Torch Festival------the First Chinese Ethnic Festival

The Torch Festival or Fire Festival (Chinese: 火把节; pinyin: Huǒbǎ Jié) is one of the main holidays of the Yi people of southwest China, and is also celebrated by other ethnic groups of the region. It is celebrated on the 24th or 25th day of the sixth month of the Yi calendar, corresponding to August in the Gregorian calendar. It commemorates the legendary wrestler Atilaba, who drove away a plague of locusts using torches made from pine trees. Since 1993, the government of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan has sponsored a modernized celebration of the festival, featuring wrestling, horse racing, dance shows, and a beauty contest. Different groups set the festival at different time.

The original Torch Festival, according to some scholars, was based on a calendar used by Bai and Yi people in ancient times. The calendar included 10 months, 36 days in a month, and two Star Returning Festivals in winter and summer respectively. The two Star Returning Festivals were both considered the New Year, and the one in summer was called the Torch Festival as people often lighted a torch on that day. There are also many other legends about the origin of the Torch Festival, yet all of them have the purpose of offering sacrifice to duties and dispelling ghosts, as a wish for a harvest.

The main activities of "torch festival" include "retribution", "light torch" and "wrestling". Killing cattle to sacrifice ancestors and killing chicken to call back souls are unchanged custom of Yi people. On the day of "torch festival", people will kill a cattle and each household will bring back one piece of beef to sacrifice ancestors. They will kill a chicken to “call back souls” and send pestilence away by lighting torches. In addition, villagers also hold torches and bypass the fields of bypass to eliminate hazards and pray for good harvest. Young people gather outside the village in torches shine, they wrestle, sing folk songs, and dance. In modern times, people use gatherings to socialize or date, and they also do business during the festival.

In the traditional festivals of ethnic minority in China, the torch festival of the Yi people is one of the most fascinating festivals. It is entitled "the first Chinese ethnic festival" and "Oriental Carnival night" in the world.

The four activities of worship, sports, social interaction, and product exchange during the Torch Festival are the comprehensive reflection of the complete Yi cultural system. Yi torch festival has a long history and wide mass basis; it is extensive and far-reaching. Torch Festival fully reflects the national character of worshiping fire by Yi people. It preserves the old information of Yi’s origin and it is of great historical and scientific value. Torch Festival is one of the most iconic symbols in Yi people's traditional culture, and it is also an important carrier of Yi traditional music, dance, poetry, food, clothing, agriculture, astronomy, worships, and other cultural elements. Torch Festival is of great significance to the self-recognition awareness and the promotion of social harmony of Yi people. At the same time, torch festival has a practical value for Yi people to exchange with other peoples and promoting national unity.
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