The third day of March of Li Nationality

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: March 3 festival of Li Nationality

Applicant: Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province

Project No.: 460

Project No.: Ⅹ - 12

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hainan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province

Protection unit: Wuzhishan Cultural Center

A brief introduction to the third March festival of Li Nationality:

Applicant: Wuzhishan City, Hainan Province

March 3 is a traditional festival for Li people in Hainan to mourn their industrious and brave ancestors and express their yearning for love and happiness.

There are two versions of the origin of March 3. According to the first theory, it is said that a long time ago, the Li people living on the Bank of Changhua River suffered a catastrophic flood, which killed people and animals, leaving only a pair of brothers and sisters named Tianfei and Nanyin. When they grow up, the brother and sister decide to find a partner separately and meet each other on March 3 every year. On the third of March every year, Nanyin, Tianfei and their descendants came back here to welcome the spring. In memory of them, the Li family called the stone cave niangmu cave, and the third of March naturally became a grand festival of the Li family. According to the second theory, it is said that a long time ago, there was a wicked crow in the cave, which made people unable to live and work in peace and contentment. One day, the crow spirit caught the beautiful girl of Li nationality, er Niang. On March 3 of this year, her sweetheart, a GUI, went up the mountain with a sharp knife, bow and arrow to save her. She was killed by the crow spirit. After hearing the news, she was very sad, and finally killed the crow while it was sleeping. She avenged a GUI and did great harm to the Li people. Russian mother never married, every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, she would go to the Russian cave to sing her love song when she fell in love with a GUI. Later, in memory of her, the Li people named the cave erniang Cave (Changjiang). On March 3 every year, unmarried young men and women of the Li nationality nearby gather in erxianling, singing love songs to find their favorite person. This activity expanded year by year and spread to all the Li people's residential areas in Hainan, forming a grand traditional festival among the Li people in Hainan. There are records related to "March 3" in the historical records of Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty Fan Chengda's "Guihai yuhengzhi" says: "spring is a swing meeting. Men and women from neighboring cave come to swim in costumes. They join hands and sing and answer to each other. It's called drama." Since ancient times, on the third day of the third month of the third lunar month, the Li people have gathered from all over the world, dressed in festive costumes, carrying mountain baskets of rice wine and bamboo tube rice, or worshiping their ancestors, or meeting in groups, singing, dancing and playing percussion instruments to celebrate the festival. Young men and women take advantage of the carnival to meet their friends with songs and express their feelings with dances. They are intoxicated in the happy river of love. Until dawn, they will say goodbye and meet again in March next year.

Li nationality has a very broad mass base on March 3. With the changes of the times, the contents of celebration are becoming more and more diverse, but the most basic contents are couplet songs, folk sports, folk songs and dances, and wedding performance.

The third day of March is the cultural resource handed down by Li people for thousands of years, and it is the most specific and typical manifestation of Li culture.

In 1984, according to the wishes and demands of the Li people, the people's Congress of Guangdong Province and the people's Government of Guangdong Province decided that March 3 was the traditional festival of the Li people.