The Buyi ethnic group is one of the fifty-six ethnic groups. With rich ethnic festivals and cultural traditions, most of them live in Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan and other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. As a member of the Buyi ethnic group in Guizhou, I have a deep understanding of many of the Buyi culture and living habits. The Buyi people living in Guizhou have many traditional festivals, such as "March 3", "April 8", "June 6" and other national festivals. The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Buyi people.
Spring Festival customs of the Buyi people.
What we are talking about here is how traditional rural Buyi families celebrate the New Year. The average family will start preparing for the New Year early, probably starting from the twelfth lunar month (the twelfth month of the lunar calendar). First of all, they will prepare from the preparation of some food to the taboos on some behaviors and activities, and these taboos are very particular. As an ordinary Buyi woman, it is necessary to learn how to make rice wine. In the dialect, rice wine is called "biang 35dang jiu". The raw materials for making wine are the crops produced by the Buyi people themselves, generally including: rice, corn, and sorghum (mainly rice). Rice wine like this looks no different from ordinary liquor, but it tastes very good and the mellow taste will make you salivate. In addition, during the brewing process, if a neighbor comes to visit, the newly brewed rice wine must be shared with the neighbor. In order to seek good luck, the drinkers will usually say, "The wine your family roasted today will be all over the wine jar when it comes out." I can’t pretend anymore” and other words like that. At the same time, how much wine you get from brewing can also mean whether the family's family luck, wealth, etc. will be smooth in the coming year. If more wine is brewed than expected, the family will be smooth in the coming year, and everyone will be safe. The time and cycle of brewing wine are relatively long, so it is usually prepared at the earliest. Next is making tofu (before mechanical equipment, the Buyi people used traditional stone mills to grind it, and they had to push it manually in the middle), so they used to call it pushing tofu or grinding tofu. Fresh tofu in sour soup is a delicious dish for New Year's Eve dinner. But most of the tofu made is salty tofu, which is smoked together with bacon to form "dry tofu" that can be stored for more than half a year. Dried tofu is also very simple to eat. Boiled in water, sliced ??and placed on the plate, the taste is fragrant and delicious. In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, we begin to make various snacks. Generally there are rice cakes (rice cakes), glutinous rice cakes (raw material is waxy corn), glutinous rice cakes (made from glutinous rice) and rice noodles. Except for glutinous rice cakes and rice noodles, which are sent to nearby processing rooms, glutinous rice cakes and rice cakes are made at home using traditional handicrafts. The hard-working Buyi people always prepare carefully for a long time for the arrival of the Spring Festival, not for anything else but as a reward for a year of hard work by farmers. We have already mentioned wine making before. How can we have wine without meat? As the Buyi people who live off the land, of course they don't buy meat like people in the city do. They raise their own pigs and slaughter them before the New Year as a way to celebrate the New Year. Killing a New Year pig is something almost all Buyi people do. It usually starts in the twenties of the twelfth lunar month.
Taboo for Buyi people.
The New Year pig can only be killed on odd-numbered days (except on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, because the Kitchen God Bodhisattva will return to heaven to celebrate the New Year, so killing is considered illegal and taboo). Neighbors are asked to help when killing pigs, and relatives and friends are also invited to enjoy the delicious pig-killing wine and share the joy of this year's harvest. Except for setting aside a part of the pork to be eaten during the Chinese New Year, most of the rest is used to season and marinate to make bacon. It is smoked over firewood for more than ten days, which extends the storage time. Bacon is not only used as a gift for friends, but also when relatives and friends visit, cooking the fragrant old bacon has become a top-quality dish for the Buyi people to entertain guests. In addition to preparing various New Year goods, the Buyi people have many taboos during the twelfth and first lunar months. If they are not followed, it will affect or even harm the people, things and things in the family. Starting from the twelfth lunar month, the home must be kept harmonious and quiet, especially no loud banging, as this will be considered as disturbing the ancestors' journey home for the New Year. Children should not cry during this period, as this is considered unlucky. The Buyi people call it "the head is tabooed in the first month and the tail is tabooed in the twelfth lunar month". And use this to wish peace and success in the coming year. During the first lunar month, usually from the first to the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, the processing room cannot start the machinery and equipment. Strong vibrations are considered to be disrespectful to the deceased. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, domestic water must be stored and cannot be dumped out, and garbage in the living room and bedroom cannot be swept. Failure to do so means that all the wealth for this year will be poured out or swept out. Before the 15th, you could not hang your washed clothes in the yard, but in a place other than the yard. If you hung them to dry, the rain this year would not reach your home. Several times it rained at your neighbor’s house. Well, it won’t rain in my yard. Regardless of whether they are superstitious or not, these customs and habits are unique to the Buyi people and have accumulated over hundreds or even thousands of years.
Having their own customs and traditions, they are deeply imprinted on ethnic minorities. It needs to be passed down to protect these disappearing national cultures.