1. Lao Du village (Phuoc Xuan commune, Phuoc Son district) is holding a festival today. The "hundred rice offering" ceremony is being reenacted by the commune authorities at the cultural center, with the participation of all villagers. The festival is for everyone.
Eleven-year-old Song Kim Anh, barefoot and wearing a traditional brocade dress, joined her older sisters and mothers in a large circle in the courtyard to perform a traditional dance.
Kim Anh danced and sang, enthusiastically amidst a crowd of many strangers. “I want to participate in the festival. Every year in the village, there’s a hundred-rice offering ceremony, where we offer rice to the gods, celebrate the new harvest, sing, and dance. It’s a joyful day for the whole village,” Kim Anh said.
The "hundred rice offering" ceremony is a village tradition deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the Lao Du people. The harvests may be bountiful or unsuccessful, but from the hard-earned fields, the rice grains are carried home to be present in the ceremony, as a token of gratitude.
For many years, the Lao Du people have maintained the tradition of "offering the hundred rice harvest" for their families, their village, and for generations born and raised in this land still facing many hardships.
“Any family that harvests one hundred ‘teo’ (baskets) of rice or more must slaughter a pig to feast the village. If the harvest is poor this year, they will wait until the following year to ‘accumulate’ the meat. Women preside over the ceremony, while men have only one task: to find the meat.”
"The whole village will unanimously choose someone to preside over the ceremony. The person chosen will be the one who produces the most rice, corn, and cassava. They are responsible for the ceremony, and also for the spiritual aspects for the next harvest," said Mrs. Y Bẩm, the chief officiant in the hundred-rice offering ceremony.
The women followed Mrs. Y Bẩm to the rice fields by the stream at the edge of the village. There, they "harvested rice" by hand, gathering handfuls of rice into baskets and carrying them back to the granary at home. They went through many rituals.
To prepare for the hundred-rice offering ceremony, the village elder will consult the moon to choose an auspicious day for the ritual. The men go into the forest to hunt, fish, and tidy up the rice granary. The women in the family pound the rice, gather leaves for wrapping cakes, and offer harvested fruits to the spirits.
In addition, offerings include sacrificial animals such as buffaloes, pigs, chickens, rice wine, and various types of plant seeds. Among the deities, the rice god is a special one, brought to witness the family and villagers' hundred-rice offering ceremony.
Mrs. Y Bẩm always leads the procession during the ritual. According to the Bh'noong people's beliefs, women are skillful and capable, producing goods that sustain people and bring warmth, prosperity, and happiness to their families.
They will be the biggest decision-makers in the family. A large bundle of leaves is brought out and spread out, inviting the spirits, especially the rice god, to witness. They offer a pig as a sacrifice, present other offerings to the spirits, and then pour wine. One by one, they pass the rice wine tube, drink, and sing. Drums and gongs resound, creating a lively and inviting atmosphere...
2. Old A Song Ba, bare-backed, raised his hand high, his woven robe swaying to the rhythm of the dance in the midst of the festival. He was one of the first residents of the village to leave Dak Glei ( Kon Tum ) and travel downstream, surviving a terrible cholera epidemic before finally settling and establishing a village in Lao Du.
Thirty years have passed, and memories sometimes fade like the marks of rain and wind on the walls of a house. Everything comes and goes, hardship and happiness, loss and prosperity, naturally. The Lao Du people have been like a flowing stream, enduring countless trials and tribulations. Many, like old man A Song Ba, "opened their eyes and saw the sun, only then realizing they were still alive"...
“The ‘hundred rice offering’ ceremony is solely about giving thanks. Even if there is a crop failure and famine that year, no one complains. The Bh'noong people cherish every grain of rice that comes to their doorstep, nourishing every life. When the rice is brought from the fields, there must be a communal offering ceremony, for the family and the entire village to share in the joy and pray for abundant harvests in the future,” said elder A Song Ba.
For the first time, the hundred-rice offering ceremony was organized by the government. It became a cultural event of Phuoc Xuan commune, replacing the previous ceremony which existed only as a "village custom." The cultural sector made efforts to consult with the village elders to ensure the ritual was performed in its original, complete, and solemn form.
Mr. Ho Cong Diem, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Phuoc Son district, said, "The 'hundred rice offering' is a beautiful traditional cultural feature, deeply rooted in the identity of the Bh'noong people in particular and ethnic minorities in the district in general. This custom aims to revive, spread, and promote the beautiful traditional cultural values of the people."
“The pieces of cultural life are always a precious asset that both the government and the community want to preserve. Preserving culture is essential to safeguarding the identity of the ethnic minorities in Phuoc Son highlands and, looking further ahead, to shaping products for community tourism . We have been maintaining the Bh'noong cultural festival at the district level, while also investing in and seeking ways to restore traditional rituals and customs,” said Mr. Ho Cong Diem.
Drums and gongs sounded, echoing loudly. The villagers blended into the large circle, oblivious to the cameras pointed at them, oblivious to the tourists staring at them.
Just a few minutes earlier, they had all solemnly focused their gaze on Mrs. Y Bẩm, meticulously performing each action, each gesture, passing the rice wine tube to one another.
And now, it's their turn. It's a "reconstruction," but we feel they're living through their own ritual, serving their own spiritual beliefs.
Elder A Song Ba said that every year the village of Lao Du holds the "hundred rice offering" ceremony. When organized by the villagers themselves, it's naturally not as grand as today, when the government provides support for the entire village to revive the ceremony.
Festivals, rituals, and spiritual beliefs of mountain people are closely linked to their unique customs and traditions. These are things deeply ingrained in their being; they don't disappear, requiring elaborate "reconstruction."
They simply lie there, dormant, when life is not yet truly complete, when invisible influences come and invade, temporarily taking over their community.
If there is any loss, it is only a loss due to the misconception of outsiders, those who are standing here watching them rejoicing and getting drunk with the dances, drums, and rice wine.
Nothing from the outside world can erase the spiritual beliefs, concepts, and customs of the villagers. They are still there, just waiting for an opportunity to resurface.
Elder A Song Ba, Mrs. Y Bam, A Song Kim Anh, and the young men and women of Lao Du village are still there, not turning their backs on the spirits and the heavens and earth, on the forest, and not abandoning the roots from which they were born. These cultural values are alive and will always live on.
Modern life has not allowed the people of the highlands to live a primitive life. But primitive desires are always waiting for an opportunity to erupt.
Upland rice plants thrive on the rains. And the festivals, daily life, and aspirations of the villagers also await the rains to sow their seeds, to silently sprout...
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/cho-mot-con-mua-3137158.html
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