A ritual practiced in Long Tong festival in Tuyen Quang province (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - LongTong (going to the field) is the most typical agricultural festivalof the Tay, a big ethnic minority group living in the northern mountainregion with a population of over 1.6 million.
Celebrated annually betweenthe 1st and 15th days of the lunar new year, the festivalis a religious ritual dedicated to the god of agriculture to win his blessingfor verdant crops and prosperity for villagers throughout the year.
Held in a large harvestedfield in the middle of the village, Long Tong requires majorpreparations before the lunar new year. Families in the village are assigneddifferent duties, the most important of which is preparing the offering tray.The offerings include a boiled capon, a boiled pig head, some grilled fish, twoplates of sticky rice dyed red and yellow, and two cons.
Con is asmall ball made from pieces of colourful cloths sewn together and stuffed withpuffed rice and cotton seeds. Con is also decorated with gaudy clothtassels.
LongTong consists of three main parts: offering ritual whichincludes a water procession, ploughing ceremony and folk game playing.
On the lunar New Year’s Eve,representatives of families join the village head in a procession to take holywater from a stream to the village shaman’s home. Representatives of familiesalso take the holy water in a dry gourd to their homes.
Before Long Tong, eachfamily in the village contributes a bamboo tree to set up a worshipping altarin the selected field. The altar, which is erected in U-letter shape with thebottom of the letter U facing the east, has a roof made of leaves. It also hasan arching gate made from two tree branches, on the top of which is hung adrawing of tiger skin in red and yellow.
In the field a con poleis also set up, which is a tall bamboo tree with a ring of about 40 centimetersin diameter on its top. The ring is covered with a sheet of red paper at theside facing the east, which symbolizes the sun, and a sheet of yellow paper atthe other side as the moon. On the pole is tied with a tree branch, whichsymbolizes the pole’s life.
On the 5th of thelunar new year, which is the main day of the festival, each family in thevillage prepares an offering tray, which usually contains a boiled young hen orrooster, a plate of boiled pork, a bowl of red sticky rice and a bowl of yellowsticky rice stuck with some flowers and a swift bird (symbolizing spring).
Village dignitaries prepare two trays with offerings double in quantity whichadditionally have a pair of banhchung (square sticky rice cake with porkand green bean filling) and two bowls of banh troi (round sticky ricecake with brown sugar filling). These special offering trays are placed nearthe shaman’s offering tray which is placed on a square rattan tray in the centreof the altar. The shaman’s offering tray contains a bowl of holy water taken onthe New Year’s Eve with a silver coin at the bottom, a boiled chicken, somegrilled fish, a bowl of chicken blood, a sharp knife, a roll of newly weavedcloth and two red-paper carps. In the middle of the tray are placed two bunchesof flowers made of puffed sticky rice attached to a banana stem.
Villagers prepare theiroffering trays at home and then carry them on their heads to the worshippingaltar. Particularly, the shaman’s offering tray is brought by a person assignedby villagers. Four young men in traditional black costumes and cloth hats arealso sent by the village head to the shaman’s home to escort him to the ritualsite. Before going to the shaman’s home, the men prepare two betel leavesdaubed with edible lime and two areca nuts, which are all wrapped in a bananaleave in square shape.
For the ritual, the shamanprepares four yellow or red scarves of one meter long, which will be given tofour dancers, and four sets of bells, each of which has four small gongs and adrum. The four young men carry these things when escorting the shaman in ablack coat and a black turban to the ritual site.
When the offerings are ready,the village head rings a bell to start the worshipping ceremony. Standingfacing the east in front of his offering tray placed in the middle of theU-letter shaped altar, the shaman deferentially recites prayers in Tay dialect, inviting gods and goddesses to the rite and asking for their blessing forthe village to have bumper crops and growing herds of cattle and be freed fromdiseases and misfortune.
After praying, the shamantakes the bowl of holy water from the offering tray, and with the sharp knifein his right hand, makes symbolic movements to cut the bowl in four directions.He then uses the silver coin in the bowl to sprinkle water to four directionsin the wish for favourable weather all the year round.
The shaman then continuesreciting prayers in front of the offering tray placed under the con poleto the roll of drum and gong beats made by villagers. After that, he choosesfour strong young men to kowtow before the con pole and then gives themfour chicken legs from the offering tray to thank them for passing their strengthto the pole.
The offering ritual isfollowed by a ploughing ceremony in which the festival host leads a carefullyselected male buffalo to make the first furrows of the year. In Tay belief, villagers will get good luck and yield bumper crops throughout the yearif this buffalo makes straight furrows.
After the ploughing ceremony,villagers share the offerings together. The offering tray prepared by thevillage is offered to village dignitaries and elderly people. The shaman takeshome half of his offering tray. Villagers also invite their friends from othervillages to join the party. Those who can invite many guests are believed toenjoy a prosperous year.
Thencomes the most exciting part of the festival, folk games, central to which is nemcon (throwing con through the ring on the top of the con pole).Kicking off nem con, the shaman prays in front of the con poleand then throws the con on the offering tray to young people surroundinghim.
According to Tay custom, the person who first catches the con willthrow it through the ring. If he succeeds, he will receive a prize of threemeters of cloth. The shaman will rip the successfully thrown con to takeout the puffed rice inside, mix them with a basket of dried paddies and throwthem to festival goers who will use their shirt flaps to catch these paddies asmany as possible since this act is believed to bring them prosperity andsuccess throughout the year.
Other games in the festival includetug of war and yen playing (a game similar to badminton, but playedbetween a man and a woman). The shuttlecock (yen) is made of bamboo. Therackets, made of soft and light wood, are a bit larger than the table-tennisrackets. Fencing is played by six men carrying bamboo swords and six women withshields made of areca spathe.-VNA
