New Year Festival of Yi Ethnic Minority

Overview of The Festival

Chinese Name:彝族新年
English Name: New Year Festival of Yi Ethnic Minority

The Yi people’s most important traditional festival and a time for family reunions and visiting relatives is generally held in mid-November each year. The specific date is determined by a respected elder who is knowledgeable in astronomy and calendars. Except for days associated with pigs, dragons, cows, chickens, and snakes, the New Year can be set on other days. If someone passes away close to the New Year, this date should also be avoided for future holiday planning.

Kushi

The first day is called “Kushi.” While it is still dark, families begin their activities. Men clean the ancestral altars, wash the utensils used for offerings to the spirits, sharpen their knives, and prepare the New Year’s chicken. The women rush to fetch water and make buckwheat pancakes. After cooking the pancakes and chicken, they prepare offerings for the spirits in wooden bowls, which include the chicken head, two pieces of chicken legs, and three buckwheat pancakes.

When a pig is killed, the male head of the household offers tobacco and liquor to the helpers who have come to assist. Meanwhile, women and children begin to singe off the pig’s hair using bracken. The men go to help with pig slaughtering at the homes of others.

Outdoor Cooking

Known in Yi as “Wo Xi La Gu Ge,” this is an activity wishing for peace, followed by plenty of leisure and enjoyment. On the second and third days, offerings are made to the ancestral spirits both morning and evening. Women prepare frozen meat and make sausages, while men visit neighbors to exchange New Year greetings, singing festive songs. The lyrics of these New Year songs generally fall into four parts: first, welcoming the ancestral spirits, second, praising the hosts for their hard preparations for the festival, third, explaining the origins of the holiday songs, and fourth, wishing the ancestral spirits to bless their descendants with peace and prosperity. The families visited return the hospitality with enthusiasm, creating a joyful atmosphere.

Sending Off the Ancestral Spirits

On this day, all households participate in sending off the ancestral spirits, referred to in Yi as “A Pu Ge Zhi,” meaning the ancestral souls returning after the New Year now need to return to the netherworld. Fresh food is prepared to ensure the spirits leave satisfied. After honoring the spirits, meals placed at the ancestral altars are collected and tidied up. Starting from the fourth day, married daughters put on their brand-new traditional attire and, with gifts of liquor, meat, boiled eggs, sausages, and fried noodles, visit their parents and relatives along with their husbands and children. This visiting and reunion continues for another five or six days before the Yi New Year festival is considered complete.