Vietnam Festivals

++ Ooc-om-boc Festival ( Kh’mers ethnic festival)

Many festivals of the more than 50 ethnic minorities that live in Vietnam contain similarities of one kind or the other. Among those that retain a totally unique character is the Ooc-om-boc festival of the Khmers in Nam Bé (Cochinchina under the French domination). On the 15th day of the tenth month of the lunar year, all the Khmers living in about 600 villages scattered in this area gather to celebrate in unison the Ooc-om-boc festivities. The main activities in this festival are offerings made to the rabbit on the moon, the water procession and boat racing. The legend about the rabbit on the moon goes that the poor, but generous rabbit was asked for alms by the Genie Porac, disguised as an old man. Having nothing to offer the poor old man, the rabbit collected firewood in the forest and made a bonfire. Then he knelt before the old man and said, " As I have no food to offer you, please accept my humble meat and feed on it ". With these words, the rabbit jumped into the fire. Deeply moved by the rabbit’s sacrifice, the genie used magic to extinguish the fire and save the rabbit. Then, turning to the moon in the sky, the genie said, "O Moon, please let everyone see clearly the shining example of benevolence and self-denial set by this little creature!". From then on, the legend says, people have always seen the rabbit on the tenth-month moon. Every year at harvest time, the Khmers make delicious cakes of young sticky rice which they believe the rabbit is partial to. The cake is also presented to the monks in the pagodas. The "water" procession follows.

As the cultivation of rice is the occupation of most Khmers, water is key to survival and regarded as a benediction of Heaven that brings wealth and happiness to the people. The "Ngo" boat procession is definitely the event of the festivities, and definitely the most spectacular. In Khmer dialectm, Ngo means a bow. Ngo boat is a canoe made out of the trunk of a sao tree, a precious tree widely grown in the Mekong delta region. The tree used for making canoes must be a very old one, often 50 metres long. As the boat is sacred, it must be made in the yard of a pagoda. It is adorned with motifs typical to the Khmer ethnicity, and mainly related to religious beliefs. The most common motif is the Naga. Prize-winning boats are preserved in pagodas and revered as objects of worship by the people. Those who have witnessed boat racing festivities in Vietnam from North to South concede that the Ngo boat racing is the most attractive. Each boat can hold as many as fifty athletes dressed in black or violet uniforms, including a head-dress or a cap. The captain of the team is seated at the bow of the canoe. Waving his hands like the conductor of an orchestra, he maintains the rowing rhythm of his boat. In the middle of the boat stands the "gia lang" (village elder), wearing a red head-dress. He beats the gong to encourage the rowers to proceed faster.

The Ooc-om-boc festivities, especially gio boat racing, attract people from all over western Nam Bé, not least the Viet. Art troupes fromHo Chi Minh City and the Central Highlands also come to take part in the festivities. In 1993, a festival of five-sound musical instruments was held on the occasion. It helped bring together to all the ethnic minorities living on this land legends of courage and benevolence, the two virtues they most revere. 

++ " Tut Meo" or H’mong New Year Festival

This is the name other fraternal peoples give to the New Year festival of the H’Mong - an ethnic minority residing on the high-mountain regions of Vietnam, ranging from the Sino-Vietnamese border in the North to NgheAn province in the centre of Vietnam. The H’Mong have developed their own calendar to calculate times of year for farming on their burnt-over land and wet-rice terraced fields. They also have their own way of identifying the date of the New Year. Perhaps no one has studied the coincidence in the timing of "Tet Meo" - the New Year festival of the H’Mong - and the Christian New Year week lasting from Christmas (December 25) through to the first day of January. At this time, peach blossoms bloom resplendently all over the H’Mong hamlets, amidst the soft and white mists. To prepare for Tet, the H’Mong put their house in order, redecorate the altar with pieces of paper cut out with stylized images of the Sun - a manifestation of the Sun-worshipping practice of the H’Mong people. These stylized drawings of the Sun are also stuck to the doors to welcome the New Year and prosperity for the family. Smaller versions (approximately 5cm x 10cm) of Sun drawings are stuck on working tools such as the hoe, plough, rake, etc. as well as on pigsties, buffalo stables, horse enclosures...... and reflect the earnest desire of the people to welcome prosperity to every element of their life. During this time, women are occupied with dressmaking and embroidery so that each family member has a smart set of clothes to wear to welcome the New Year, the most special of which is the typical dress of the H’Mong women.

On New Year’s Eve, every family kills a black-and-red-feathered cock to offer in worship to the deities and ancestors. When killing the cock, they pick out bundles of red feathers and stick them with the cock’s blood to the middle of the decorations of stylized Sun pictures. The cock-killing and sticking of cock feathers to the Sun drawings is considered a crucial part of the New Year-Welcome rituals of the H’Mong. This act is seen as an inseparable part of the rite of welcoming the New Year and a sign for the festivities to begin. Throughout the 7 to 8 days of Tet, the H’Mong families in each subhamlet (consisting of several houses nestling on one or two mountain slopes) take turns to kill their pigs to host group feasts. The host family commences the party by a ritual service inviting deities and their ancestors to return to join the family in celebrating the New Year in the presence of other groups of families. Only after that can the party begin in a festive atmosphere filled with laughter and the voices of all generations - elders and young, women and men, adults and children... Many feasters stay up overnight around the family fire to teach and learn songs together comprising the H’Mong service hymns, love and courting songs, kinship songs, proverbs, etc. Particularly on the first day of the New Year, the H’Mong belonging to the same group or village automatically gather in a large yard or a flat ground to take part in or to cheer traditional games amidst melodious tunes of the khen (pan-pipe), lip organ, leaf organ....The most popular game that draws a lot of participants and fans is papao shuttle. Papao is a small ball made of cloth, which is thrown between two teams - women and men. Once the ball is cast into the air, it is caught by someone in the other team. At first, the casting and catching acts seem to be natural showing no particular skills. The flying course of the papao becomes an invisible line linking and binding every couple of playmates closer "in tune" with each other. The papao shuttle lasts for hours. Participants become more and more engrossed, and they play untiringly even though the game is just a repetition of two acts - throwing and catching the ball. Naturally, the players who remain to the last minute are always couples of playmates who have fallen in love with each other and exchanged their feelings through the papao. The first happy day of a New Year not only brings a common joy to all people, but also marks the beginning of many love stories of young boys and girls. Many H’Mong couples start their love and nuptial life from the New Year welcoming day. In addition to the papao game, there are other collective events such as Con throw - a game where Con (a fringed cloth ball ) is thrown through a hoop hung at the top of a high post, and the" khen "dance is performed by talented young men who blow khÌn and at the same time dance gracefully and alternately between lines and strong movements. Besides attending communal parties and jolly events in their own hamlet, many H’Mong take their time to visit friends in distant villages while most young people continue their dating and intimate exchanges through singing and blowing lip- and leaf-organs. During "Tet Meo", weddings of the couples whose love had been born from the papao event of the previous year are celebrated, even as new love blossoms and bears fruit by the end of the New Year or at the next New Year festival. "Tet Meo" thus ends with happiness and heralds fresh hopes for the future.

 ++ K’pal and Ede Festival ( The Central Highland)

  K’pal or "Sacred bench" is an essential feature of all festivities and ceremonies of the Ede, an ethnic group in Central VietNam. It is reserved for the elderly of the village, guests and musicians, and females are strictly forbidden from sleeping on it. The bench is carefully constructed in strict conformity with age-old rules. It is usually 13 m long, 0.7 m wide and about 21 to 22 cm thick, and the whole process of making it must be completed within seven days. To make a k’pal, the head of the family first makes an offering to the god Giang Wah Yang, protector of all ceremonial objects and cultural symbols. Offering preparations includes a fine pot of distilled rice wine, kept for at least one year at a pure place believed to be under the close watch of the gods of the forest and river. In addition, there are the tools to be used in the making of the k’pal, like axes and hammers. Early in the dry season, young men go deep into the jungle in search of suitable wood from a tree that meets several conditions, including having no creepers, no birds’ nests or bees. The Ede people believes that such trees are haunted by spirits and, therefore, objects made from them are not likely to lead to a peaceful and prosperous life. Once the tree has been chosen, an axe without a handle is thrown into its trunk and left there overnight. If the axe does not fall down, the practice is repeated twice more before cutting the tree down to make the k’pal. The family head then summons seven workers to cut the tree down. Once the k’pal is completed - within seven days - rice wine is offered and a goat-sacrifice ceremony held for the forest god. The goat’s meat is distributed to the workers. Later, the k’pal is taken home in a ceremony during which the entire family dresses in traditional Ede costumes and plays the Ki Path and Ding Tat or other traditional musical instruments. The family head and the local wizard lead the procession. The family head dances the ceremonial Adring dance with a shield to show the family’s pride and martial arts. Then, amid the reciting of poems, offerings are made to the gods and the k’pal is carefully brought inside the house and tied to the wall. For one whole day, no one is allowed to pass the place where the k’pal is kept. Throughout the night, the family head and other male members of the house must dance the ceremonial dances three times, offering the gods seven pots of wine and a buffalo.

++ The Thai’s Cave-Picnicking Festival

According to the elders in the community, the Cave-Visiting Festival of the Thai people living in the mountain villages surrounding Qui Hop dates back to time immemorial, and was in existence up to the middle of the twentieth century. Every year during the period from the 3rd through the 10th day of Thang Gieng ( the Lunar Year’s first month following Nguyen Dan - the Lunar New Year’s Day), the Thai folk in and around the locality flock to the Cave - Picnicking Festival. The event takes place in Tham Mon (Mon Cave) located in the Chau Quy commune, Qui Hop district. The Cave visitors are of all ages, but mainly single young people. They are natives from the villages of Qui Hop and other neighbouring districts in West Nghe An. Visitors are allowed to enter the cave only once a day until they find themselves a boy or girl friend, and return home when the festival ends. It is an inviolable rule that cave visitors must not bring in a lamp, fire or any source of light. All visitors come into the cave for the festive occasion amid complete darkness. Young people first enter in groups, then disperse and move further into the dark cave. Once inside the cave, the girls usually gather in small groups of two or three, and stand timidly in the cave alleys. The boys, also in small groups, grope in the dark for girl friends. Every action must be made by hand, and every move made by foot as calling, speaking or shouting are completely forbidden... Having found a friend of the opposite sex, the boy can talk with and court the girl in the cave. If they find each other suitable, the couple come out of the cave hand-in-hand and go to the boy’s home to announce their love to his parents. The parents then take the responsibility of guardianship, by assisting and creating favourable conditions for the couple to become husband and wife. That the Festival takes place in such a dark cave makes it an extremely fun-filled and enjoyable experience. All unmarried Thai boys and girls are eager to go to the Cave- Visiting Festival to try their luck at seeking a life companion. The Thai men traditionally look for a pretty girl of marriageable age who must be well-built and in good health. Therefore, in the cave, a boy first makes sure that he finds himself the right girl, that is, he asks in whispers after her name, her whereabouts and her parents so as not to mistake a blood sister or relative whom he cannot marry. He then feels her thoroughly to find out whether she is strong and sturdy . If satisfied, he then starts to exchange intimacies, courts her and ultimately leads her out of the cave. Such a play of courtship all in the dark cave with the boys fumbling for the girls who hide themselves in the cave gorges or alleys cannot be free of conflicts and jostlings among the men. A struggle inevitably ensues when a boy finds a girl who has a flaw and tries to get rid of her. Similar to practices such as the "moonlight dance" or "moonlight stroll" of some other ethnic minorities, the Cave - Picnicking Festival of the Thai community in western Nghe An is a cultural activity - a community-gathering place for dating and courting couples. It is a healthy practice and requires the participants to strictly adhere to the community’s rules and customs. In earlier times, when social events were virtually non-existent among the Thais, the Cave-Picnicking festival presented a good opportunity for young people to discover and exchange love. The Festival in fact was an indispensable part of the cultural life of the Thai people in western Nghe An up to the first half of this century.