Bayu Folk Culture Village

　　Bayu Folk Culture Village is located in Lianglu Town, Yubei District. It covers an area of 5 hectares. The main attractions in the village include one museum, four courtyards, one temple, and one memorial archway. The Bayu Folk Museum houses over 1,000 pieces of Chinese folk handicrafts, clothing, and other daily life items, with a focus on displaying more than 250 woodcarving masterpieces notable for their folk artistry, such as ancestral altars, hanging plaques, carved wooden beds, tables, chairs, and altars from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period in the Bayu region. The "Four Courtyards" refer to four residential complexes of varying styles and structures, each showcasing different aspects of ancient Ba people’s "life rituals," including birth ceremonies, weddings, birthday celebrations, funerals, festival customs, as well as the production processes of farming tools and handicraft workshops. The Guanyin Ancient Temple displays the ancient Ba people's worship activities and religious beliefs. The village also features a chastity memorial archway built in the 30th year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1904). In addition, there are attractions and facilities such as a suspension bridge, square, lake, farmhouse, winding corridor teahouse, and folk culture street.

　　Exhibition on "Life Rituals" Series

　　Four residential complexes of varying styles and structures. Each showcases different parts of the Ba people’s "Life Rituals" series, including birth ceremonies, weddings, festival rituals, birthday celebrations, and funerals, as well as the production processes of farming tools and handicraft workshops. Especially enhanced by 200 sculptures created and crafted by renowned sculptor and associate professor Mr. Ye Ronghua, the scenes come alive vividly, with lifelike figures that offer visitors an immersive experience.

　　First Courtyard: "Birth Ceremony" and "Wedding"

　　Birth Ceremony – Focuses on displaying key life moments when a newborn arrives in the world. Includes events such as the "Third-Day Bath," "Full Moon Celebration," "One-Year-Old Grabbing Test," "Starting School," and "Coming of Age."

　　Wedding – The wedding is the highlight of this courtyard, covering processes such as matchmaking, engagement (also called "inserting the chest box"), betrothal gifts, setting the wedding date, welcoming the bride, the wedding ceremony, and the bridal chamber. The "welcoming the bride" procession is especially emphasized, stretching 30 meters long with 36 participants. Along the way, colorful flags wave, drums and music fill the air, and the lively parade proceeds down the rural road, set against the backdrop of a large landscape oil painting depicting pastoral scenery, adding to the festive atmosphere. Scenes such as the wedding ceremony and the bridal chamber are entirely arranged with imitation carved figures following traditional wedding formats, appearing realistic and grand.

　　Second Courtyard: "Birthday Celebrations" and "Festival Customs"

　　Birthday Celebrations – Divided into full-decade birthdays, regular birthdays, and major birthdays. Full-decade refers to birthdays at ten-year intervals; regular birthdays refer to non-round-number ages; major birthdays refer to turning sixty. In the past, birthdays of emperors and nobles were especially grand, but common people also placed great importance on their sixtieth birthday. The birthday hall displayed here is arranged according to the specifications of a sixtieth birthday.

　　Festival Customs – Mainly exhibits the customs of three major annual festivals:

　　Spring Festival: As the Spring Festival approaches, families slaughter pigs for the New Year and prepare New Year goods. In the main hall, the family gathers to enjoy the reunion dinner before the ancestral altar, celebrating the New Year with three generations together. The Spring Festival season lasts from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, a full half-month during which people are immersed in joy. Dragon and lion dances, and viewing lanterns and boats are important celebratory activities. After the Lantern Festival, all paper-crafted decorations are burned to ashes and float into the sky, symbolizing the "sending off of the year."

　　Dragon Boat Festival: The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. The ancient patriotic poet Qu Yuan, loyal to his country, was exiled due to slander and in anger drowned himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Later generations eat zongzi and race dragon boats to commemorate him. The exhibition hall displays this story through two dragon-shaped decorative boats and murals.

　　Mid-Autumn Festival: The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Since the moon is fullest on this day of the year, it is also known as the Reunion Festival. Key activities include making glutinous rice cakes, enjoying the moon at night with family, eating mooncakes, observing the "moonlight halo," and waiting for the "Heavenly Gate to Open."

　　Third Courtyard: "Funeral Ceremony"

　　Since the establishment of ritual systems in the Zhou Dynasty, the tradition of lavish burials has continued for thousands of years from the imperial court to the common people, forming a complete set of ceremonies. The duration of mourning and memorial services ranges from 81 days for emperors, 49 days for high-ranking officials, 35 days for commoners, 21 days, 7 days, 5 days, to 3 days, depending on financial means. The scale of ceremonies, the number of ritual implements, the intricacy of paper offerings, and the complexity of rites are unparalleled in funeral traditions around the world. This courtyard is arranged according to the scale of a seven-day Taoist ritual for a middle-class family, including soul-liberation ceremonies, various paper offerings, hung banners, and funeral drapes. The scale and form are rarely seen today and hold reference value for studying history and old-age funeral customs.

　　Fourth Courtyard: Farming Tools and Handicraft Workshops

　　This courtyard partially displays some outdated or still-in-use farming tools and the production processes of handicraft workshops. Items are exhibited in sequence such as the "blacksmith forge," grain hulling and winnowing, spinning, weaving, grass shoe-making, and dyeing stone for fabric. Among them, the small sesame oil workshop, the liquor workshop, and the homemade broad bean paste workshop offer live demonstrations, where visitors can also purchase authentic Bayu small sesame oil, Bayu homemade broad bean paste, and Bayu aged liquor on the spot.