China Jing Ha Section Study

The traditional festivals form one important part of the cultural heritages of a certain people.This cultural heritage comes into being after thousands of years and it has close relationship with the development of the people it belongs to. The activities of traditional festivals can reflect various living styles of the people as well as its cultural connotations.Therefore,to study the culture on people's tradional festivals with a ethnology theoretical method means not only to show people the overall knowledge of the festival activities but also explore their deep significances and something essential about the people and its society.Ha Festival is the most ceremonious one of the Jing tradional festivals which embody the spirit of the Jing People's culture.To study the Jing Ha Festival means not only to introduce it to people but also probe into its deep reasons under the superficial phenomena and the real significances for the present Jing society.Based on a compositive method of field research and literature,this study will focus on the source and history of Ha Festival vertically and horizontally. That is to say,I will show the sketch of developments of Ha Festival and at the same time give my supportive analyses. So far,there have been quite some articles and books concerning Jing culture and costoms.Although they all regard Ha Festival as an important section of their writing contents,they seldom or even not to discuss the source and history of Ha Festival. In my study, I tend to explore the cause of formation and analyse the history of Ha Festival. With what I have done,I hope I can make the current studies of Ha Festival better and more consummate.According to the analyses based on the literatural references on hand, I noticed that most the main oblate and sacred jinns on the three islands of Jing People are always some historical deification characters of Jing People between the late 13^th century and the beginning of the 16^th ,so I estimate that Ha Festival came into being at these times.To study the activities of Ha Festival hirizontally is to give further analyses to the current cultural affairs or phenomena concerning Ha Festival which play a very important role in the Jing People's traditional custom.They include not only the religious believes or other relevant factors such as sacred jinns in Ha Festival, necromancers, Ha pavilions,tamples , etc. but also the people or organization concerning the Jing People's local affairs like Ha Principals,Ha Sisters,Local Affairs Committee and so on.This study will mainly stress on the festival course and the interpretation of its significance. The Ha Festival course include four sections in turn like welcome to jinns, memorial ceremony for jinns,feasting while listening to chants, and seeing off jinns. Among these four sections,welcome to jinns means the formal beginning of Ha Festival with grand and joyful scene.The memorial ceremony is the essential part and held once every day during the Ha Festival time.Feasting and listening to chants is the very part of typical Jing style with sea-cultural flavors. Aiming to the goal of this on-going study, my comprehensive use of theories and methods concerning ethnology,people study and folklore will do great help in presenting the festival course and interpreting the relevant significances and cultural connotations.Festivals come into being for meeting needs of people and in reverse they will function in offering some certain needs and some meaningful directions to daily work and life.The festivals that have lost their functions will become meanlingless and nothing, and then disappear in history. Ha Festival is the most typical and traditional one of Jing festivals. It can not only adjust the life of Jing People,build friendly and better relationship between different peoples, regrow and enrich the Jing's traditional cultures and moralities, but also strengthen the Jing's unity and form the sense of being to the whole Chinese country. Differing from other Chinese peoples, Jing is a trans-countries and sea-fishing people.To study the functions and meanings of Ha Festival means that we must do something based on the Jing's typical nationalities and its special living styles.