The historic Chuxiong Yi Torch Festival

The Yi people are a people who advocate fire, and the torch festival is a symbol of the Yi culture and the most important and grand annual festival in the Yi tradition. The "Torch Festival" originated from the "Xinghui Festival", and the origin of the Torch Festival is closely related to the October solar calendar of the Yi people. The ancestors of the Yi people through the observation of the celestial signs, with the Big Dipper star bucket handle pointing to determine the main solar terms, the bucket handle on the upper point refers to the (big) summer, near here to pass the "torch festival", the bucket handle refers to the lower part of the (big) cold, near here to spend the "Yi October year". According to legends and historical records, the Yi people had the folk custom of "torch festival" more than 2,000 years ago.

In May 2006, the Chuxiong Yi Torch Festival was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection projects. The Yi torch festival is mainly distributed in the Yi ethnic agglomeration areas of Chuxiong Prefecture and surrounding prefectures. The Torch Festival is held on the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar every year, with a period of three to five days, it is a symbol of the Chuxiong Yi culture and the most important and grandest festival in the traditional festivals of the Yi people. She not only covers the fire worship, primitive worship and many cultural phenomena such as song, dance and music of the Yi people, but also includes a variety of production and living customs, taboo customs, diet, clothing and other traditional cultures gradually formed by the Yi people in the long process of historical development. The "Yi Torch Festival" is of great historical and practical significance to the development of local ethnic economies, the inheritance of culture, and the stability of society. The contents of the Chuxiong Yi Torch Festival are very rich, mainly including: sacrifice, prayer, exorcism, visiting relatives and friends, listening to the elderly singing ancient songs (telling history), throwing torches", calling "five grain souls", dressing, singing, jumping feet, wrestling, bullfighting, grinding autumn, mass three-string dance, gourd dance carnival, etc. During the Torch Festival, the Yi villages held solemn sacrifice activities, offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, fire, ancestors, exorcism, and evil, praying for the prosperity of the six animals, the abundance of grain, and the peace of the family, which embodies the good wishes of the Yi people to respect nature and pursue a happy life. During the festival, grand literary and artistic sports activities such as singing, jumping feet, wrestling, and grinding autumn are held, and the content is very rich. Torch Festival is the stage of the original religious inheritance of the Yi people, the platform for the display of Yi songs, dances, costumes, and diets, its connotation is deep, the extension is broad, and it includes the Food Culture, Costume Culture, Song and Dance Culture, Farming Culture, Astrological Culture, Sacrifice Culture, etc. of the Yi People, and the potential value of these cultures is gradually being displayed, which is a living fossil for studying the history of human social development; During the festival, the Yi people visit relatives and friends, neighbors gather, promote communication between people, and resolve the contradictions in production and life. It promotes social harmony and national unity; the torch festival is not only a symbol of Yi culture, but also an important part of Chinese fire culture, with important scientific and cultural values; the torch festival is also an important stage for expanding opening up to the outside world and developing the local economy.

In order to respect the customs and habits of the Yi people, enhance national unity, and realize the common prosperity and development of all ethnic groups, successive prefecture and municipal party committees and governments in Chuxiong Prefecture have attached great importance to the promotion, inheritance and protection of national culture, and have grasped the annual torch festival as a major event in creating a demonstration area of national unity. On May 25, 1981, the People's Congress of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture passed a motion to determine the "Torch Festival" as the legal festival of Yizhou, and in 1986, the "Torch Festival" was officially included in the "Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture Autonomous Regulations" as a legal festival in Yizhou, and since 1983, the prefecture and municipal people's governments have officially led the annual celebration of the Torch Festival in Chuxiong Lucheng.

Yi people are a member of the world's national family, "Torch Festival" is not only a festival of the Yi people, but also a common festival of the Chinese nation and even all mankind, sincerely invite and warmly welcome all friends to enter Chuxiong, into the costume festival, into the Yi torch festival, to appreciate the colorful culture, feel the charm of Yi township.

Source: Chuxiong Prefecture Government Network