Huaning County Culture
In 2010, Huaning county held different kinds of cultural activities more than 60 times and performances more than 210 times. The total volume of books reserved in libraries and reading rooms reached 119763. At the same time, workers selected 26 folklores, 2 people was appraised as the excellent artists of Yuxi prefecture, 3 people was evaluated as the folk craftsmen of Yuxi prefecture.
Yi People Folk Literature and Art Activities
Tiaoyue(跳乐): Tiaoyue is the traditional folk activities of Huaning Yi people, the dance is complex and can be divided into many types.
Maomaocha(猫猫叉): it is a folk dance mixes attack and defense of hunting together. Maomao is the diminutive of Tiger among Yi people. On every occasion of sacrifice, funeral and important events, Yi people dance.
Torch festival
The torch festival or fire festival (chinese: 火把节; pinyin: huǒbǎ jié) is one of the main holidays of the yi people of southwest china, and is also celebrated by other ethnic groups of the region. It is celebrated on the 24th or 25th day of the sixth month of the yi calendar, corresponding to august in the gregorian calendar. It commemorates the legendary wrestler atilaba, who drove away a plague of locusts using torches made from pine trees.
The original torch festival, according to some scholars, was based on a calendar used by bai and yi people in ancient times. The calendar included 10 months, 36 days in a month, and two star returning festivals in winter and summer respectively. The two star returning festivals were both considered the new year, and the one in summer was called the torch festival as people often lighted a torch on that day. There are also many other legends about the origin of the torch festival, yet all of them have the purpose of offering sacrifice to duties and dispelling ghosts, as a wish for a harvest.
