Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 977 sacrifice

Chapter 970 Eight Sacrifice
The rice from my aunt’s house has already been steamed and the chickens have been killed. The reason has been understood before. My aunt loves others, and she is afraid that you will save it and be reluctant to eat it.

Under the meticulous operation of the system, there are fewer and fewer tourists in the village. On the day before Maori, Ayin finally came up the cliff, and all the tourists were emptied. .

The external publicity is that the various facilities in Miao Village need to be overhauled and overhauled, and several projects have been rectified, so they are temporarily closed.

In the whole village, apart from Miao Wa, a mixed Miao and Han, there were only two Han people left, Uncle Orion and Li Junge.

Every family began to set up altars.The first day to really enter the festival is to count from the time when the altar is set up to attract the souls of relatives to enjoy the sacrifices.

Like the Niu Sacrifice, in addition to offering sacrifices to distant ancestors, relatives who died not long ago are also offered sacrifices.

Not to mention Li Junge, a man of the Han family, even many of the Miao family didn't follow the standard rituals themselves. Many people came to Grandpa Yu to learn scriptures, and Grandpa Yu and each village taught them patiently.

Needless to say, distant ancestors, relatives are generally worshiped in the order of father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother.

In other words, if the father is gone, it is to sacrifice the father.If the father is alive and the mother is dead, sacrifice to the mother.

If both parents are present and grandpa passes away, sacrifice to grandpa.If grandpa is still alive and grandma is dead, grandma will be sacrificed.

Because of this, the Wuximan branch of Xuantianzhai had a parade performance imitating the deceased relatives in the collective festival of the Guzang Festival later, which is not available in other places.

Two old families wiped their tears and asked if they could offer sacrifices to their sons and daughters who had just passed away.

Grandpa Yu sighed, and comforted him a lot, saying that there is no problem, firstly, the dead are the most important, and secondly, the purpose of the sacrifice is to reassure the living.

The location of the altar is set towards the rising sun. In Xuantian Village, it is mostly set next to the central pillar behind the fire hall.

Standing at the door facing the house, the altars of each family in Xuantian Village are basically set up at the foot of the central column on the right wall, in the direction of Chaotian Shuya.

It happens that it faces east, and there is the ancestral mausoleum of Yanzidong below.The orientation of the entire stockade, the orientation of the altar, and these are secretly consistent, so they are all particular.

The altar is a dustpan, and inside it is a piece of glutinous rice weighing seven catties, a piece of cooked square pork, and a bowl of chopped cooked pork. Each family depends on their own habit of taking singular numbers, and put three to five bowls of rice wine. Three to five small dried fish, a bowl of rice.

Xiaoyugan appeared in the last bull-beating festival, but Li Junge didn't notice its specialness at that time.

Only then did I realize that it was not crucian carp or carp from the Miao family’s fields. After inquiring about it, the villagers didn’t know what it was called in Chinese, but they only said that it was a small fish in the mountain stream. In Miao language, it was called “Naixiong Naili”. .

Then he told Li Junge that this fish will be used in many places later, because fish symbolizes many children and the family reproduces quickly.

Like the Niu Ji Festival, a pair of horns are inserted obliquely on the glutinous rice, the tip of the horn is inserted into the glutinous rice, and the end of the horn leans against the wall.

There are male and female horns, that is, one is the horn of a cow and the other is the horn of a bull. The horns of the bull are carved with patterns.

Sweet wine is contained in the horns of female oxen, and rice wine is contained in the horns of male oxen.

There is a small bench next to the dustpan, and a basket is placed on the bench, and a set of clothes is placed in the basket. From the set of clothes, you can tell whether the relatives to be sacrificed are male or female.

In addition, there is a saber beside the dustpan. The saber is straight, about one meter long, with a red rope wrapped around the handle and a large ring at the bottom. The knife seems to be longer.

There are two dustpans on the altar of Ayin’s family, which means that two water bulls will be slaughtered in this Guzang Festival to sacrifice to two deceased relatives at the same time——Ayin’s ancestor and Xuantian kite.

In addition to the traces of cattle, rice, pigs, and fish, there is another animal trace that often appears, chickens.

In front of the door of every house, there is an old bamboo pole nearly ten meters away, and a "flag" is raised.

The drum-Tibetan flag set up by the family is also made of batik cloth. It is eight meters long and fifty centimeters wide. The top is covered with chicken feathers. There are many totems dyed and painted on it, which are roughly the same as the few village flags sent by the villages. .

According to the old man's explanation, bamboo symbolizes multiple hairs and fast hairs, and a prosperous family; chicken feathers symbolize the yearning for light, as well as hard work and early rise; totems need no further explanation.

There are fish, snakes, dragons, butterflies, and figures on the Guzang flag. In short, as long as there are patterns related to the life of the Miao people, they are more or less reflected on them, and they are sacred objects used to summon the souls of ancestors.

This also shows that the Miao nationality is a typical totem worship nation, and totems are ubiquitous and omnipotent in the life of the Miao people.

Four hundred and three households, one side of each family, plus a few pieces sent by each village from each village, the whole village has blue and white drums and Tibetan flags fluttering in the wind. It is definitely a huge shame that there is no such lens.

That night, A Yin's uncle carried out three wild boars with lion heads weighing more than 200 catties sent by Li Junge, and prepared them for the priest.

Grandpa Yu himself was a priest, but this time he, as Guzangtou, could not officiate in person. Instead, he invited priests from other villages to his own altar to invite ancestors to accept sacrifices.

Priests are called "Gouheng". Four hundred families, one or two people are not enough, so people from each village will come, usually three or five families invite a priest, and now they all gather in Changba. .

Grandpa Yu began to wrap three small dried fishes around the heads of the priests with hemp rope, which Li Junge felt like a ritual of empowerment.

Then the high priest sat in the main room, holding a big saber, and began to sing lyrics while moving slowly.

This sacrifice is actually a kind of ancient song, from the beginning of the world and the origin of human beings, to how the ancestors migrated here, how hard they were, and so on.

Li Junge felt that this was somewhat similar to inviting the upper body of the gods. At this time, the priest turned into a god to teach and bless Grandpa Yu's family.

Finally, when attracting the souls of relatives, you have to beat a drum to invite them, and a mighty big rooster is placed on top of the drum.

The big rooster is very strange. Under the operation of the priest, it seems to have fallen into a semi-comatose state. No matter how much the drum is played, it will squat quietly and remain motionless on the drum. Li Junge feels that if Teacher Zhang sees this scene , I will definitely be inspired to shoot the last issue of "Approaching Science".

The two uncles brought up the black pig, and the priest cut it into large pieces of almost the same size, and then strung them into four hundred and three strings, and distributed them to representatives from every household in Xuantian Village who came to watch the ceremony.

Every family receiving skewered meat is equivalent to receiving an official notice, and the Guzang Festival has truly entered the official stage.

After the skewers are divided, the priests of each village can go to recruit the souls of their relatives for each family.

Tonight, the spirits of all relatives will come to the village.

Also starting today, there are many more taboos in the village.

According to the old man's explanation in advance, from this day on, he can only eat meat, blood, and tofu every day, and he can't eat vegetables.

Speaking lingo also started from this day.

Instead of saying "eating" when eating, say "grazing" or "feeding cows".

No longer say "drink" when drinking, but "drink water".

When you ask someone if they have eaten, they should say "Have you fed the cow?" The answer is naturally "Yes" or "Not yet".

According to Uncle A Chong's explanation, this is because from now on, only gods and ancestors are eligible to eat "rice".

As for why the "meal" is all meat, it is because the Miao family was poor in their old age and had no meat to eat all year round. Now they want to invite their deceased relatives to eat and drink together.

The old man laughed and said that Uncle A Chong was talking nonsense. The real reason was that in Miao language, vegetables are called "wrap", which is a homophony of "disharmony" in Miao language.

Therefore, when Miao people receive guests who arrive at home for the first time, they have the custom of not allowing vegetables to be eaten, for fear that conflicts will arise after eating, and you will not understand me and I will not understand you.

It is also taboo to say "wrap". If the guest accidentally says it, the host will be unhappy.

The old man also found a kind of grass, which he said could play a targeted healing role.

Once a guest violates the taboo, the housewife may secretly crush the grass and put it in the pot when others are not paying attention, which can also avoid the occurrence of discord.

And because tofu is not a vegetable, it is not taboo.

Li Junge felt that it was obvious that the old man's explanation was more reasonable and more like a long-standing custom.

The most tested one is Gu Zangtou. From today onwards, he cannot sleep.

Li Junge is determined to use Lingquan water to help Grandpa Yu cheat through cheating.

The Guzang Festival is a grand ceremony, and the guests are still coming in batches, more and more every day, and today it has finally reached its peak.

Every guest is wearing his most beautiful clothes, carrying all kinds of gifts, and they come into the stockade in groups.

In this grand ceremony, no guests entered the village empty-handed, men and women, young and old, all carried all kinds of gifts on their backs.

The arrival of each batch of guests is accompanied by a long string of deafening firecrackers.

Among the gifts sent by guests, there are usually chickens, ducks, piglets, and millet together with straw, which are called "he".

There are also various daily necessities, such as cloth and headgear, all of which are listed.

At this time, the old man did not know where to find six puppies, and handed them to Grandpa Yu with a sad face. They were the offspring bred by Bai Da in Xiasi Town.

The fourth one was agreed to be given to Grandpa Yu, and the other two were gifts.

In the words of the old man, they are all good and bad, and the kind that sends one's heart trembling.

When a guest gives a gift, the host will definitely register it and return the gift according to the quantity of the gift.If you give more, you will get more, and if you give less, you will naturally get less.

There are all kinds of things that guests send, but pork and beef are usually returned as gifts.

Therefore, in addition to slaughtering one or two buffaloes, each family usually slaughters a few fat pigs, so that they are enough for the guests to eat and return gifts to the guests.

But with Li Junge, a local tyrant's son-in-law, there are plenty of pigs, just kill them and pull them up.

After eating the skewered meat, the family festival is on the [-]th, and today there is another main event called "Guzang Lusheng".

There are many ways to dance the reeds of the Miao nationality, all of which are chosen according to different occasions.

The Drum Cang Lusheng dance that day was a small reed reed dance, which was performed on the open dam outside Ayin’s house.

In the middle of the open dam is the Guzang flag of the village, and the Guzang Lusheng team dances around the Guzang flag.

(End of this chapter)