Rich traditional festivals

Festivals have become an indispensable need in religious life to satisfy the desire to return to the roots, balance spiritual life and enjoy and create culture of the people. Among them, festivals of ethnic minorities have their own unique and valuable features. Therefore, preserving and promoting those spiritual cultural values ​​is extremely necessary, and needs to be continued to be paid attention to and invested appropriately by all levels, sectors and localities.

Reenacting the coming-of-age ceremony at the Wind Abstinence Festival of the Dao Thanh Phan people in Binh Lieu district.

Quang Ninh currently has 42 ethnic groups living together. Each ethnic group has its own festival associated with customs, practices, beliefs and production labor. The main meaning of each festival is still to pray for blessings, good harvests, a peaceful and prosperous life. The offerings in the festival are not elaborate but are often products that people can produce themselves, such as: chicken, pork, duck, fish, rice, corn, bamboo shoots, traditional cakes...

During the festival days, people often choose the most beautiful and newest national costumes to join in cultural exchange activities, sing traditional folk songs and play folk games such as crossbow shooting, spinning top, tug of war, stick pushing, and shuttlecock throwing. Each festival occasion has made the atmosphere of the villages and hamlets bustling and joyful, strengthening community cohesion, constantly arousing in each person the awareness of preserving, conserving and passing on precious cultural values.

When mentioning ethnic minority festivals, we cannot help but mention Binh Lieu district with over 96% of the population being ethnic minorities. Therefore, Binh Lieu has become the land of unique traditional festivals, typically: Luc Na communal house festival of the Tay people, Soong co singing festival of the San Chi people and the Wind Abstinence festival of the Dao Thanh Phan people.

Accordingly, the Wind Abstinence Festival originates from the custom of avoiding wild animals, natural disasters and praying for a bountiful harvest and prosperity of the Dao Thanh Phan people. The people believe that on the 4th day of the 4th lunar month every year, the whole family leaves home early so that the Wind God can enter the house, take away risks and worries and bring good things, prosperity and abundance into their homes. On this day, the Dao Thanh Phan people in the villages will put aside all daily work to go out, visit relatives and friends, have a meal together and chat, sing to each other folk songs, go to the market to buy necessary household items and labor for the family. Or the Soong Co Festival is the biggest festival of the year for the San Chi people. The festival is an opportunity for people to participate in folk cultural activities to express and exchange feelings of the San Chi community...

Traditional banh chung wrapping competition at the San Diu Ethnic Culture and Sports Festival of Tien Yen district in 2023.

Comrade To Thi Nga, Deputy Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Binh Lieu district, shared: Along with maintaining and organizing well the annual traditional festivals and festivals of ethnic minorities with full rituals and activities, the district also devotes a lot of resources to the work of collecting, restoring, and reenacting unique rituals of ethnic minorities in daily life such as the wedding ceremony of the Dao, San Chi, the first birthday ceremony of the Tay, the coming of age ceremony of the Dao... in each festival occasion. Through this, we not only educate the young generation about historical and cultural traditions but also contribute to introducing and spreading the cultural beauty of the ethnic minority community of Binh Lieu to tourists.

In recent years, localities with a large population of ethnic minorities have also focused on organizing and developing new festivals and festivals based on the farming and agricultural production practices of the people. From here, not only meeting the needs of daily life, cultural exchange, arts and sports of ethnic minorities, but also exploiting the unique cultural imprints of ethnic minorities to become unique and attractive tourism products. Typical examples include: Golden Season Festival, So Flower Festival (Binh Lieu); Golden Season Festival of Soong Co Dai Duc; Cultural - Sports Festival of San Diu ethnic group (Tien Yen); Cultural Festival of Tay ethnic group (Ba Che); Sim flower festival on the border (Mong Cai) ...

Soong co singing exchange of San Chi ethnic people in Dai Duc commune (Tien Yen) within the framework of the Golden Season festival of Dai Duc Soong co land in 2024.

Around the end of October and the beginning of November, all the villages in the highland commune of Dai Duc (Tien Yen) are covered in a brilliant golden light in the ripe rice fields on the terraced fields. This is also an opportunity for the San Chi people here to join in the festival atmosphere.   Golden season of Soong Co Dai Duc, together playing, singing, rejoicing in the fruits of labor. Ms. Chieu Moc Xenh, Khe Lac village, Dai Duc commune, excitedly said: This year is the 4th year the festival has been held in the commune, people from old to young are all excited to participate. Activities such as singing Soong Co, playing top spinning, performing the harvest praying ritual, San Chi women's soccer... although very familiar in daily life, are still actively practiced by people to bring to the festival with the desire to express and introduce to friends and tourists near and far the cultural beauty of their homeland.

It can be seen that the festivals and celebrations of ethnic minorities, whether long-standing or newly organized, are adding to the colorful cultural picture of the ethnic minority community in Quang Ninh province in the modern cultural flow, constantly enriching the cultural identity and people of Quang Ninh.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/phong-phu-sinh-dong-cac-le-hoi-truyen-thong-3326920.html