The village festival is vibrant.

For generations, few people in the mountainous regions could have imagined that one day their traditional rituals would become a tourism product, offering visitors experiential tours, as they are today.

The Co Tu community in Ta Lang village (Bha Leee commune, Tay Giang district) will open its village to welcome tourists at the end of 2024. Photo: DANG NGUYEN

The Pơrngooch Cơ Tu Festival

The gongs and drums resound. Katu boys and girls, resplendent in their traditional costumes, form a circle around the X'nur (ceremonial pole), swaying to the rhythmic dance of the tang tung da da. Leading the way are the village elders, respected figures in the community – holding umbrellas, wearing feathered headdresses, joining in the festivities with the ta'rooh dance, expressing their joy at the village's shared celebration. After the reenactment of "greeting new friends," a space for storytelling and singing is set up, and the village elders lay down common village rules for the community to follow.

According to Alang Cronh, a respected figure in Ma Cooih (Dong Giang), this was the first ritual performed in the Pơrngooch (brotherhood) festival organized by the two communes of Ma Cooih and Ka Dang.

Through this festival, in addition to connecting and facilitating meetings between the communities of the two communes, it is also an opportunity to promote cultural preservation and aim to turn the unique rituals of the Pơrngooch festival into a tourism product.

Besides fostering community cohesion, the cultural space of the village also opens up opportunities to create unique tourism products for visitors to experience. Photo: DANG NGUYEN

“The Pơngooch Festival aims to resolve conflicts arising in the lives of the Cơ Tu community. From there, it fosters unity, creates a harmonious living environment, and contributes to the preservation of the long-standing traditional culture of the local people.”

"This year, the festival is even more meaningful as the administrations of the two communes will be merged into a single administrative unit. From now on, the people of Ma Cooih and Ka Dang communes are like brothers and sisters, working together to build our homeland," shared Mr. Alang Cronh.

According to Do Huu Tung, Acting Chairman of the Dong Giang District People's Committee, this year's Pơrngooch festival is seen as the starting point for the goal of turning the traditional rituals of the Co Tu people into a unique tourism product of the locality.

This continuation is expected to serve as a significant highlight, creating a ripple effect and further expanding the initiative in localities throughout the district, especially as preparations are underway for the merger of commune-level administrative units.

“Previously, we also organized pilot programs, recreating the ritual of brotherhood between Co Tu villages. With the help of many village elders and those knowledgeable about traditional culture, the large-scale drum and gong performance combined with the Tang Tung Da Da dance contributed to making the Pơrngooch festival a typical cultural space for tourists to visit and experience.”

"According to the general direction of the locality, after the merger, the new commune-level administrative unit will continue to maintain and organize many unique festivals to create distinctive tourism products, contributing to promoting Co Tu culture closer to domestic and international tourists," Mr. Tung said.

The Tay ethnic people in Dong Ram residential area (Thanh My town, Nam Giang district) recreated the atmosphere of the Long Tong festival in early 2025. Photo: DANG NGUYEN

"Travel Party"

In order to revive mountain tourism products and truly become a "feast" for tourists to choose from, many localities have recently begun to consider reopening and recreating traditional rituals of ethnic groups living at the foot of the Eastern Truong Son Mountains.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Hung, Head of the Culture, Science and Information Department of Nam Giang District, said that recently the locality recreated the ritual of going down to the fields through the Long Tong festival of the Tay community living in Dong Ram village (Thanh My town). In the 1990s, a small number of Tay and Nung people migrated from the northern provinces to live there, contributing to the unique and rich cultural foundation of the fascinating Nam Giang region.

The Lồng Tồng ritual is one of the most important community festivals of the Tay people and is usually associated with agriculture , held annually to express wishes for prosperity and to mark the beginning of a new farming season.

When the offerings are arranged to be presented to the deities, the master of ceremonies (usually a shaman or priest) stands before the offerings and prays for the blessings of heaven, earth, and the deities for protecting the villagers.

After the prayers, the master of ceremonies sprinkles water around, symbolizing rain from heaven, and the villagers catch the drops of water as a sign of good fortune. Then, the master of ceremonies takes seeds from the offering trays and scatters them around. The villagers mix these seeds with the seeds on their own offering trays to sow and cultivate…

“The Lồng Tồng festival of the Tay people is closely associated with agricultural beliefs, a form of folk cultural activity that signifies community cohesion. With the beautiful natural scenery at the foot of the limestone mountains, we expect and believe that the Lồng Tồng festival will become a unique tourism product, adding color to the journey of exploring community tourism in Đồng Râm in the future,” Mr. Hùng expressed his hope.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/hoi-lang-song-dong-3157198.html