Torch Festival
6 August 2026 · movable holiday — Light the torches and let us dance in a circle under the stars!
The Torch Festival is one of the most important festivals of the Yi people and of several other peoples in Yunnan and Sichuan, in southwest China. It follows the lunar calendar and is held around the 24th or 25th day of the sixth lunar month, usually in July or August; the exact date varies between communities. According to tradition, fire drives pests and evil away from the fields and expresses hope for a good harvest. In the evening people light bonfires and carry torches through villages and fields, while young people gather to dance and sing. Many places also hold wrestling, horse races and other contests. The festival is tied to the lunar calendar and to the farming season, when the summer crops are growing. Chains of torches in the dark look like a starry sky on the ground.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure of a dancing young man made of bright dots and fine lines, like a constellation moving across the sky
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