The story
Torch Festival of Yi People in Chuxiong/Liangshan
A prefecture-wide Yi ethnic celebration held on the 24th or 25th day of the sixth lunar month across Chuxiong, Yunnan, pairing daytime wrestling, horse racing, bullfighting and archery with an evening ritual of torch-lit processions that converge into a communal bonfire lasting until morning. Named to China's first national intangible cultural heritage list in 2005, it commemorates a Yi legend of a hero who drove off a locust plague with fire.
The Torch Festival's origin story credits a Yi wrestler named Atilabia with saving his people from a locust plague by driving the insects off with burning pine torches, and that legend still shapes how the festival unfolds across Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture each year on the 24th or 25th day of the sixth lunar month.