Entertainment of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture
There are lots of ethnic minorities in Honghe Prefecture, you can dance and sing with local ethnic people, especially during the festival, tourists will be lucky enugh to enjoy the local activities.
Festival of Hani People
Like the Han people, the Hanis celebrate the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Their traditional festivals include October Festival, June Festival and etc.
June Festival, called “Ku Zha Zha” festival in Hani language, is one of the three most important festivals of the Hani nation. It is held around June 24 of the Chinese lunar calendar and lasts for three to six days. During the festival, people sacrifice to the heaven and the cattle, and enjoy the festival by swinging, wrestling, singing and dancing. The main activities of the festival are those of killing an ox for sacrificing, preparing the green grass for the horse of God, playing the turn-swing, having the long street party, dancing and singing and wrestling.
The October Year, also known as Amutu Festival, is the most ceremonious traditional festival of the Hani people. It comes on the first dragon day in the tenth lunar month and is celebrated as the New Year’s Day by the Hani people. On the first day of the festival, every stockaded village holds a big banquet in the center of the main street. The banquet is so large in scale that many tables piled high with different dishes are laid end to end along the street like a colorful dragon, hence the name Long Dragon Banquet.
When preparing this kind of banquet, all the families get their tables line up along the street. The villagers then sit along the table with the priest and the head of the village sitting in the seats of honor. Food and drink offered by each family are presented and people eat and drink and wish each other good luck and happiness.
The New Year’s celebration lasts for five to fifteen days. All other activities break off. Any intruder will be kept in the village until the celebration is over.
