The “Khu gia gia” Festival, which is also known as the Festival of June,
is one of the foremost festivals of the Ha Nhi ethnic people living in
mountainous areas in Bat Xat district, the northwestern province of Lao
Cai.
The 4-day festival, with unique religious
ceremonies and folk games, is organised in June every year to pray for a
plentiful harvest. It is also an opportunity for local people to
express their respect to the gods of the forest, mountains, heaven and
earth through their traditional rituals.
To prepare
for the festival, each household sends a person into the forest to cut
down trees for renewing and decorating the house of kitchen god, which
is usually located under a big tree in the village. Ha Nhi people
typically organise offering ceremonies in the house.
On the day of the snake, Ha Nhi people kill a male buffalo, which must
be big and completely black, as an offering to the mountain and village
gods. Its meat is divided into equal parts and delivered to households
for offerings to their ancestors. The buffalo’s head will be placed in
the house of kitchen god.
During the festival,
villagers will vie with each other to cook dishes for offerings to show
gratitude to the gods and their ancestors. Sacrifices for offerings are
always specialities which Ha Nhi people produce by themselves.
A traditional offering tray is required to have 12 different dishes,
including boiled buffalo meat, rice, wine, ginger water, roasted
groundnuts, beans and rice cakes.
Only families
that have not been in mourning for three years are selected to bring
their offering trays to the house of kitchen god.
Ha Nhi people do not burn incense and votive paper as offerings to
their ancestors like some other ethnic groups, but express their prayers
for the gods’ support to the villagers by kowtowing in front of their
ancestral altar three times. After that the offering trays are taken out
of the altar and everyone is invited to eat the food.
After
offering sacrifices, the villagers join in sporting activities such as
swinging, riding ferris wheel and playing teeter . Ha Nhi people’s
traditional dances are indispensable at the festival. The rice-calling
dance “A du lu che” asks the soul of Mother Rice to come to the village,
bringing with her a good harvest and fields full of rice. In addition,
there are also other activities such as love-duet singing, lion dancing
and leaf-horn performances.
Ly Seo Cho, the 80-year-old
patriarch of Lao Chai I village in Y Ty commune said he is always eager
whenever he thinks about the festival.
According to Ly Thi
Vinh, Vice Chairwoman of the Bat Xat district People’s Committee, the
“Khu gia gia” Festival reflects the unique culture of Ha Nhi ethnic
people.
It is also an attractive event for tourists, who like to learn about the community culture in Vietnam, Vinh said.-VNA