Chahuajie-Putting up Flowers

Dayao County Yi celebrate the Torch Festival and observe the major Han festivals like New Year, Qing Ming(Tomb Sweeping), etc., in the Han style. Some of the sub-groups also hold their own individual festivals. The most colourful of these is Fuzhuangjie, the Dressing Up Festival (sometimes called the Yi Fashion Show) at Santai the 28th day of the 3rd lunar month. Santai Yi women already wear the brightest blouses in the area, with a heavy accent on gold silk. For this affair they don the most elaborately embroidered one they have and add several silk aprons in front, each slightly smaller and of a different hue than the one underneath. In the evening they give over to singing and dancing.

Festivals like Santai's attract only the Yi of the township in which it is staged. And for the Torch Festival each village has its own programme. But the one event that draws Yi from all corners of the county is Chahuajie, or Putting up Flowers, held the 8th day of the 2nd month in a grove above Tanhua township. This festival honours the mythical Yi heroine Miyilu. At least two versions are in circulation concerning the death of Miyilu. Around Zixi Mountain near Chuxiong the Yi say that long ago a wicked lord kept demanding young Yi women for his depraved pleasure. Miyilu offered herself in marriage, but killed the tyrant after the wedding and fled. The lord's kin caught up with her and slew her under a white camellia tree. Her blood stained the tree's roots and ever since then its flowers have been red.

The Dayao version is the same up to the point Miyilu, with an azalea in her hair, promises to marry the tyrant. To toast her betrothal she offers to drink wine with him. But she has already dropped the poisonous flower into the wine and when the tyrant drinks with her they both die.

Dressed in their finest Yi costume, the women stick camellias and azaleas over their doorways before going to the grove for the official events. After rituals conducted by the local bimaw, a special programme of song and dance follows. Then the Yi break up into groups for picnics and for making floral wreaths. Feasting, dancing and entertainment ensue. The evening party features rings of Yi youths, the boys playing the dragon-headed, round "moon guitar," the girls singing with high-pitched, undulating voices. Dancing continues until everyone is tired. That could be long past midnight.