Holidays of the Li

Year New Li
It is necessary to leave all the finished matters of the old year, a business (to complete it), a loan (to return it), the contrucci�n of a house (to finish it), and to prepare the food of the holiday of the new year. It lasts five days. On eve the dinner of New Year is celebrated, with the meal and the wine of the year. The whole family joins. The following day the family remains close, in silence, without going out, without feeding either dogs or gluttons. Then, the second day they begin the visits, the receptions of the acquaintances, which are entertained by wine, and the dances to the evening. Of the second to five the ambience that reigns is festive.

Holiday of third of March:

It is the most important for the peoples Li, although formerly it was celebrated especially in the district Dongfang. In fact it is a holiday in honor to the ancestors, this is because according to his legends after the deluge only he remained two prime young people, and although they looked incessantly for track of another people, they all had perished. To be able recrerar the human species the premium tattooed the face, and the cousin without recognizing it and they had sons and daughters.

Gifts are done to the ancestors, and a big multitude sings and dances day and night.

From 1992 the International Festival of the Coconut is celebrated also in this date, for that the authorities are promoted by the business and the Hainan tourism.

Holiday of the Spirits: On lunar July 14. It is a holiday in honor of the ancestors, in that gifts are done to them, money is burned, and in the night all the children set varitas of incense in the way.

Holiday of the cows
In July or lunar October, one day cow. The Li go out to the fields touching the Gongs to summon to the Spirit of the Cows, and to ask him that his herds should increase. Since the cow is the most important animal for the Li, for his agricultural work, for his symbolic value, it kills itself in funerals and visits, is offered like dowry, and for his economic value, since it is possible to change for grounds or gong of bronze.

Dances:
His most famous dance is the "Dance of the Bamb�es" or Dance of Cutting Firewood very similar to that of Vietnam and Thailand. Two ballerinas hold the ends of two branches of 3-4 m bamb�es, y they open them and close following the rhythm, the same rhythm that the ballerinas must continue entering and going out of the bamb�es, so that they do not strike them in the feet.

Dance of the Mortar:

Dance "the Money Sounds in the Double Sword".

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