Waiting for a rain

Young girls from Lao Du village go to the fields to bring rice back to offer as a hundred rice offerings. Photo: CN

1. Lao Du village (Phuoc Xuan commune, Phuoc Son) has a festival today. The "hundred rice offering" ceremony is reenacted by the commune government at the cultural house, with the participation of the entire village. The festival is for everyone.

A Song Kim Anh (11 years old) went barefoot, wearing a brocade skirt, joining her sisters and mothers in a large circle in the middle of the yard to a traditional dance.

Kim Anh danced and sang, enthusiastically in the crowd of strangers. “I want to join the festival. Every year in the village there is a hundred-rice offering ceremony, offering rice to the gods, celebrating the new rice, singing and dancing. It is a happy day for the whole village,” Kim Anh said.

Villagers rejoice during the festival. Photo: CN

The “hundred rice offering” ceremony is like a village custom in the subconscious of Lao Du people. In the farming seasons, sometimes there is a bumper crop, sometimes there is a failure, but from the hard-working fields, the rice grains follow people home to be present in the offering ceremony, as a thank you.

For many years, Lao Du people have maintained the "hundred-crop rice offering" ceremony for their families, for the village, for generations born and raised in this land of many hardships.

“Any family that harvests a hundred “teo” (baskets) of rice or more must slaughter a pig to treat the village. If the harvest is bad this year, they will wait until next year to “accumulate”. Women preside over the ceremony, while men have the sole duty of finding meat.

The whole village will unanimously choose a leader for the ceremony. The chosen person will be the one who grows the most rice, corn, and cassava. They are responsible for the ceremony, and also for the spirituality of the next season," said Ms. Y Bam, the leader of the ceremony.

Elder A Song Ba in the hundred rice offering ceremony. Photo: CN

The women followed Mrs. Y Bam to the fields at the stream at the beginning of the village. There, they “picked rice” by hand, grabbing handfuls of rice and putting them in baskets and sacks, then brought them back to the rice warehouse at home. They went through many rituals.

To prepare for the hundred-rice offering ceremony, the village elder will look at the moon to choose a good day to hold the ceremony. Men go into the forest to hunt, fish, and repair the rice barn. Women in the family pound rice, find leaves to wrap cakes, and harvest fruits to offer to the gods.

In addition, offerings also include sacrificial animals such as buffalo, pigs, chickens, rice wine, various types of crops, etc. Among the gods, the rice god is a special god who is invited to witness the family and villagers organize the hundred-rice offering.

Mrs. Y Bam always leads the group in the worship ceremony. According to the Bh'noong people, women are those who have skillful and talented hands, who make products to feed people and make their families prosperous and happy.

Mrs. Y Bam prays to the gods in the rice fields. Photo: CN

They will be the biggest decision makers in the family. A large bundle of leaves is brought and spread out to invite the gods, especially the rice god, to witness. They offer pigs and other offerings to the gods, then pour wine. One by one, they pass the wine tube from hand to hand, drink the wine, and sing. The drums and gongs resound, bustling, inviting...

2. Old A Song Ba, bare-backed, holding his brocade high, steps to the rhythm of the dance in the middle of the festival. He was one of the first residents of the village to leave Dak Glei ( Kon Tum ) to go downstream, survived the terrible cholera epidemic, then stopped and chose to establish a village in Lao Du.

Thirty years, memories are sometimes as blurry as the traces of rain and wind on the wall of a house, everything comes and goes, hardship and happiness, loss and prosperity, naturally. The Lao Du people have been like a source of water, flowing back and forth, going through many impacts. Many people like old man A Song Ba "opened their eyes, saw the sun and realized they were still alive"...

“The “hundred rice offering” ceremony is only a thank you. Even if there is a crop failure or famine that year, no one blames. The Bh'noong people cherish every grain of rice that reaches their home yard, feeding every life. When rice comes from the fields, there must be a gathering ceremony, for the family, for the villagers to rejoice together and pray for new bountiful harvests in the future,” said old man A Song Ba.

Lao Du girls shine on the festival day. Photo: CN

For the first time, the hundred-rice offering ceremony was organized by the government. And it became a cultural event of Phuoc Xuan commune, replacing the offering ceremony that only existed as a "village covenant" in life. The cultural sector made efforts to consult the village elders so that the ceremony could be organized in the most original, complete and solemn manner.

Mr. Ho Cong Diem - Vice Chairman of Phuoc Son District People's Committee said, "Offering hundred rice" is a beautiful traditional cultural feature, imbued with the identity of the Bh'noong people in particular and ethnic minorities in the district in general. This custom aims to arouse, spread and promote the beautiful traditional cultural values ​​of the people.

“The pieces of cultural life are always precious assets that the government and the community want to preserve. Preserving culture, to preserve the identity of the people of Phuoc Son highlands and moving towards a further story of shaping products for community tourism . We have been maintaining the district-level Bh'noong cultural festival, at the same time investing and finding ways to restore traditional rituals and customs,” said Mr. Ho Cong Diem.

The Bh'noong people respectfully perform the hundred-rice offering ceremony. Photo: CN

The drums and gongs beat loudly. The villagers have joined together in a large circle, ignoring the cameras pointed at them, ignoring the tourists looking at them.

A few minutes ago, they had all looked solemnly at Mrs. Y Bam, performing each action, each hand movement, passing the tube of rice wine to each other.

And now, the game is theirs. It is a “reconstruction”, but we feel they are living in their own ritual, serving their own spiritual beliefs.

Elder A Song Ba said that every year Lao Du village organizes the "hundred rice offering" ceremony. If the villagers organize it themselves, it will of course not be as grand as today, when the government supports the whole village to re-enact the ceremony.

Festivals, rituals, and spiritual beliefs of the mountain people are closely linked to their customs and practices. They are deeply ingrained in the blood and flesh of the people. They do not disappear, so they have to be painstakingly “restored”.

They just lie there, silent, when life is not yet truly full, when invisible interferences come and invade, temporarily occupying their community.

If it is lost, it is only lost in the misconception of outsiders, those who are standing here and watching them joyfully, drunk with dance, drums, gongs and rice wine.

Nothing from the outside can erase the spiritual belief, the concept, the customs of the villagers. It is still there, just waiting for the opportunity to flare up.

Elder A Song Ba, Mrs. Y Bam, A Song Kim Anh or the young men and women of Lao Du village are still there, not turning their backs on the gods and the sky, the forest, not abandoning the roots from which they were born. Cultural values ​​are alive and will always live.

Modern life has not allowed the highlanders to live a primitive life. But primitive desires always wait for an opportunity to flare up.

Upland rice lives on the rain. And the festivals, the lives, and the desires of the villagers are also waiting for the rain to fall, to quietly sprout...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/cho-mot-con-mua-3137158.html