Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 979 Dance and Song

Chapter 980 Dance and Song

Young men and women who came to visit relatives from all over the place, together with the people of the village, danced in three circles, and the outermost circle of reeds was playing cheerful music.

Beautiful feathers are fluttering, dazzling silver ornaments are shining, footsteps and palms are flying, and young faces are laughing.

Ayin and Li Junge also danced ecstasy in it, and they looked at each other from time to time, their eyes full of tenderness.

The old people left early, and this place became a sea of ​​joy for the young people.

This dance lasted until midnight. On the way back, the two heard clear singing in the woods around Youfangchang.

This is the time for young men and women to sing and express their love. The person they fell in love with when they danced to the moon just now invites together with other friends in the same situation in the village in twos and threes to express their love through singing.

The content of the lyrics sung is all-encompassing, some praise each other, some express emotions with borrowing, and some flirt.

Ayin walked all the way, listening carefully all the way, suddenly smiled and said: "Hey, this young man from Long'an Village is not bad."

Li Junge smiled and said, "Why did you hear it sounded good?"

A Yin said with a smile: "This young man is singing an ancient song, and he is using the part of the ancient song that describes the history of his ancestors to introduce his life experience."

Li Junge said: "Oh, that's the queen of a famous family!"

A Yin said with a smile: "Young girls like this are even more popular with girls, because this song must have been dictated by their parents, and they have a certain family origin, belonging to a family with a relatively high social status in the village."

Along the way, besides Youfangchang's singing, there are also many male voices singing under the back windows of the Miao's wooden building. This is the girl in Xuantian Village.

The girls also responded with singing, except for the singing of young men and women, the elderly in the family had no voice at all.

However, Li Junge dared to assure Mother Butterfly that the old people must have been awake and eavesdropping, but they were just pretending not to hear and letting the children make noise until dawn.

Because they and their parents also used this method to choose their favorite people.

Their view of love is indeed more open, calm, romantic and healthy than the traditional Han people.

Overnight, on the early morning of the [-]th, the owners of each household took their uncle's guests to cut maple trees.

The maple trees to be cut had been planted a long time ago, and every family has several of them.

The tree used for the Guzang Festival has actually been selected very early.

The maple trees that have been selected are all marked with a small swastika, because maple trees are not selected randomly.

Papa Yin explained to Li Junge some taboos in choosing maple trees. As maple trees for making cattle-cutting racks, they must be grown from seeds.

That is to say, none of the tall-branched and grafted goose egg golden lychee trees in Lijiagou are unqualified.

In addition, it is not necessary to replant the tree after being cut down.And when choosing a tree, you must choose the one with two or three branches.

Uncle Miao's family, most of the people who went to cut maple trees to make cattle racks were guests of the uncle's family.

There are rules for choosing trees, and there are rules for cutting trees. Dad Yin cut three axes first, and then handed over to his uncles to help. This is also an ancient tradition.

What makes people curious is that before the tree is cut, a small dried fish is tied to the bottom of the cut branch with a hemp rope, and the small fish remains on the tree after the cut.

Looking at the small dried fish, Li Junge thought of Grandpa Yu, the female relatives in the family, and the small dried fish on the heads of the priests. Combined with the branched maple tree, the meaning of the small dried fish became more and more clear.

The uncle's family, the fish, and the branched tree all imply a pair of prayers for a prosperous population.

The maple forest behind the pond is very lively today, with more than 400 families cutting trees here.

The priests were very busy. Before cutting down the tree, they had to lead the families to recite a sacrificial speech to the maple tree.

After the maple tree was felled, together with the branches at the top, the two uncles divided it into six sections on the spot.

Papa Yin went to choose another tree, cut off some branches with leaves and came back.

The high priest explained that this number is called "duce", and it is used to cover the finished cattle-cutting rack.

This reminded Li Junge of the baomao used for sacrificial wine in the Han family and the yarrow used for kneading jade.

Etiquette cannot be neglected, and the sense of ritual is produced in these special details.

On the back of the mountain, a large sloping land was sorted out, called Xuanniutang.

Why not use the large square below the stockade? The old man introduced that after the ceremony of pulling the cows, there is also a custom of carrying soil. The large square is paved with granite, so this cannot be done.

On the [-]th, there was another big ceremony that caused a sensation in the whole village——La Niu Xuantang.

This ceremony marks the climax of the Guzang Festival.

The crowds around Xuanniutang are densely packed. On the hillside in the outer circle, most of the people standing are watching the ceremony, and most of the people standing in the inner circle are men.

Women can't spin the cow by themselves. After all, this thing is so heavy that it takes seven or eight men to handle it. However, they can participate in the parade before and after spinning the cow.

After dinner in the morning, the two uncles and Li Junge came to the cow pen, twisted some straw into a rope, and pulled the cow out through the nose of the cow.

These are two majestic big-gun oxen. Their fur is shiny and their muscles are clearly visible under the skin.

Papa Yin hung Ayinzu's grandma's flower shoes and a hanging kite Zuzu's pistol on the horns of the bull to mark the identities of the two sacrificial victims.

Looking around Li Junge, every household was busy in front of their own sacrificial cattle.

Miaowa and many young children from Ayin's relatives also came to help, not only her own family, but seven or eight people gathered around each big cow.

The Lusheng team had been waiting there for a long time, perhaps because the ceremony of pulling the cattle to the swirling pond was extraordinarily grand, the person who led the Lusheng team had been replaced by that experienced master.

The priests stood in front of the team, waiting for the moment of Xuantang to come.

Most of the sacrifices were recently deceased people, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, and even sons and daughters. The voices and smiles of these people still remain in people's minds.

Because of this, there are some very special performances during the ceremony of pulling Niu Xuantang.

At twelve o'clock, the person who fired the iron cannon fired a cannon in front of the team, and the team began to walk towards Xuanniutang.

Those who carry drums and Tibetan flags walk in the front;

Then there is the Lusheng Mangtong team playing in a column;
With the support of two village elders, Grandpa Yu followed closely behind the Lusheng team;
Then came the female relatives of the family.

These women belong to the higher-ranking members of the family, and they form a phalanx in a row of five or six with empty hands.

The priests walked behind them.

Each of the two uncles led a cow, and Li Junge, Miao Wa and others surrounded them and helped drive the cow together.

Behind the ox are other female relatives in splendid attire, some of whom carry new clothes and quilts on bamboo poles.

Father Yin, who was holding a blunderbuss, was also among them, and he made gestures from time to time to show the might of the Xuantian kite ancestor.

Followed by the second house, the third house... the teams of each house formed a long queue for a while, and the onlookers either followed, or went uphill, or up a tree.The sound of firecrackers came and went, the crowd cheered and cheered, and it was very lively.

When they came to the Xuanniuchang, the team began to circle around, and there were thunderous cheers from all directions. This is what the old man called "Xuantang".

After turning around twice, someone grabbed a handful of mud from a mud pit that had already been dug on one side, and wiped it on the back of the bull, from the tail to the neck.

Another grabbed a handful of rice and sprinkled it on the back of the cow from tail to neck in the direction of the mud.

At the same time, Aunt Miao, who was waiting here, put a pair of collars on the two horns of the bull, tied the collars together with a piece of cloth, and wrapped a small dried fish around the bull's head.

After that, Uncle Orion covered the back of the bull with a piece of satin, and then pulled the bull back to the pen. The ritual of the Ayin family's revolving pond was over, and the cattle from the other family started again.

Li Junge finally had time to watch the other families' performances.

In the Xuantang team, there will be one person from each family, who will carry the objects that the priest loved during his lifetime.

For example, if he likes hunting, he carries a gun; if he likes raising birds, he chooses a birdcage with thin bamboo poles; Waiting for the carpenter's tools, this is the most distinctive ceremony of the Xuantian Village Guzang Festival.

Smearing dirt on the back of the ox is to hope that the land will be rich, and spreading rice is to hope that the grain will be plentiful.

Family by family, it lasted for a long, long time.

The procedure of each family is the same, the difference is that the performers of each family, needless to say, carry the birdcage, pick the clothes, and pick the spinning tools, they can only follow along, there is no more action.

Those who hold farm tools, handles, wear fishing baskets and carry fishing nets have to perform corresponding actions, and every time this happens, there will be a small climax on Xuanniutang.

If the family member being sacrificed is a martial arts enthusiast, it will be too lively to watch, and the cheers will sweep the entire Xuanniutang like a torrential rain.

Pulling Niu Xuantang went on for more than four hours amidst the sound of firecrackers one after another, and then gradually calmed down, and the people of Xuantian Village began to prepare for the next ceremony.

The cattle were assembled again in the stall, and the whole procession moved there, filling the stall with water.

The whole bullpen was full of voices and firecrackers, and the girls danced to the accompaniment of Lusheng. Grandpa Yu held a knife in his left hand and grass in his right, and led all the crowd to dance around the cows. He is a Zhai Lao who carries rice baskets and rice wine. He is the head of the second drum. He is called "Jiaxiong" in Miao language. This ceremony means to show sacrifices and respect ancestors.

The third one is the high priest, who has the most dried fish on his head. While chanting, he sprays wine on the ground, which means to drive away evil spirits.

The bull kept spinning around in the circle under everyone's pushing and shoving. Firstly, it was to show the ancestors, and secondly, it was also to let the onlookers see how good the bullock they worshiped was.

During this process, drums and Tibetan flags of various families were also gathered together.

The Miao people use this sacred object embroidered with totems to summon their ancestors' heroic spirits.

Hundreds of households have hundreds of banners, and their own men hold up the flags to worship the ancestors.

After the cattle are rotated and the cattle are relocated to the bullpen, the ancestor worship team of hundreds of people from each household, plus representatives from each village and village, is like a marching army amidst the sound of reeds, horns and firecrackers. Drive vigorously to Xuanniutang, which has just been trampled flat by the bulls.

According to the ancestral precepts, women are not allowed to enter the venue to participate in the evocation, so there are more people on the surrounding mountains, densely packed with women from the same family and relatives and friends watching the fun.

The scene watched by tens of thousands of people was huge and shocking, full of solemnity and mystery.

(End of this chapter)