Every New Year, the Thai ethnic people in the Northwest region bustlingly organize the Lung Tung Festival - Going to the fields ceremony.
Lung Tung Festival is a traditional festival of the Thai people, with the nature of an agricultural ritual, opening the new production season, praying for a bountiful harvest, livestock growth, healthy people, peaceful villages, prosperity and happiness for everyone and every family...
Before the Lung Tung Festival, the village elders prepare for the festival such as preparing offerings to the gods including boiled pigs, boiled chickens, colored sticky rice, fruits, votive paper money, betel and areca nuts, cakes, wine, honey, grilled fish, pickled fish... and choose a field in a flat, spacious place, convenient for organizing the ritual of going to the fields, which is also the place to organize folk games and arts.
The villages also choose strong buffaloes and good plows to make the first plowing cuts of the new year.
The first ritual is that the village often holds a worship ceremony, in which the village elder or shaman must perform a ceremony to report to the gods and the land god, then organize the ceremony to worship Lady Han right in the village. Lady Han is considered the representative of the divine force protecting the village. After the ceremony, the group of people carries the flags, drums and offerings to Lady Han to the field prepared for the festival.
During the ceremony, the villagers prepare four more offerings: offerings to all living beings; offerings to the village's tutelary god; offerings to the gods of the celestial world, under the sea and on earth; offerings to the mountain gods, forest gods, and earth gods.
After completing the offering, the gods will perform the rituals of plowing, sowing seeds, etc. to pray for a year of favorable weather, good plants, bountiful crops, and good health for the people.
The next part of the festival is a traditional folk art program of the Thai ethnic group, after which people and tourists can participate in folk games such as throwing con, pushing sticks, crossbow shooting, swinging, to ma le, tug of war...
Than Uyen (Lai Chau province) is a land of long-standing Thai ethnic residents. The Thai people here have many festivals such as: Lung Tung festival, Han Khuong festival, Kin Pang festival, Xoe Chieng festival...
The Lung Tung festival was last held in 1958 and then gradually faded away. In 2018, this festival was restored by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lai Chau province, contributing to preserving, maintaining and promoting the cultural identity of the Thai ethnic group in particular and the ethnic groups of Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province in general.
This year, the Lung Tung Festival in Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province was held in Muong Cang commune on February 18 (the 9th day of Tet) in the fields of Cang Muong village.
This is an exchange activity, demonstrating the spirit of community connection, preserving and promoting the good traditional cultural values of ethnic groups, promoting and introducing the image of Than Uyen district to tourists inside and outside the province.
After the ceremony, the festival begins with the ritual of the village elders with prestige in the village and commune beating drums and gongs to open the festival. Immediately after, the government representatives and villagers go down to the fields to perform the ritual of plowing, sowing seeds, opening a year of favorable weather, lush plants, and healthy people.
At the festival, people and tourists can participate in folk games, cultural exchanges with performances imbued with Thai ethnic identity such as throwing con, fighting swallows, shooting crossbows, to ma le, tug of war, pushing sticks, spreading hoops, and enjoying local cuisine.
Endowed by nature, Than Uyen district has fertile rice fields such as Muong Than, Muong Cang... This place also has many local products, natural landscape systems such as rivers, lakes, green forests, high mountains, associated with villages with typical cultural features of the Mong, Thai, Kho Mu ethnic groups...
This is a great advantage for Than Uyen district to develop tourism, attract tourists to visit, experience and relax./.
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