Festival to celebrate a bumper crop
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China Today, September 22, 2017
Colorful Festival Activities
Extensive preparatory work usually starts on the Tomb-sweeping Day. Villagers offer sacrifices to the god Er-Lang and genius Loci. A manager is elected for that year's Nadun Festival, whose duties include collecting money, maintaining local order, and coordinating with production management before the festival, as well as being in charge of organizing activities. One day before the festival, a large tent is put up in the place where people place statues of the gods and offer sacrifices. A series of rituals are held during the festival, such as invoking the gods, consecrating the ground, making and renewing vows to the gods, and finally saying goodbye.
The festival consists of three parts – the huishou dance (huishou refers to those villagers engaged in ceremonial activities during the festival), the mask dance, and the fala dance.
The Huishou dance is a large-scale collective dance, with up to 100 participants. The dazzling performance often takes different forms and uses a variety of costumes. At the end of the dance, the performers go down on their knees, and the older villagers will sing a song in praise of the gods and express their appreciation that the gods came into this world to share their happiness with people and bless them with great kindness.
After the huishou dance, the performers sit on the ground in a circle and perform folk operettas, an important activity of the Nadun Festival. Since the performers wear masks, it is called a mask dance or exorcism dance.
Zhuangjiaqi is an entertaining dance drama, telling the story of an older farmer teaching his son about farming. Seen as the foundation of Nadun, it is the first play of the festival. The dance of the Three Kingdoms praises the valiant and loyal Guan Yu. Shaguojiang is the finale of the performance, telling the story of Shaguojiang fighting an evil tiger to defend the people. These original dances vividly reflect the Tu people's undaunted spirit in their fight against natural threats, their abundant historic culture and social life, as well as their romantic mythology.
Fala refers to the intermediary between human beings and the gods, a kind of sorcerer. Fala represents the deity to decree after being possessed. The Fala dance is a ceremony to entertain the gods, including a number of small rites, such as entering the stage, the sorcerer's dance in a trance, collecting land tax, and declaring an oracle. Fala accepts villagers' respect and worship on behalf of the gods, and blesses the village with good weather for the crops, a bumper grain harvest, and safety for people and livestock. Villagers take in the oracle and show their gratitude for the blessing. Then they lift a godly sedan to go around the village, and pass it on to people from other villages that will hold their festivals later on.
By means of this activity, the Tu people express their awe and worship to the gods, creating a festival shared by mortals and gods.
Practical Significance
With distinct characteristics, the Nadun Festival is a folk activity centered around an exorcism dance. The celebration of this folk religion creates links between villages. The traditional festival lasts a long time and sees extensive participation from many villages. Strict in its organization and order of events, the festival is closely integrated with village management and production, and has an obvious social function. The colorful activities are rich in local detail. The exorcism dance not only maintains the Shamanic culture of northern ethnic groups, but also absorbs features of Han culture, such as the god Er-Lang and the worship of Guan Yu. Expressing the Tu's cultural individuality as well as promoting cultural symbiosis and national harmony, the festival possesses abundant cultural and artistic connotations as well as local music, dance, costumes, and customs.
Meanwhile, the festival is an oral history of the Tu people, which vividly narrates the Tu's journey from nomadic life to agricultural production. It is of great significance to the study of the Tu's history, religion, culture, art, farming, and folk customs.
As a typical mask dance to reflect the Tu's agricultural concept, Zhuangjiaqi presents the transformation of the ethnic group from nomadic life to permanent settlements. As farming techniques improved and the communication between different cultures increased, the Tu's ancestors constantly absorbed various cultures, and changed their lifestyle to engage in agricultural production. This transition has been interpreted as a common conflict between father and son.
During the performance, some older villagers would be invited onto the stage, persuading their sons to engage in agriculture. This shows that if family problems and neighborhood disputes cannot be settled satisfactorily, the village elders will be invited to mediate. This method has proved to be effective in mediating neighborhood disagreements, reducing friction, and maintaining social stability. It also reflects the Tu's respect for the older generations and their emphasis on maintaining good relationships with neighboring villages. The invited elders on stage are usually from other villages; they are toasted with wine to show respect, symbolizing the two villages jointly celebrate a good harvest. The guests are all older males, indicating the deep-rooted patriarchal culture of the Tu people.
The Nadun Festival is a long-standing cultural event. As a traditional cultural gem, the living and historical festival is a jewel in the crown of traditional Chinese culture.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)