Hani People's Foods Festival: "KuZhaZha"

There's another old song sung by Hani: "All the terraces are planted with seedlings, including those of widows and widowers, including those on edges and corners; let's check and choose our lucky days to enjoy our 'KuZhaZha'".

"KuZhaZha", also known as the "June festival", is in fact the Hani People's traditional festival in respect of food. Every year in May, when all the paddy fields are planted with seedlings, some of which in better situations have already come out and grown green, Hani people's heaviest work around the whole year come to an end. This is the very time for them to begin their traditional food worshipping festival, "KuZhaZha".

Unlike on our solar or lunar calendar, Hani people's New Year it is not fixed on any certain day, but changes from year to year. It usually begins at the first "dragon" day of our lunar October. Thus, their "June festival" falls actually in lunar April or May.

Different villages have different lucky days to celebrate "KuZhaZha". Here in Hani language, "Ku" means "spoon more rice to your bowl", while "Zha" means "eating", and "KuZhaZha" together gets the sensation of "stop working to begin cooking and eating together". During the festival, each family should carry on its own part of duty to afford the oxen bought for its beef sharing by the whole village. The most important part of the whole festival is, every family should sacrifice a cock for the God of Food at the family's field, praying that the family would get good harvest and avoid any means of natural disasters in the following year, so that every member of the family would have enough food to eat.

Usually, "KuZhaZha" lasts for three days, and such a sacrifice happens at the very beginning of the first day. People first sacrifice the cock to the God, and then take it back home, kill and eat it.

Then the second part of the festival--planting "HaBa" tree (usually a chestnut full of leaves that have been cut and fetched from on the mountain), comes on its way. This "HaBa" tree is planted in the center of the village by all the male villagers, and it is prepared for the Gods from the heaven to keep their horses tied on.

Baihong, one of the subgroups of Hani, is used to pray and do sacrifice to "WeiZhiShiPi", a group of Gods, instead of one certain god. "WeiZhi" stands for nine gods in charge of all the creatures on heaven and earth: gods of heaven, earth, sun, moon, water, death, rain, lights, and the master of all the other gods; "ShiPi" is related to the seven "MoPi" (Hani priests) living in the heaven. All these gods would come down from the heaven, visit and share the happiness of every family living in the earthy world during the festival. As they take this journey by riding horses, it must have been very hard, so a newly planted "HaBa" tree with forages under it for their horses, and an altar for them to have rest, are of indispensability.

When the "HaBa" tree planted, housewives will begin decorating their houses all over with "HaBa" leaves, first in front of each family's ancestors' memorial tablets, and then barns, furnaces, and farm implements. "HaBa" leaves on the wall outside the door are also used for gods to tie their horses, while those scattered on the ground are showing the gods their way to each family. This work must be taken on very carefully, for you can't get the gods' blessing unless every corner of your house is decorated by "HaBa" leaves.

After all the "HaBa" things have been settled down, housewives will get themselves to cook and sacrifice foods to the heaven and earth, to their ancestors, and even the furnaces and farm tools, for all the gods'protect of the family's fortune to get good harvest.

Food is prayed and sacrificed for in all means in such a grand festival. Man is certainly of great importance to the earth, because he planted the earth with seedlings; in return, the earth is playing the key role in man's life by serving him with food. In any case, Hani people are celebrating their Food festival, "KuZhaZha", expressing their devout respect to food.