, the Spring Festival was called "white festival". Nowadays, people call the first month of the lunar calendar "Bai Yue". It turns out that Mongols take "white" as auspicious. It is said to be related to daily consumption of white milk, which means to congratulate the New Year and be lucky. Bai Yue is also a time for people to get together. Before the festival, people should make a beautiful Mongolian robe, prepare mutton and various dairy products, add a few jars of wine, and then start to "tune the horses". On New Year's Eve, the whole family sat among the yurts, and at midnight, they began to eat and drink. Usually, they should eat and drink more. On New Year's Eve, people will also offer "farewell wine" to their elders, sit around and eat jiaozi, commonly known as "yellow steamed stuffed bun" or "flat food", play "garaka" (chess), listen to stories told by artists, stay up all night and indulge in joy. On the first day of the first day, men and women dressed in all kinds of costumes set foot on the horses that had already been adjusted, and rushed to "Haote" (villages and towns) in groups of three and five, stringing together yurts one by one. First, kowtow to the elders, and then the host's son-in-law will toast the guests who come to string bags. Traditionally, everyone drinks this wine, and some people even sing and dance. Men and women in the net bag take advantage of this opportunity to race horses, especially young men and women. Most of them take the distance between "Hout" as the competition distance and start chasing men and women.
Mongolians call the most important festival of the year "White Festival". Why? The first month of the lunar calendar is called Chagansari (meaning Bai Yue) in Mongolian. Mongolian people advocate white most, and white is pure and auspicious, so it is called White Festival. Celebrating white festivals is a custom inherited from ancient times and can be traced back to the early Yuan Dynasty. During Kublai Khan's reign, Yuan Shizu attached great importance to celebrating white festivals, which was also described in detail in Marco Polo's Travels.
Modern Mongolians also regard White Day as the most solemn festival. On the 30 th night of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family, old and young, put on festive costumes and got together for the New Year, staying up all night. Usually the whole family, old and young, burn incense and worship Buddha first, and then the younger generation presents Hada, toast and worship to their elders in turn. In the early morning of the first day, family and friends began to pay New Year greetings to each other, and it didn't end until the tenth five-year plan or the end of the "Hundred Leaps". During the whole Baiyue period, young men and women on the grassland rode horses one after another, carrying brand-new hada and fine wine, and went door to door to pay New Year greetings to relatives, friends and parents in various settlements.
Dragon Boat Festival
Every year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mongolians have a special custom, that is, to besiege the city. Its scale is often larger than other hunting days, so it is even regarded as a "hunting festival" for Mongolians in some parts of the eastern region.
David is a spectacular activity in Mongolian hunting, which is usually held two or three times or three or five times a year, and the date is mainly agreed. However, the Dragon Boat Festival in May is full of hunting activities.
Legend has it that a long time ago, a Mongolian tribe was invaded by an alien race. Because all the members of the tribe went out to attack the city, a retaliatory vendetta was spared. This day happens to be the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. So from now on, the habit of being surrounded by the Five Great Congresses in early May has been handed down. There is also a legend that Genghis Khan was scared to death when he was hunting on the fifth day of May. Later, he used the fifth day of May as a hunting day to shoot animals and protect the Lord's favor. Either way, it shows the Mongolian people's love for their tribe, so this traditional Japanese hunting method has been passed down from generation to generation and has been passed down to this day.
A few days before the siege began, tribal people gathered together, roughly agreed on the hunting route and scope, and elected the commander-in-chief of the siege, "Abinda". Generally, people who hold this position are good at hunting, respected and fair.
There are generally two ways to crack down on encirclement: one is to hunt at home. Mainly in mountainous areas, hunters surround their prey from mountain passes into deep valleys. Another is "hunting". It's on the plain. Because there is no ravine, the terrain is flat. When hunting, it flies from all directions to the middle in Fiona Fang, dozens of miles away.
At the beginning of hunting, the hunter rode the best hunting horse, carrying a gun (or bow and arrow) and a hunting knife at his waist, leaving the blues, taking a group of hounds, driving a cart in the agricultural area and entering the paddock from different locations.
At noon, the hunters got together, lit a bonfire and had a picnic on the spot. After dinner, hunting continued, and at dusk in the afternoon, hunting reached its climax. At this time, the prey is also very rich. Antelopes, rabbits, tigers and leopards are all good targets for hunters to show their skills. In hunting, some brave and invincible heroes can be best displayed, and some artists also draw materials from this period to create some legendary stories and spread them among the people. Some old people also take this opportunity to introduce good hunters to entertain them. This lasted until it was dark, and the hunters returned with full loads.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, midsummer came and production activities increased. At this time, the animals also reached the breeding period, so the hunting activities basically stopped. Hard-working herdsmen gallop on the boundless grassland every day, guarding their herds with horses and poles, and waiting for the next more fruitful Dragon Boat Festival hunting day.
Animal husbandry festival
Mongolian is a nomadic people, and they love livestock like children. When people celebrate the Spring Festival in the first month, they will not forget to celebrate the New Year for livestock. Animal Festival, also known as Maliyin's New Olympic Land Ruhu in Mongolian, can also be translated as "Spring Festival Banquet", which is a long-standing traditional custom of Mongolian herders. There is no fixed date for this festival, usually around the first month and Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is expected to be held in every village. When mature, men, women and children gather in the wild, set up tents and stoves, bring all the livestock here, check the fatness, study the problem of picking up lambs and calves in spring, and celebrate the fat stallion. Then there will be wrestling, storytelling, singing, Haolaibao and other entertainment activities, and then some simple banquets will be held to celebrate the festival.
Su Nite people's livestock festival is held on New Year's Eve, in which painting rams is the highlight. On New Year's Eve, herders in Su Nite should clean the sheepfold and cowshed as clean as in their bedrooms, bring all the livestock back, and then leave nine sheep bricks in all directions in the middle of the sheepfold, exposing a square pit where the sheep bricks have been raised. This is the "sheep mat". Sheep brick is a square sheep dung brick made of sheep dung by herders. Move these sheep dung bricks to the southeast of Hout-the direction where the sun rises. Mongolian is called "Amadel". When the oriental morning star rises slowly, the whole family, men, women and children, put on brand-new clothes and come to Gande, where they put food, light nine sticks of incense, sprinkle new tea, butter and cakes into the sky and kowtow to the bright sun of the New Year three times. Then make a fire on the sheep's mat and sprinkle with cedar leaves, butter, cakes and so on. Put in some incense and let the sheep in the pen smell their own incense.
Goats and sheep in the group also need special treatment. Is to give them a painting ceremony. The children rushed over and pulled the sheep onto the mat by pulling their horns. Adults carry a silver bowl with butter and fresh milk in it. Open the sheep's mouth, feed something in the bowl, then tie a hada around their necks, sprinkle some yellow rice on their backs, and then sing: shaped like a ram, and powerful like an elephant. The big horn is in the dish, and the fat tail is in the hip-painting white rams with delicious food ... giving birth to tens of millions of lambs in the breeding season. Next spring, countless lambs will be born ... they will not be blown away in the wind, lost in the snow, blown up in the drought, and safe in the rain and waterlogging ... May my blessed beast be like yellow rice! Then put it back in the group and pour some milk tea. This is a picture of a ram, which means that livestock will flourish. After painting the ram and opening the pen, the shepherd will catch up with the sheep and prepare to go out to graze. At this time, the hostess rushed out and brought a plate full of cooked food such as white oil, butter, sour oil, milk tofu, cakes, etc. This is the food for painting rams. These are commonly known as Miledes, and the hostess gave them to the shepherd. The shepherd happily led Milides out to chase the sheep.
People who go out to pay New Year's greetings on New Year's Day will dismount and pay New Year's greetings to shepherds if they see shepherds being driven away. The shepherd gave meredith to the messenger. Guests who have tasted Miledes must walk around the sheep and not run past them. As night falls, when the shepherd returns from grazing, the owner should greet him early: "Did the first sheep eat well?" Shepherds always say, "Sheep eat steadily." With that, he took off his pocket containing Milides and poured it into a wooden tray to share with his neighbors as a "blessing from livestock and a gift from ancestors". He also wanted to drink and sing happily.
Mongolian people in Hexigten Banner only pay New Year greetings to livestock in early February, and the date is not fixed, so they need to make an appointment in advance. On this day, special men, women and children get up early, bring food and tents, gather in secluded places with rich aquatic plants and elegant environment, set up tents and set up pots and stoves. When people waiting for grazing come near here from all directions, children will meet them and look after the livestock for them. Because today is the Animal Husbandry Festival, these shepherds, cowherd, cowherd and camel shepherd are all active ministers. Regardless of their age or seniority, they took temporary leave and were invited to sit side by side with the respected rural elders in the big tent of the central government. Everyone chose a "Nilba", which is in charge of general affairs. He instructed everyone to put the tea and meat they brought into a big pot to cook. During this period, people put all kinds of milk, cakes and bottled wine brought from various families in front of cowherd and elders. Then take some samples and spread them in all directions, and then everyone can share them. When the meat is almost cooked, the children who just looked after the livestock bring in "livestock representatives" such as cows with high milk production, mares with high foals, male camels, etc., and let the elders or cowherd spread a little butter on each head or forehead, wishing you a blessing: "May you be the head of thousands of sheep and the head of thousands of cattle!" Take off the old cloth from the sheep's neck and put on a new one. At this time, everyone can eat meat, drink and enjoy themselves. There are often some small competitions such as horse racing, wrestling and archery. Like the herdsmen in Su Nite, people in Hexigten Banner will share the food of this day with you. Therefore, for the wine, meat, food and milk cakes left over from this day, Nilba will distribute them to everyone as "delicious food for livestock in the new year". In addition, in Bahrain and other places, herders also attach great importance to this festival.
In ancient China, every family paid attention to the prosperity of population, but for the simple herdsmen on the grassland, the prosperity of herds is equally important, because herds are what they depend on for survival. Without them, the grassland will lose its vitality, and the herdsmen on the grassland will become a cook without rice and don't know how to cook. So let's also bless the grassland herders with a praise from the herders: color this white ram ... and give birth to tens of millions of lambs in the breeding season.
Buddha Lantern Festival
Buddha Lantern Festival is a religious festival. On October 25th of the lunar calendar, Zong Kaba, the founder of the Yellow Sect at the age of 108, died and ascended to heaven. On this day, all monks and sentient beings lit Buddha lanterns to hold a funeral for him. Since then, in order to commemorate this great religious figure, some disciples have gradually established the Buddha Lantern Festival. There is also a saying to commemorate Zong Kaba's birthday. With the rise of yellow religion in Mongolia, this festival began to become popular among the people.
Every Lama temple gets together to recite scriptures. At night, when the stars came out, thousands of Buddha lanterns were lit, and many people went to pay homage. After all the stars come out, every household lights a lamp in front of the Buddha and gives it to the Buddha with fresh butter, preparing a sweet "A Mu" to eat and giving it to the neighbors. According to legend, this day is the birthday of Zong Kaba, the ancestor of the Yellow Sect, and also the day of death, so it is a festival originated from religion.
On this day, several families living near the Ministry of Weilat in Mongolia built a six-foot-high Aobao with mud or bricks about half a mile southeast of Haute. When the evening is heavy and the sky is full of stars, every family will take out their own Buddha lanterns. Under the guidance of an elder, they were inserted into this Aobao. Willard's Buddha lantern is made of white flour. Clean cotton is tied to a straw, embedded in the middle as a core, and filled with ghee to become a lamp. Everyone should make at least 100 such lamps, and the number is unlimited. Because Zong Kaba lived to the age of 108, he was a long-lived old man, so people made many Buddha lanterns. Apart from piety, they also wanted to get lucky for themselves. In this way, the lights on the Aobao are full from top to bottom. When everyone lights their lights, Aobao becomes a splendid mountain of lights, beautiful and spectacular. At this time, everyone knelt at the foot of the mountain, praying for Zong Kaba's kindness and grace, giving us a long life and protecting the health and safety of all beings. Then he went around the mountain for three times, and went back to his home for tea and served jiaozi.
There is still a difference between the Buddha's Light Festival in Chahar Mongolia and the festival in Willat Mongolia. In Chahar area, lamps are made by mixing oat flour with milk and sugar, winding new cotton on Achnatherum splendens sticks, and then inserting them into each lamp as wicks. Pour butter into it one by one. Taking families as a unit, there are at least several hundred lamps in each family, and there are thousands of lamps for the rich, all of which are placed in a circle with copper plates or wooden boards. At night, after all the stars are gone, we should take out the Buddha lanterns and put up the living room, the cool room, the sheepfold and the sheepshed, starting with the Buddha bag. Under the guidance of the elders, everyone lit a burning yellow incense and used it to light all the Buddha lanterns together. Immediately Haote was brightly lit, as if the spiritual world where the Buddha lived was as bright as gold. Then everyone gathered in a big house, sat in a circle around the pillar of fire and recited the Mani Sutra. Stew a pot of delicious mutton. After reading a circle of Marni sutra, the mutton in the pot is cooked. Let's share the food given by Buddha. Eat and drink, go home and sleep.
On this day, the Mongolians in Bahrain will make a snack called "Menglisenbada". The method is to grind the fried rice into broken rice, fry it with butter, add brown sugar, press it into blocks in Pana (the mold for making milk tofu), then cut it into squares and triangles and give it to each other. When adults read Mani, the children ran around the place with lights, chasing and playing, and had a good time. Early the next morning, they were still the most active people. When people are still asleep, they have been scrambling to get up, fighting in groups of three or five, and going to various houses to grab Buddha lanterns. Because by this time, the Buddha's heart had burned out, the oil had been consumed, the butter had penetrated into the lamp when it was burning, and the burning light had burnt the lamp yellow and cooked it. Buddha lantern is made of sugar, milk and flour, and it is naturally a unique snack. Moreover, people worship the immortal Buddha and want to taste the food of the Lantern Festival, so adults should also taste it.
With the passage of time, the Buddha Lantern Festival in Chahar was closed one after another in 1949. Although Willard continues to this day, it has lost its original flavor. I have never seen a child grabbing a Buddha's lantern, and I rarely see a brightly lit scene. Perhaps this is the change brought about by the change of the times and progress. What we lose is a stricter and more pious worship, in exchange for another form of happiness based on modern society.
Maidel Festival
Med Festival used to be a religious activity. Since ancient times, the people of Huilat have regarded the 15th day of the first month of each year as Medford's birthday and regarded it as an auspicious day to hold celebrations. Religiously, Madl is known as the God who spreads Buddhism and relieves people's suffering. People have believed in this Buddha for more than 900 years.
Religious circles believe that the 15th day of the first month is the day when the Buddha's religious study ends, and the 16th day of the first month is the day when Medford takes charge of teaching. In order to promote religious studies, the 15th day of the first month is regarded as Medford's birthday. Because Mongolians used to live a nomadic life, the venue for holding grand gatherings was greatly restricted and could only be held in temples. On the fifteenth day of the first month, men, women and children in all counties, townships and villages should get up early, put on their costumes and go to temples to participate in the celebration of Maidel Festival. At the Maidel Festival held in Turkut and Shuoke, Bayinguoleng, the first is a religious activity in which lamas blow horns, beat gongs and drums, read scriptures and pray. Then, people who came to attend kowtowed to Medford. Like a ceremony to worship Medford, under the guidance of an elder, he came to the forefront of the temple, put his hands on his forehead and bowed down to Medford. After that, he can put his tribute on the altar in Medford. The hanging edge in Medford turns from right to left, and turns around the temple several times from right. After bowing down in this way, everyone pays New Year greetings to each other and wishes each other. After that, there will be horse racing, wrestling, archery and other forms of entertainment in Madl Festival. Just like the Nadam Convention, it was crowded, singing and dancing, and it was very lively. Everyone has a sincere heart to bid farewell to the auspicious last year and usher in a lucky year. So when this day came, people from Willat came to the temple from all over the world to participate in this activity. Because they believe that this respect for Buddha will bring them good luck and eliminate disasters. With the changes of the times and the development of society, this religious activity has gradually become a traditional festival to greet each other.