(CLO) On the first day of the year, the village elders will come to the Rong house to worship Xin Yang (Giang, Heaven, the Spirit) to all people in the community of health and bumper crops. This is a unique custom of the Ba Na people, helping them to unite, stick together, overcome difficulties in life.
Ceremony to pray to Yang (God, sky, spirit) to grant health to all people in the community
More than 120km from Pleiku city, Mohra village also preserves many unique cultural identities typical of Ba Na people. It belongs to the administrative boundary of Kong Doan Khong commune (Kbang district, Gia Lai province), in the winter afternoon of Hmunh village (70 years old), cowbow in the mountains behind the house.
Yang worship ceremony of the Central Highlands people.
The step of Mr. Xi was miserable because the right knee was hit by the American troops from front to back in a battle in 1970. Wartime, brave, brave, peaceful and hard -working person. That's why in the Mohra village, everyone loved and admired him.
He likes to be called himself HMunh's "soldier". He always followed what Uncle Ho taught, so the people of Mohra village assigned him an important position as the person who asked to ask Yang to Mohra village to have health and bumper crops.
“I don’t do bad things, I don’t lie, so the people let me hold a ceremony to pray for Yang’s health and rice. The ceremony is a spiritual support, to reassure people in the face of unexplained unusual events. I am a soldier of Uncle Ho, a nephew of Uncle Nup (Hero Nup - PV) so I am not superstitious, I don’t hold ceremonies to cure diseases, if people from Mohra village or other places are sick, I tell them to go to the hospital” - said village elder Hmunh.
Continuing, the elder of Hmunh village said the worshiping ceremony for the people to be very important for the Ba Na people. The worshiping ceremony at the beginning of January of the lunar calendar, present everyone in the village. Therefore, if tomorrow worship, the afternoon must notify people to prepare.
The offerings are very simple by all people who contribute money to buy, including 1 female pig cooked into 3 dishes, 1 hen, 1 chicken egg. Then cook rice in 3 pots of seven (copper pot) of different sizes.
The first pot of seven small pots must be cooked with new rice, the pot must be washed very clean, this rice will be for the elders in the village to eat, the remaining two pots will be used to cook rice for the whole village to eat. If the elders or shamans have leftovers, they must share them with their children and grandchildren, they cannot take them home or throw them away. After the procedure is completed, a newly bought mat is spread out for the shaman to perform the ceremony at 1:00 pm.
"I made a ceremony in the communal house. Sitting down, I closed my hands and asked Yang to give the people of the village healthy, prospered, went to the street to meet the lucky thing, some people were kind to help" - the elder of Hmunh village said and recommended that when the ceremony finished, everyone had to talk politely, not to sing and dance.
Festival of the Ba Na people in the Central Highlands.
Kuai worship ceremony (praying for favorable weather and good harvest)
After asking for health for the villagers for a few days, the elder of Hmunh village will choose a beautiful sunny day to perform the Kuai Ceremony - asking for favorable rain and wind, bumper crops.
The offering ceremony includes 1 pig, 1 chicken, and wine. This offering ceremony cannot lack a le tree cut from the forest. The le tree must be hard, evenly curved, and not too old. The Hmunh village elder will personally whet the le tree, but will keep 3 long branches. The top of the le tree is tied with 3 bamboo rings, then tied with a 1m long forest rope, and at the end of this rope are also 3 bamboo rings.
Before proceeding to worship the elders of Hmunh village, it will burn the plastic of Gul tree with a very fragrant smell to "call" Yang back. "This type of plastic is very difficult to find, have to go to the forest for many lucky days to see" - the elder of Hmunh village said.
After completing the procedure, the Hmunh village elder will first turn the top of the le tree to point towards the rising sun. Under the le tree, the Hmunh village elder will pray for favorable weather, no storms, and no too much sunshine. The Hmunh village elder puts his two palms together and raises and lowers them while praying: “Today my village has 1 pig, 1 chicken, 1 jar of wine for Yang. Yang, please help the villagers grow rice with many grains and big cassava tubers. Please Yang for a bountiful harvest. We will live in unity, harmony, and not deceive anyone.”
Next, the elder of Hmunh village turned the tree to the south, asking the villagers to do lucky business; Turn north to ask for a loincloth, dye beautiful fabric; Returning to the west to ask for water to not die dry, people do business in cool weather.
“The Ba Na New Year ceremony is a beautiful feature of Ba Na traditional culture. In fact, it is an occasion for everyone in the community to meet, chat, have fun and at the same time look back on the past year, and make a commitment together (with the witness of the gods - according to the people's beliefs) to live well and usefully in the new year. That is something precious and should be preserved,” said Nguyen Quang Tue, a researcher of Central Highlands culture.
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/le-cung-dau-nam-cua-nguoi-ba-na-o-tay-nguyen-net-dep-van-hoa-truyen-thong-post326191.html
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