Lisu festivals

The Lisus mostly reside in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. The Lisus have their own language. Since 1957, they created their new characters on the basis of the Latin alphabetic letters. The folk literatures of the Lisus are rich and colorful.

The Lisus use the nature calendar. According to florescence and chirm, they divide one year into 10 seasonal months such as the blooming month, chirming month, mountain burning month, starving month, collecting month, harvesting month, wine month, hunting month, year month and housing month, etc. The traditional festivals mainly include the Spring Festival, the Harvest Festival, the Firebrand Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Sword Festival.

Heshi Festiva

It is the Spring Festival of the Lisus. They celebrate the New Year and send off the past year by singing, dancing and holding wonderful sports shows.

The Heshi Festival is commonly celebrated after lunar January 5. Before that day, people will make sticky rice cakes, brew wine and make new clothes. One day prior to the Spring Festival, people will build color village gate and the entertainment ground. A cloud-kissing banner pole is erected in the center of the ground, on which is hung a banner of two colors: red in the upper part and white in the lower part with the signs of arrow and bow. On the first day of the Spring Festival, men and women, old and young, they all dress up. In case several villages celebrate the festival together, each of them will be guided by three leading persons: one holds a banner in two colors with the motif of arrow and bow; one shoulders a bright nut-brown bow, with an arrow inserted on the head wrapper; another one is a lady. As the troupe enters the gate of the village, the firecrackers are set off and girls waiting at both sides of the ground start performing the Guest Welcoming Dance to the accompaniment of Lusheng (weed-ripe wind instrument). After all troupes from the villages enter the ground, the entertainments are announced to commence with fired shooting three times.

In the morning of the next day, people perform the Three String Dance to the accompaniment the finger-popping three-stringed instrument. Young men and girls dressed in colorful clothes, facing each other, raise legs and touch the opposite' foot. Girls swing to a large extent their arms over the chest; the silver ornaments sound following the movements, and young men keep their head askew and exert their strength to play the three-stringed instrument and dance. As the melodious tune of Lusheng rises, the music from the three-stringed instrument dies down. Men and women, old and young, all people stream to the ground and start dancing. They stretch out and smartly twist their legs. This is the traditional Lusheng Dance of the Lisus.

Peoples riot in dancing in the morning. In the afternoon, they hold sport contests such as shooting arrow, playing catapult, shooting gun and copper cannon, greasy pole and swinging. The Heshi Festival ends up in huge crowd, tide of songs and lightsome dances.

Sword Festival

The Sword Festival of the Lisus occurs on February 8 of the lunar calendar. On the occasion, women are gorgeously dressed in folk costumes; men carry bows and long swords, and gather from near and afar to the Sword Ground to celebrate the annual Sword Festival. People light up with pleasure. Some young people amuse themselves by chasing after one another. Some young men and girls hide themselves in couple in the forest for amorism. The festival is not only made up of entertainments like contest and competition, but also the Saint Valentine's Day for young men and girls.

When it is sunset, the firecrackers set off, a person from the Lisu ethnic minority sets fire on a pile of chestnut firewood. The fire is getting higher and higher and the roaring blaze reaches several meters high. When the smoke clears off, only a pile of charcoal fire is left. Upon hearing the crack of the firecrackers, five vigorous young men strive to jump into the fire sea where they start performance. Later on, some people lie down and turn over their body in the fire; some pick up glowing iron chains more than one meter long and as thick as the little finger, and swing them around; and some others hold the glowing charcoal and wash face. Each of them gives full play to his remarkable skill. When piles of glowing charcoal turning into ashes, the five strong men are streaming with sweat, but no burns or scalds are left on their bodies.

On the second day, the program of Sword Mountain is also held at the same place as Fire Sea. In the early morning, a crowd of people bundle swords and fresh flowers on two straight trunks. Every sword is sharpened; a bundle is made up of 36 or 72 swords, with the blades up. Then, the Sword Mountain is pricked up. At noon, the cracks of firecrackers, and the beating of gongs and drums convulse the mountains. Five men in black with red wrapper on the head and red band on the waist show up commandingly in the center of the ground. They greet the audience by a special folk courtesy. After an old retired actor of the Fire Sea and Sword Mountain toasts to each of the brave actors, they grasp in turn the hilt, step on the blades and climb upwards. The audience is uptight for them each time they climb up one stair.

Not only the courage is required, but also the skill is necessary for the Sword Mountain challenge. By a tiny carelessness, the feet will be wounded. The climbers are adroit like ape; they reach the top of the Sword Mountain in a little while. The climber that arrives the top first throws four red banners in four directions, and then sets off firecrackers to cheer for his triumph. Some brave and skillful climbers make a headstand. Being set off by blue sky and white cloud, their strong and vigorous bodies are high up in the air, the scene is so exciting that people keep applauding and cheering. When they come down, the five brave men look quiet and uplift their feet to the audience. The fact is that there are only traces of pressure of the blades, but nobody is wounded. People cheer and applaud again. It is said that the reason that actors of the Fire Sea and Sword Mountain dare to challenge the Sword Mountain and the Fire Sea is they have adopted a mysterious light power and tough power skills handed down from the family.

Harvest Festival

It is held between lunar September and October. The greatest activity of the Harvest Festival is that every family brews wine and tastes the fresh rice. Some families indeed brew wine while harvesting. They often dance and sing nightlong to their hearts' content.