【Welcome the gods】

  --- welcome gods and ancestors

Welcome ritual is led by the youth group of male age class, among which the eldest carry the baton to lead the singing and dancing, there is guard team to prevent the joining of Ahriman. Youth group will be arrayed from the oldest to the youngest; they will dance in clockwise direction to welcome gods and ancestors. Welcome ritual represents the eve of harvest festival, the male that take part in it will be distributed to his own position according to their age group, and the chief will lead the entire ceremony. When welcome the gods, the chief and tribe elders will sing the god-welcome song. The chief has the ability to communicate with the mystery world, so he could add the substantive lyrics in the gods-welcome song to welcome the ancestors. A flaming fire poor is burning in the solemn altar center, which symbolizes the ongoing ritual, it is the sacred fire and it is also called welcome fire and means to entertain the ancestors, so all the male in the welcome ritual must dance round the fire.    
In welcome ritual tradition no woman is admitted from beginning to end, and this tradition has not changed with the social changes. According to the traditional ideas of Amis, welcome ritual is a holy night, so no dance or sing or even exercise is allowed in usual, otherwise they may be punished by gods or even die of illnesses. So in welcome ritual, each participant has to be attentively singing and dancing with awestruck mood, even if the dance steps are monotony.

【Entertain the gods】

  ---thanks gods and ancestors for their blessing of the harvest, treat gods and ancestors

After welcome ritual, the entertainment ritual has begun, and the official harvest festival activities have begun, this is also the harvest festival that common people have viewed. Besides the male age group as well as one woman from each family may take part in this, and also any one can freely join in the singing and dancing, entertainment ritual singing and dancing is the same with welcome ritual. The singing and dancing can be repeated for many times, but the atmosphere is not as solemn, monotony as welcome ritual, it is very jolly. The process is not restricted by singing and dancing, everybody could express as much as one likes, it is a jolly time. In the last day, the villages will entertain guests from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., the guests can join in the queue to dance, but after 3o'clock, the guests have to leave the queue automatically, and the guests cannot stay for very long.

【Send off the gods】

 ---sent off the gods to their spiritual world and pray for next year's harvest

In welcome ritual, the male group has to welcome the gods respectively, so in the last day, the woman will send off the gods to the spiritual world happily. The send off ritual team is mainly composed of the woman in each family, and this has shown the maternal society characteristics of Amis. The woman will stand in a queue according to the age sequence, and sing and dance in a circle to send the gods back. The whole harvest festival has its beginning and the ending, and singing and dancing are mainly the singing and dancing of harvest festival, the routine ballad and dance are prohibited.

【Schedule】 Six-day schedule of traditional Jiali Village ilisin

【Evolution】

The process of original and artless ritual has become complicated with the physical environment changes; even so the significance of welcome ritual has remained the same, to pray for next year's health and safety. 
With the introduction of Christianity and social changes, the religious services have become shorter and simplified, and been mixed with sumo, tug-of-war and even wood carving and craft show, and culinary exhibition. It has become a "carnival" for all the people as well as a window for the outer world to recognize Amis culture.