Torch Festival of Yi Ethnic Minority in Chuxiong City, Chuxiong Prefecture
Introduction to the Torch Festival
- Chinese Name: 楚雄市彝族火把节
- English Name: Torch Festival of Yi Ethnic Minority in Chuxiong City, Chuxiong Prefecture
- Location: Chuxiong City, Chuxiong Prefecture
The Torch Festival is a symbol of Yi culture, celebrated during the Yi New Year, and is the most important and grandest festival in Yi tradition. With rich folk cultural connotations, it is renowned both domestically and internationally, often referred to as the “Carnival of the East.”
Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture is one of the two Yi autonomous prefectures in China and is the most popular and grandest region for the Torch Festival in the country. In 2005, the “Chuxiong Yi Torch Festival” was included in the first batch of the national intangible cultural heritage protection list.
Throughout history, on the night of the Torch Festival each year, various ethnic groups celebrate together in the same region. From villages to towns, from mountains to plains, everyone lights torches and gathers hand in hand to form a circle, singing and dancing. Elders play the dusty moon guitar, young men play flutes that have not been touched for a long time, and young women play the mouth harp hanging on their chests, praying for a bountiful harvest and thriving livestock, while singing about a beautiful life. Under the moonlight, torches flicker and bonfires blaze like stars falling from the sky, creating a world of fire and an ocean of song and dance.
In today’s era of reform and opening up, illuminated by the brilliance of the party’s ethnic policies, the Torch Festival has gained new dimensions of mass participation, entertainment, and diversity. People not only inherit and carry forward its fine traditions but also integrate the spirit of the times, creating a new scene. For example, during the festival, numerous domestic and international tourists flock to the area for shopping and trading, often outnumbering the locals. The Torch Festival has become a means and opportunity to attract people from all walks of life for sightseeing, tourism, and trade discussions.
Various cultural and sporting performances are becoming increasingly rich and colorful year by year, and folk festivals naturally transform into regional festivals, evolving from rural celebrations to urban and rural events, and from a single-ethnic festival to a multi-ethnic shared celebration. Few people truly know and understand the Yi people, but when the “Torch Festival” and “Axi Dance” are mentioned, they will not feel unfamiliar. However, to truly appreciate the authentic Torch Festival, one must be in the countryside, especially in remote villages away from urban areas, to experience the genuine customs and traditions.
The Torch Festival is not only a traditional holiday for every family but also a time for relatives and friends to gather and socialize, enriching lives and promoting neighborly friendships.
Legend of the Torch Festival
Long ago, in a Yi village at the foot of Hongshan near Zhaojiadian in Dayao County, there lived a smart, beautiful, and kind-hearted girl named Nuona, who was deeply in love with a brave young man named Acha from a nearby village. That year, the insidious and cruel mountain chief Moha chose a girl to be his angry concubine, hoping to occupy the beautiful Nuona for himself. Under Moha’s oppressive rule, the brave Acha, using cleverness to overcome strength, defeated the treacherous Moha with his superb skills. In anger, Moha used witchcraft to crack the earth beneath them, causing Acha to fall into an abyss. Fortunately, he was rescued by the villagers.
While Acha was in peril, Nuona faced the dangers of Moha’s clutches. Moha led his soldiers to surround Nuona’s home, trying to take her as his bride. To avoid being captured, Nuona climbed down a cliff and fled her home in search of Acha. Exhausted, she tragically died at the bottom of the cliff. Her figure is said to eternally reflect on the cliff, which is why it is called “White Person Cliff.” After being rescued from the split mountain, Acha rushed straight to Nuona’s home, only to find her parents had been killed by Moha. Heartbroken, he buried them and searched through the mountains until he finally discovered Nuona’s white silhouette left on Hongya.
Desperate, Acha considered jumping off the cliff to be with Nuona. The villagers came to dissuade him and discussed revenge with him. The next day (June 25), Acha and villagers from eight mountains and three towns marched toward Moha’s home carrying thousands of torches, burning down Moha’s palace and killing the wicked Moha, avenging Nuona and relieving the villagers’ hatred.
Traditionally, the “Torch Festival” is held on June 24 of the lunar calendar, but it is celebrated on “June 25” here because it commemorates the day when the brave Acha and the villagers avenged their sorrow. On the day of the Torch Festival, people in the Yi villages light torches made of pine wood, using the blazing flames to illuminate their surroundings, burn away insects, ward off evil, and symbolize good fortune and happiness. Participants exchange torches as a sign of respect, and burn “Zhu Chong” (a form of offering), to signify cleanliness and peace. They then take torches into the fields, waving them to attract moths and burn pests. After the parade, they place the torches at the edges of the fields and in open areas before gathering around the fire to dance joyfully, while the elders sit nearby, opening fragrant fire wine and toasting each other, wishing for good fortune. People also bring home their married daughters for the celebration. On this day, pigs and sheep are slaughtered, and families share meals to signify reunions.
On the day of the Torch Festival, mountain people from nearby Yuanmou, Yongren, Longjie, and other places bring their mountain goods and local products, riding mules and horses over the hills to Zhaojiadian. They set up tents and cook, displaying rows of fresh produce and bowls of fragrant lamb and beef soup, enchanting passersby. At night, on relatively flat hillsides, bonfires are lit, and Yi young men play the sanxian (three-stringed lute) while the young women join hands and dance around the fires, amidst the crackling flames that rise high into the sky, dancing until dawn.
Activities of the Torch Festival
- Left Foot Dance
- Bullfighting
- Horse Riding
The festival lasts for three days. The Yi people believe that celebrating the Torch Festival will cause the grain spikes to grow thick like torches. The descendants use this festival to honor the fire and drive away evil spirits from their homes and fields, ensuring safety for people and livestock. During the festival, young men and women from various ethnic groups light torches made of pine wood and participate in various activities in the villages and fields, walking while sprinkling resin on the torches to pray for prosperity and eliminate impurities; they may engage in dances, bullfighting, wrestling, horseback riding, shooting, torch performances, and releasing sky lanterns; or hold large bonfire parties for all-night revelry. Additionally, trade activities are conducted during the festivities.
Delicious Foods of the Torch Festival
The Torch Festival is also a time for feasting throughout the year. Although the organization and activities of the Torch Festival among the Yi people in Chuxiong vary, the custom of each family preparing the best dishes to feast with their households, the entire village, or inviting friends and guests is universal.
Due to their living environment, the Yi people of Chuxiong have developed unique dietary customs. Animal-based foods mainly include pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, and insects; plant-based foods consist primarily of wild fungi, flowers, and leaves. Staple foods include rice, corn, wheat, potatoes, and buckwheat. Cooking methods vary, including roasting, frying, steaming, boiling, pickling, pounding, and chopping. Beverages include homemade rice wine, fire jar wine, and tea, and sweet wine can be made from pumpkins, bananas, and buckwheat.
The Yi culinary repertoire features many dishes, such as lamb soup, stir-fried walnut flowers, dry-fried banana hearts, buckwheat cakes, pickled tender shoots, corn rice, cold mixed bananas, pork with poria, water celery, cold mixed flower tree, tofu sausage, fish heart grass, boiled wild yam, fungi, frogs, cold mixed green prickly ash, cold mixed podocarpus branches, stir-fried soapberry, etc.
Delicious Foods of the Torch Festival
- Lamb Soup
The Yi people are a community that worships fire, and the “Torch Festival” is the most grand and culturally distinctive traditional festival with widespread participation in Chuxiong Prefecture. Celebrating the Torch Festival not only promotes and preserves Yi culture but also showcases Chuxiong’s charm and enriches festive culture, while also promoting the scientific, harmonious, and leapfrog development of the economy and society in Chuxiong.
