In the past few years, I have traveled to many cities along the 30° north latitude. From Wuyue to Jingchu, to Bashu, Tibetan and Qiang, what I have seen and heard is particularly fresh in my memory. For thousands of years, how many magical stories have happened on the magical latitude line of 30° north latitude.
The Chinese nation has an excellent cultural history. The 56 ethnic minorities have their own differences in culture and eating habits. In fact, there has always been a desire to travel, which is to explore and understand those unique minority cultures. In my original memory, the more direct ways to identify ethnic minorities are clothing and language. As a layman, I can't see anything special about it, especially in July this year, I went to the Longtan Ancient Village in Wuchuan and got to know the "Gelao people".
Longtan Ancient Village has been built for more than 700 years, and is known as "the oldest Gelao Ancient Village in the world". Almost all the people living here are from the "Shen" surname. In fact, I came here with a very strong purpose, just to experience the "Eat New Festival". The so-called "Eat New Festival", in simple terms, is that the villagers display the food they have harvested this season, which is a bit like Food Festival, and at the same time take this opportunity to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. Because the "Eating New Festival" is only held in July and August every year when the rice is ripe, so you can't see such a lively scene when you come here during the rest of the time.
If you think that the "eating new festival" mainly involves tasting delicious food, you are wrong, because on this day, the villagers will also organize some interesting activities, such as: cockfighting, guessing riddles, transporting pumpkins, etc., carefully observe , you will find that these competitive sports are closely related to the daily life of the villagers, especially transporting pumpkins, which is completely the most common labor scene, but did you know? This kind of crop may be very common, but it is the most common crop for local villagers. The main food, because in the mountains, pumpkins are easy to grow, and they are easy to feel full after eating, and the villagers will not feel hungry too easily when they are working. When the villagers celebrate the harvest, there is another very important link that cannot be forgotten, that is, "sacrificing the cow". In daily work, the cow is a good helper for the villagers, and they often thank the cow by feeding grass, burning incense, and firing cannons. of hard work.
After watching the performance of the "Eating New Festival", it's not long before it's time to have lunch. I heard that the local specialty food "Guntuanba" is delicious, and I did see it on the table this time. Local villagers said that this is a must-cook food for the Gelao people during festivals. The main method is to mix glutinous rice and sticky rice together, and fill it with beans or vegetables, and then knead it into a mountain shape and put some on top of it. Red rice, therefore, is also called "red hat cake".
After staying in the local area for a long time, I observed carefully that the clothes of the Gelao people do have very strong national characteristics. Unmarried women usually wear a first dress, add a small apron, and a tube skirt, and usually embroider the "big two character card" on the clothes, which means harmony between heaven, earth and man. As for the pattern, the main pattern is lily, which represents a This kind of "peace is the most precious" spirit, so it has always been regarded as a family flower by the Gelao people. Married women mainly wear vests or slanted fronts, while men wear double-breasted gowns. The overall change is relatively small. Regardless of men's or women's clothing, there is also a similarity, that is, the clothes are short in front and long in the back, and the main purpose of the long back is two: one is to prevent mosquito bites in summer and keep warm in winter; the other is to be more convenient when doing farm work. The back doesn't leak out as a result either.
Almost in the afternoon, the grand worship ceremony will start at the Jiutian Waterside Pavilion in Longtan Ancient Town. Before that, the village elders will take some children in the village to the rice fields to pick new grains, and use this to worship their ancestors and pray for good weather in the coming year. And get a good harvest, which the locals call "Caixin". After that, the same simple and interesting sports activities as in the morning will be carried out. What surprised me the most is the activity of "push shit crawling". The so-called "push shit crawling" was originally a small insect called "Nature's scavenger", the northerners generally call it "dung beetle". The children who participate in the activity are generally around 10 years old. One side hooks the partner's waist with his feet, and holds his ankle tightly with both hands, and then the partner Push the football into the opponent's basket, and the one with the largest number is the winner. This game not only pays attention to unity, but also requires high hand strength. It also has the meaning of driving away bad luck. Similar to life-style game activities There are cockfights, egg protection, etc. Although there is no chance to participate in it, even as a bystander, it is easy to be infected by such a game atmosphere.
"Gelao" is one of the 56 ethnic minorities. Many times, when talking about ethnic minorities, Tibetans and Yi may be blurted out, but this time when I entered the Gelao, I had to feel the diversity of the folk culture of the Gelao. . Passed down for thousands of years, the ancient and traditional "eating new festival" may also become a window for us to better understand Gelao culture.
