Naxis count time on the basis of the lunar
calendar. The main festivals include the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day,
Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Firebrand Festival, Temple Fair of
Dragon King in March and Mule & Horse Fair in July, etc, many of which are
quite similar to those of the Hans. The Spring Festival is the largest
traditional festival with many worship activities.
Besides these festivals, there are
many other worship activities for Naxis. The greatest one is the Worship of the
Heaven. It usually takes place in the first twenty days of lunar January. On the
occasion, the place of worship has to be selected and the ceremony is presided
over by the priest of the Dongba church. Pigs that are raised to be sacrificed
to the Heaven will be slaughtered one by one. Every family has to offer the
barley and wheat to brew the wine. When the time comes, people use the whole
livestock for the worship. All people present have to wash hands and stand with
joss sticks in their hands.
After the worship, pig blood will be used to
make sausage and pig heads and the tripe will be used to cook soup and all those
cooked food will be distributed among families. Three days after the worship,
every family will worship by themselves.
There is the Worship to Sanduo (patron saint
of Naxis). On February 8 and the Sheep day in August each year, a sheep will be
sacrificed for the worship. Naxis in the Lijiang River Region will go picnic in
the beautiful wildness with hot pot.