Research On Younuo In Xiafang Village Of Ninghua County

"Nuo" is a kind of worshipping ceremony to exorcise the ghost and the plague in ancient China. In ancient times, in order to avoid the bad luck of natural calamities and man-made misfortunes, people dancing in wearing symbolic masks and special clothes to dance to pray peace. This kind of activity gradually evolved into a ceremony of praying for peace called "Nuo" culture. The culture is regarded as the living fossil of researching of Chinese traditional culture and the development of human civilization. It includes ceremony, local customs exorcise dance, symbolic mask and so on. With the rapid development of productivity and technology, the living space of traditional culture is getting smaller and smaller. The activity has been gradually fading out of people’s vision, especially in some places it has completely disappeared. We can only trace this kind of activity in countryside far away from city.Ninghua county is located in the northwest of Fujian Province, and adjacent to Shicheng County and Guangchang County Shicheng County of Jiangxi province. It is known as Hakka cradle. As a legacy of ancient Nuo culture of Ninghua Hakka, Younuo of Xiafang Village in Ninghua County was included in the third batch of Fujian provincial intangible cultural heritage in2009.Based on the activity of Younuo in Xia Fang couty as a starting point, the paper study on its special ceremony and local clan society and folk beliefs to to reveal the functional in rural society. And then the paper makes an analysis of its special culture.