Torch Festival of Bai nationality

By Charlotte

Torch Festival is a traditional festival of Bai people, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the sixth month of the Chinese lunar calendar every year.On the day of the festival, men and women, old and young gathered together to worship their ancestors.Through the activities of firing, firing, playing torch and jumping torch, we wish the grain harvest and the prosperity of six animals.  There are many theories about the origin of Torch Festival.My favorite saying is that the torch meets Zhu Geliang.Legend has it that in the spring of the third year after the founding of Shu Dynasty, Zhuge Liang led the people to the south, crossed Lushui in May, entered Hanzhong in June, and Meng Huo, the leader of the Yi nationality from the seventh arrest to the seventh column. Zhu Geliang's strategy of equal importance has won the support of the people of Hanzhoung. When his entered the city that night, the people along the way raised the fire to welcome and drinking liquor.By the way, Zhu Geliang is one of my favorite historical figures.  On the eve of the festival, the village was erected with a fire about ten or twenty meters high.At noon, people take small torches, paper money, incense candles, offerings to the ancestral tombs to sweep the grave, memorial.Before sunset, the families went to dinner early, and went out to watch the torch and horse race. There are adults and children in horse racing. After running around the torch for three turns, you can gallop to the distance. Those who do not run horses appreciate the torch behind their homes from door to door. Before the torch was lit in the village, young daughters in-law carried umbrellas and carried new babies on their backs, turning the torch three times to dispel evil and gain good fortune. When night fell, the village old man led the sacrificial offering and kowtow to the fire. Several brave and vigorous young men, one after another climbed up the big torches, the small torches lit one by one uploaded, and then lit the torch.In a short time, the flame of the column rises, and the drum music works, the firecrackers are singing,and the clouds are cut.  This is the grand occasion of the Bai Torch Festival, because of the length of the reason to introduce to you here, interested Taoist friends can go to the Bai settlement Dali to experience. It will definitely make you worthwhile.