A ritual praying for a new bumper crop at Long Tong festival (Photo: VNA) Celebrated annually between the 1st and 15th days of thelunar new year, the festival is a religious ritual dedicated to the god ofagriculture to win his blessing for verdant crops and prosperity for villagersthroughout the year.
Held in a large harvested field in the middle of thevillage, Long Tong requires major preparations before the lunar new year. Familiesin the village are assigned different duties, the most important of which ispreparing the offering tray. The offerings include a boiled capon, a boiled pighead, some grilled fish, two plates of sticky rice dyed red and yellow, and twocons.
Con is a small ball made from pieces of colourful clothssewn together and stuffed with puffed rice and cotton seeds. Con is alsodecorated with gaudy cloth tassels.
Long Tong consists of three main parts: offering ritualwhich includes a water procession, ploughing ceremony and folk game playing.
Tay ethnic community in Tuyen Quang comprises about 160,000people, accounting for 24 percent of the province’s population.
The Long Tong forms part of nearly 8,000 festivals heldacross the country in a year. Of the total, 88.36 percent are traditionalfestivals, while 6 percent are religious festivals and 4 percent are historicalfestivals.-VNA
VNA
