Long Tong Festival

Long Tong Festival The Tay people's Long Tong Festival (down to the fields) has the meaning of prosperity, praying for a year of good weather, good crops, and livestock proliferation, held on January 8 - 10 every year. As for the ceremonies, there is the Shen Nong ceremony and the rain praying ceremony. As for the festival, there is a festival of bamboo tossing, Tay Tham Roc puppetry, Luong singing, blindfolded goat catching, lion dancing, stilt walking, tug of war, cockfighting... ATK Dinh Hoa Long Tong Festival is one of the province's major festivals that always attracts a large number of tourists from all over the province to celebrate the beginning of spring. This is a thousand-year-old traditional festival of the Tay people in the Viet Bac region and was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017. Because the festival is communal in nature, in the days before the festival activities, every house prepares agricultural items to offer to the gods. The aspirations for a prosperous, happy life, fertility, and all things peaceful are entrusted by the people to each of their Tong trays (offering trays) offered to the gods. Tay people often choose a large, flat lawn with a central location to organize festivals to facilitate travel and entertainment for villagers and surrounding areas. The Long Tong festival includes a ceremony and a festival part. During the ceremony, each family prepares an offering tray including chicken, pork, boiled eggs, two pairs of banh chung, a pair of Tay banh chung, five-colored raspberries, various types of banh day, banh xe, che lam... demonstrating the resourcefulness and skill of Tay women in cooking. On each ceremony tray there is a colorful flower-shaped cake and two pairs of fruits made of fabric with colorful tassels and assorted seeds. The village's offering trays are carefully selected, must be larger, more numerous, more beautifully decorated than family offerings, and must include a pig's head. The ceremony trays are arranged in a straight line, the person hosting the ceremony (usually Master Tao, or Master Mo), is called "pú mo". "Pú mo" stands in front of the village's offering tray and prays to thank heaven and earth and the gods for blessing the villagers, while the villagers burn incense and pour wine. After the prayer of thanksgiving, the "pú mo" continued to pray for rain, an auxiliary person stood next to him holding a pot of water, and many others held palm leaf boats and walked from the offering place to the end of the ground. After praying, "pú mo" sprinkles water around, implying that heaven sends rain, the villagers gather together, everyone wants to catch those drops of water that symbolize good luck. After sprinkling water, "pú mo" takes seeds from the ceremony trays and scatters them around. The villagers take those seeds and mix them with the seeds they choose to plant. Accordingly, men will take the first plowing paths, while women will show off their talent in planting competitions. After those ceremonies, the villagers feast together, wishing each other good health and luck, full of rice, pigs and chickens... The ceremony ends and the festival begins with the toss-up festival. This is the busiest activity, attracting the most participants. When the shuttlecock penetrates the bull's eye of the circle, yin and yang have harmonized, life will flourish, crops will be bountiful and whoever throws the bull's eye first will be awarded a prize, considered a lucky omen for the whole year, blessed by the gods. If at any festival no one hits the circle and pierces the bull's eye, the villagers are unhappy, because according to the concept that it is a sign of an unfavorable new year, this is a unique feature that only the Tay people have. Through the toss activity, it is also an opportunity for young men and women to exchange their thoughts with each other. Many couples of village boys and girls have become husband and wife since the tossing events during the spring festival. Games in the Long Tong festival also include flag procession, lion dance, stilt walking, puppetry, cockfighting, swinging, martial arts dancing, tug of war, stick pushing, crossbow shooting and then singing, etc. In the ancient Long Tong Festival, then singing, sli singing, luon singing are indispensable.  The Long Tong Festival of the Tay ethnic group in Thai Nguyen is one of the unique cultural features of the Tay ethnic group, contributing to enriching the cultural treasure of the Vietnamese ethnic groups.