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Story 150: Naxi Torch Festival

Naxi Torch Festival

Author: Anonymous

Starting from the 24th day of the sixth lunar month, the Naxi people follow the ancient custom to celebrate the Torch Festival for three consecutive days, lighting torches for three nights. Every day, a big torch as thick as a pillar is lit in front of the door, and the young people in the village hold thin and long torches and walk along the ridges and mountain roads, singing until late at night. The brighter the torches burn, the more auspicious it is and the happier people are.

How did this grand festival come about?

According to legend, a long time ago, the Jade Emperor in heaven was afraid that the bad luck on earth would rush up, so he ordered the gate of heaven to be closed. But soon, he got tired of touring the eighteen layers of heaven and the fairyland. One day, he couldn’t hold it anymore, so he ordered the gate of heaven to be opened, wanting to see what the scenery on earth was like. When the gate of heaven was opened, the spring breeze blew, and he saw green mountains and clear waters on earth, and hundreds of flowers competed for beauty. The Jade Emperor was fascinated by it, and his troubles disappeared.

After looking at the human world enough, the Jade Emperor turned around to look at the Heavenly Palace. He was so angry that he blew his beard and glared: “How come my Heavenly Palace is not as good as the mortal world? How can this be tolerated?” As he spoke, he issued an order, asking the red-faced god to burn down the human world.

After receiving the order, the red-faced god of fire rode a cloud to the mortal world. He did not set the fire immediately, but first inspected it and saw that the mortal world was thriving, which was incomparable to the life in heaven. The god of fire fell in love with the mortal world, and he could not bear to burn down this beautiful world, nor to destroy the kind people.

Although he knew that violating the will of the Jade Emperor would lead to his own death, he wanted to avoid evil and do good, and would rather sacrifice himself than carry out the will of the Jade Emperor. After making up his mind, he returned to heaven and lied to the Jade Emperor, saying, “The human world has been burned to ashes.” The Jade Emperor was very happy to hear this: “Haha, now my heavenly palace is far better than the human world.”

After a long time, the Jade Emperor felt annoyed again and wanted to see the burned world. He came to the gate of heaven again with the fairies, but when he saw it, he almost went crazy. The world was not burned, but more prosperous and happy. He knew that the Red-faced God had violated his will, so he was furious and ordered the gods to tie up the Fire God and take him out to be executed.

When the Fire God was killed, a drop of blood splashed out of the gate of heaven, fell to the ground, and dripped into a temple next to a village at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. A monk saw the drop of blood, carefully wrapped it up with a red cloth, and placed it in the temple.

On the evening of June 24, people had just returned from work in the fields when a little kid suddenly ran out of the temple, stopped them and cried, “The tyrannical and cruel Jade Emperor is jealous of the beauty of the human world, and tonight he will send his heavenly soldiers and generals to burn down the human world.

Quickly light torches in front of your door, and do this for three nights in a row. The brighter the better. This way you can deceive the Jade Emperor with fake fire, and he and his heavenly soldiers and generals will see that the human world is already burning, and they will not come down to mess up again.”

This little doll was the result of the hard work of the Fire God. Kind people believed his words and followed his method. They lit torches one after another. Men, women, old and young danced with torches for three days and three nights. The flames shot up into the sky. The Jade Emperor watched for three nights and saw that the world was a sea of ​​fire. Only then did he feel relieved and return to the Heavenly Palace.

People finally escaped the disaster. To commemorate this event and show respect to the God of Fire, people would make and light torches every June 24th. Over time, this became the Torch Festival.