The flow of culture in the heart of time.

Thai Nguyen province has recently had two more cultural heritage items added to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: the Harvest Festival of the Lo Gang Dao people and the folk performance art of Sli singing of the Phan Slinh Nung people. This provides a basis for preserving and promoting the value of traditional cultural heritage in the province, raising awareness and responsibility of all levels and sectors in preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage.

The ritualistic part of the Harvest Festival of the Lo Gang Dao people.

The Harvest Festival is a traditional festival, social custom, and belief of the Dao Lo Gang people living in the communes of Dan Tien, Vo Nhai, Than Sa, and Nghinh Tuong in Thai Nguyen province.

This is one of the unique rituals that has been passed down through generations in the Dao Lo Gang community, exemplified by its sculptural art, performing arts, and ceremonial space imbued with spiritual significance.

The Harvest Prayer Ceremony, passed down through generations in the community, integrates the distinctive cultural and artistic values ​​of the Dao Lo Gang people. Once a year, the Dao Lo Gang people hold a festival to pray for a good harvest. The timing of the festival is determined by the shaman and is chosen to be held in the spring.

To prepare for the festival, the Dao people prepare plenty of wine and meat, clean their houses thoroughly, and display beautiful items to welcome guests to the festival with care.

Mr. Ban Phuc Hien, head of Na Ba hamlet, Dan Tien commune, said: The hamlet has 76 households, 100% of whom are Dao people. According to the tradition of organizing the Harvest Festival, each family contributes one rooster, 1.5 liters of wine, 250,000 VND, 5 sheets of paper, 5 bowls of white rice, and 2 bowls of sticky rice.

At the same time, each household brings a bag of rice or corn to offer during the festival, hoping that the gods will bless the people with a bountiful harvest, full houses of rice and corn, and prosperous livestock and agricultural production.

Everyone attending the festival contributed to specific tasks, with each family representing one or two people. Young, strong men were assigned to butcher pigs and chickens, while the women participated in cooking the offerings. The newly appointed elders and middle-aged men printed money and paper effigies, built bridges, and hung up scrolls, while other young people planted trees and created artificial forests. Without being told, everyone demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility to ensure the preparations for the ceremony were thorough.

The Harvest Festival of the Dao Lo Gang people is closely associated with their agricultural practices. Based on the animistic belief that all things have spirits, people pray to the corresponding deity for whatever they wish for. Therefore, farming and forestry require rituals to worship the God of Agriculture and the God of the Forest. The offerings and the purpose of the festival are to invite deities from heaven and earth, including river gods, stream gods, mountain gods, and forest gods, to witness the people's thanksgiving ceremony.

From there, the gods "heard" the prayers of the people and summoned clouds to bring rain, wind, and sunshine to provide fresh water for life. These humanistic elements are expressed through the prayers, incantations, and songs of the shamans performed during the festival.

The unique character is not only expressed through the Pả Dung singing performances and lyrics in the festival, but also in the dances performed by the shamans and the villagers. Through these movements, the cycle of human life from birth to adulthood and old age is depicted in a symbolic and profound way.

Along with the Harvest Festival of the Dao Lo Gang people, the Sli singing of the Nung Phan Slinh people is a type of folk performing art, distributed in the communes of Van Han, Van Lang, Quang Son, and Dong Hy in Thai Nguyen province.

Sli is a unique call-and-response singing art of the Nung people. In the Nung language, Sli singing is called "Và Sli" or "Pây và Sli," and some call it "Đi bạn" or "Hát Ví." Sli consists of poems and verses of varying lengths, usually performed in the seven-word eight-line or seven-word four-line form.

Sli was formed during the working life and struggles to transform nature and society, aiming to truthfully and vividly reflect the working life and daily activities of the Nung Phan Slinh people, expressing their thoughts, feelings, and aspirations, and praising love, couples, the beauty of nature, homeland, and villages.

Sli singing must be done in pairs, meaning that both male and female singers always perform together as a couple. Sli is sung on many occasions: festivals, market days, weddings, housewarming parties, when guests visit the village or other villages, and during the Hét khoăn ceremony (birthday celebration)... Today, Sli has become an indispensable part of the life of the Nùng Phàn Slình people.

Previously, in 2023, as part of Project 6 on "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development," the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnic Cultures collaborated with local authorities to build a model for preserving and promoting the Sli folk songs of the Nung ethnic group in Hoa Binh commune (now Van Lang commune).

Teaching the traditional performance style of the Nung ethnic group's Sli melodies.

To date, Thai Nguyen province has 45 intangible cultural heritage items included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Notably, the province has one intangible cultural heritage item included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This recognition serves as a motivation for each locality to continue preserving, exploiting, and effectively promoting the value of the heritage, thereby helping the heritage to spread widely and contributing to enriching and making the traditional cultural flow of the tea-growing region more distinctive.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202507/dong-chay-van-hoa-giua-long-thoi-gian-2eb0d1d/