Unique Drum Beating Festival of the Ma Coong People

(Fatherland) - The Drum Festival is held once a year on January 16 and 17 and is considered the most important festival of the Ma Coong people.

The Ma Coong (also known as Mang Coong, Mong Kong, Muong Kong...) are a local group of the Bru - Van Kieu ethnic group in Quang Binh . According to ethnic history researchers, the Ma Coong are indigenous people with characteristics similar to the Lao people. Therefore, their cultural life is also influenced by Lao culture in terms of language, architecture, housing, clothing, religion...

Currently, the Ma Coong people are the largest group of Bru - Van Kieu people in Quang Binh, with 545 households and 2,566 people ^[1] , residing mainly in Tan Trach and Thuong Trach communes, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province.

Drum Beating Festival of the Ma Coong People (Quang Binh)

The Drum Beating Festival is held once a year on the full moon of the first lunar month (January 16 and 17) and is considered the most important festival of the Ma Coong people. Before the festival, everyone contributes whatever they have, but they cannot help but contribute sticky rice for the village to make Hieng wine (a type of wine made from upland sticky rice with yeast leaves, white as milk, used only for offerings and to invite distinguished guests). The village cannot lack chicken and sticky rice for the offering ceremony.

The ceremonial section usually consists of five people, including the heads of five clans in the area. These are the clans that have contributed to the discovery of the land where the Ma Coong people are currently living. They have the right to be the ceremonial masters every year. With that meaning, the Ma Coong Drum Festival clearly demonstrates the solidarity of the community and the unique historical and cultural values, imbued with the distinct identity of the Ma Coong people.

According to legend, in the past, in the land where the Ma Coong people lived, a yellow monkey appeared. Every night, it often entered the villagers' fields to eat corn, destroy rice and fruit trees. Since the appearance of the monkey, the Ma Coong people have had continuous crop failures, famine, and constant illness. They have tried many ways to chase the monkey away but failed. The night before the full moon of January, the village elder dreamed that Giang (the god of heaven) appeared and told him that to chase the monkey away, he had to make a drum with a loud sound and beat it on the brightest moonlit night, when the monkey came to destroy the crops. The next day, the Ma Coong men quickly completed a beautiful drum with a loud, warm sound that echoed deep into the Truong Son mountain range. Waiting for the monkey to arrive at the brightest moonlit night of the 16th, the young men took turns beating the drum. The monkey was so frightened by the sound of the drum that he fled this land and did not return. To commemorate the village elder, the ancestor of the Ma Coong people, and to repay the kindness of Giang, the delicious and rare foods of the Ma Coong people's land are selected and displayed in a grand offering ceremony.

The Drum Beating Festival is held in the first lunar month every year, when people have just finished harvesting and are preparing for a new crop to pray to heaven and earth for favorable rain, wind, good crops, and people's prosperity and health... Because according to the Ma Coong people, on this day, the souls of all things are free, not subject to the control of any supreme being. Therefore, people and heaven and earth communicate and harmonize with the drum beats and dances to celebrate the new rice on the festival night. This is truly a festival of the Ma Coong ethnic community in particular and the Bru, Arem, Van Kieu ethnic communities... in the Western region of Bo Trach, Quang Binh in general.

The Drum Beating Festival is usually held in the middle of the village yard. In the largest yard of the village, under the shade of an old tree, the villagers build a row of small thatched houses. In the main house where the ceremony is held, a drum is solemnly hung. At night, the preparations are finished, everyone waits for the moon to rise. When the moon rises above the mountain range behind the village, the offerings are brought out and arranged. The offerings to Giang include Hieng wine, chicken cooked with young rattan shoots, fish, sticky rice, rattan tops, pieces of doac tree trunks, a little rice... Each village has one offering and there must be 18 such offerings in the ceremony. The responsibility for making the offerings belongs to the family members of the village elders.

The Ma Coong drums are not like those of the lowland people. The drum body is made from the Chi Cup tree - a hollow medicinal plant that lives for decades in the deep forest and can be used year after year. The drum face is covered with the skin of a large, strong buffalo. The drums in festivals are tied together with crisscrossed rattan ropes, then tightly wedged with bamboo, pulling the drum face into a strange shape like a "spiky ball".

According to Ma Coong custom, after the ceremony with strict regulations is completed, the Drum Breaking Festival comes to a bustling and exciting stage. Under the moonlight, groups of people take turns beating the drum, dancing, and drinking wine by the flickering fire. Not only the Ma Coong people but also people from everywhere come here to join in the fun of the festival. When the drum is broken, demonstrating the strength of national unity, joining hands and hearts to protect the villagers, the bustling scene temporarily calms down. At this time, couples who have secretly noticed each other for a long time are allowed to take each other to the stream, into the forest to talk. But they must return home before the rooster crows in the morning to return to their daily lives and make an appointment to meet again at the festival next year ^.

Over time and change, the Ma Coong Drum Festival still retains its indelible historical and cultural values, hidden deep within is the fertility belief, bearing the mark of community cultural activities to pray for the harmony of yin and yang in life. With that meaning, the Ma Coong Drum Festival has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage (in 2019).

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Source: https://toquoc.vn/doc-dao-le-hoi-dap-trong-cua-nguoi-ma-coong-20241206124037901.htm