Leisurely Life: I Have Ten Thousand Acres of Grassland-Chapter 96 - 94: Five Livestock Welcoming Auspiciousness, Presenting Hada to the Eternal Heaven!
The off-road vehicle slowly drove towards the boundless wilderness.
Tomorrow is the harvest celebration at Maodeng Ranch in Xilingol, and Jiang Feng went a day early to take a look.
On the grassland, this kind of harvest celebration has another name:
Five Livestock Blessings.
The Five Livestock Blessings is a traditional celebration of harvest by the Mongolian people, a ceremony expressing the herders’ gratitude and joy for the grassland’s bounty.
In recent years, farmers and herders nationwide have been holding harvest festivals, so the grassland’s harvest festival is held together with the Five Livestock Blessings.
As a participant in this harvest festival, Jiang Feng went relatively early.
Several yurts had already been set up on the wilderness, with colorful flags flying all over them, connected to each other, creating a festive atmosphere.
After Jiang Feng arrived at the destination, he got out of the car.
Seeing him arrive, Gao Ge, the head of the Xilingol publicity department, came over with a smile to greet him.
"Boss Jiang, welcome!"
"Hello." Jiang Feng replied politely.
Gao Ge is Mongolian, but his name leans towards the Han style. Nowadays, some Mongolians use Han names, so the distinction isn’t that clear.
"You’re an important figure in this harvest festival! We take from nature and give back to nature; the feelings we have for the grassland should be shared with more people." Gao Ge said cheerfully.
He meant that he hoped Jiang Feng would promote this event more, as the greater the influence, the more successful the achievement.
Jiang Feng naturally understood what Gao Ge meant, and he replied, "I’ll be live streaming the introduction. Many people are interested in the harvest festival."
"I also want more people to see the culture of the grassland."
Upon hearing this, Gao Ge smiled even more happily, "That’s great. It’s important to promote the culture of the grassland well."
Jiang Feng looked into the distance.
Several enclosures had already been fenced off here.
When the time comes, cattle and sheep will be placed within them for people to select from.
The cattle’s ears would each have a yellow tag attached, to distinguish ownership.
Some people had also come here early, and seeing Jiang Feng, many aimed their phones at him to capture the moment.
In today’s world of self-media, people post interesting events online whenever they encounter them.
Jiang Feng confirmed the location for his cattle and sheep for tomorrow, arranging to send them over early in the morning.
The harvest festival also featured small performances and competitions.
The performances involved simple dances, and the competition was a dairy product taste contest, to see which brand did the best.
Various dairy product brands participated, launching some new products with good presentations and then receiving awards.
These things didn’t concern Jiang Feng; he found the market gathering more interesting.
There would be many sellers here with agricultural products, giving him the opportunity to pick some good ones.
Therefore, Jiang Feng spent the entire afternoon busy, familiarizing himself with the details of the harvest festival and even gave a television interview.
In the interview, he spoke some words of celebration, hoping for favorable weather for the grassland in the coming year.
Then, he went back to his ranch.
The next morning, early.
Trucks carrying cattle and sheep left the ranch, and Jiang Feng led his employees to the site of the harvest festival.
There were already many vehicles parked in the designated parking area.
But with such an expansive area, no matter how many vehicles there were, they could all be accommodated.
Jiang Feng parked, prepared the live streaming equipment, launched the drone into the sky, and started the live stream.
The scene outside was quite lively.
Many people from nearby villages had heard about the harvest festival and came early to sell their agricultural products.
Some even came specifically from Xilingol City to enjoy the lively atmosphere.
The number of viewers in the live streaming room began to increase.
The Five Livestock Blessings ceremony was about to start, and Jiang Feng was invited to the front.
Externally, his promotional impact was even greater than the city’s news.
After all, the city’s news might reach the provincial level at most, but Jiang Feng’s live stream could reach all corners of the country.
In the not-too-distant wasteland, five wooden poles stood, each with a domesticated animal tied to it:
A horse, a cow, a camel, a sheep, and a goat.
Many Mongolians in traditional attire surrounded the area, ready to sing and dance at any moment.
An elderly Mongolian man began chanting a blessing to the sky, watched devoutly by those around him.
The elderly man held a long, white Hada in his hands.
The live streaming room’s audience continued to grow.
Such a lively festival always attracted many viewers.
Jiang Feng narrated to his audience:
"The Five Livestock Blessings ceremony is in progress."
"The eldest among the group uses the Mongolian language to chant blessings, expressing the Mongolian people’s reverence and love for the grassland."
"Then they offer the Hada to the Eternal Sky, wishing good fortune for the grassland."
As his words concluded, the Mongolian elder finished chanting blessings and made a gesture of offering the Hada to the sky.
After the ceremony, several Mongolian men and women approached the elder, carrying a silver bowl in their hands that seemed to contain some kind of fat.
[Wow, it’s so lively. What are they holding in their hands?]
[Why are there five animals tied to poles? Are they going to be slaughtered for sacrifice?]
[Come on, this is the Five Livestock Blessings event, not some cult ritual! There’s no slaughtering!]
[It’s about the Mongolian people’s praise and gratitude for the grassland!]
Viewers discussed lively in the live streaming room.
Seeing the comments, Jiang Feng laughed and explained:
"This is the final ritual of the ’Five Livestock Bringing Auspiciousness’ ceremony."
"The sacred silver bowl contains the purest dairy product: butter."
"The elders will spread butter on the heads of the ’Five Livestock’ and sprinkle grains symbolizing harvest upon them to wish for favorable weather, abundant grains, and flourishing grass and livestock in the coming year."
With the explanation, everyone understood the process of the ’Five Livestock Bringing Auspiciousness’ ceremony.
Just as Jiang Feng mentioned, the Mongolian elders applied butter to their hands and smeared it on the heads of the horses, cattle, camels, goats, and sheep.
Then, a few Mongolian people took some grains and gently tossed them towards the animals’ heads.
Accompanied by cheers, this year’s ’Five Livestock Bringing Auspiciousness’ ceremony concluded.
People smiled happily.
Because this year’s grass was lush, everyone had a "harvest."
Then, the official from Xilingol gave a speech, saying some words of thanks to the higher-ups and responding to the organization’s calls.
Next was a performance group singing and dancing.
As the melodious Mongolian tune began, everyone joyfully danced in the middle, and the atmosphere became increasingly lively.
When the performance ended, the official organized activities concluded, leaving the rest to the herders for free trading.
There were many individual vendors here, and no business licenses were required. As long as you were a local resident, you could directly sell poultry, livestock, or meat here.
Everyone engaged in livestock, so there were no scams.
The most watched were the cattle and sheep in the pens on both sides.
The cattle and sheep brought here were top quality, priced slightly higher than market prices.
However, for the festive atmosphere of ’Five Livestock Bringing Auspiciousness’ and celebration, these cattle and sheep were in high demand.
Jiang Feng strolled among the crowd.
Someone was selling pork by their car, all freshly slaughtered pork.
Upon seeing this, Jiang Feng sighed:
"I can’t bear to watch such a slaughter scene, but my ability is limited, so I’ll save five pounds of pork ribs to express my goodwill."
He walked to the stall and picked out five pounds of fine ribs.
Netizens laughed:
"Master Jiang is being abstract again!"
The meat stall owner recognized Jiang Feng and upon seeing him, laughed:
"Master Jiang, can we take a photo together? You’re famous now, and our family watches your livestreams!"
Hearing this, Jiang Feng politely replied:
"No problem."
Many people recognized Jiang Feng along the way, greeting him.
As the most popular herder in Xilingol right now, he attracted many admirers with his leisurely and relaxing livestream style.
Jiang Feng was indeed unpretentious, his mindset remained stable despite his rising popularity, continuing to focus on his life.
It might be related to his family; after all, being a second-generation herder, although he earned a lot online, it didn’t impact his life much.
Jiang Feng arrived near a family selling camels.
A couple was selling several camels.
Camel was also one of the Five Livestock of the grassland, and Jiang Feng always planned to raise camels.
Camels are treasures all over, and they’re easy to raise.
If not on the vast grassland, they wouldn’t be grouped with cattle, horses, and sheep.
Mongolian herders all raise camels, especially those living near water and grass, even more so.
Camels can carry goods while moving, and can even pull carts; when walking slowly, camels have much stronger carrying capacity than horses.
"Boss, what’s the price for this camel?"
Jiang Feng asked.
"Fine quality Bactrian camel, twenty thousand." The boss quoted the price.
Camel sellers were still rare.
This camel was quite tall; up close, viewers could see the size of adult camels more clearly.
Adult camels are taller than adult cattle, appearing rather majestic.
A lot of people around were watching this camel, given how rare camel selling scenes were.
Finally, Jiang Feng shook his head and didn’t make a purchase.
"Master, why not buy a camel!"
"Yes, having a few camels on the ranch would be great." Netizens hoped Jiang Feng would raise camels, saying so.
Hearing this, Jiang Feng responded:
"The most expensive camel products are camel milk and camel yarn, a barrel of camel milk can sell for over 600, much more than cow’s milk."
"So if I’m going to raise camels, I certainly would raise female camels."
"That is a male camel, just for transporting goods or making them into meat products, selling camel meat and camel hides."
"I don’t plan to slaughter camels, it seems you need a special license to slaughter camels."
"So definitely not buying."
"But I will still raise camels."
"Camel milk, now that is a good thing." Jiang Feng continued to stroll through the market.
On both sides, people came and went, many led cows on ropes back and forth, some selling chickens, eggs, and vegetables.
Everything was natural agricultural and sideline products.
This scene had a vintage feel, happening in the remote vast grassland.
The scene was quite unique.
