Harvest Festival of the M'nong People in Quang Truc

After the end of the harvest season, the M'nong people in Quang Truc commune ( Lam Dong province) hold a Harvest Celebration to thank heaven and earth, and the gods for helping them have favorable weather, flourishing plants, and bountiful harvests. This is also an opportunity for the M'nong people to gather, bond, and spread the traditional cultural values of their people.

The M'nong people's harvest festival usually takes place in the dry season, around January to March of the solar calendar, when fruits are ripe and rice is full, and people have favorable conditions to have fun, rest and restore their labor. According to village elder Dieu Then in Bu Lum village, the harvest festival is one of the major festivals in the polytheistic belief system, imbued with the folk culture and strong community vitality of the M'nong people.

The festival is held annually after the end of the harvest season. Nowadays, due to the large scale of the Harvest Festival, with elaborate preparations and participation of many communities in the area, the festival is usually only held every 3-5 years.

To prepare for the Harvest Festival, before that, the village elders, village heads and prestigious people in the community held meetings, made plans, assigned tasks to each individual and community group, and agreed on the quantity of typical products such as pigs, chickens, sticky rice, rice wine, agricultural products, etc. for each village to prepare. In addition to preparing the contributed products, the host village is also responsible for carefully preparing the main offerings, the venue and the place to welcome guests.

The location for the Harvest Festival is usually chosen by the M'nong people at the community cultural house. In areas where there is no community cultural house, the ceremony will be held at the place where the communal activities of the village usually take place, closely linked to the spiritual beliefs and indigenous cultural life. After the ceremony date is set, the individuals and community groups assigned to the task will start brewing wine, the artisans will practice folk singing and dancing, the youth will set up the pole, make the ceremonial rope, the women will prepare sticky rice, cakes, etc.

The harvest festival begins with a very solemn welcoming ceremony, with the villagers and the host standing in two rows at the gate of the village, led by the village elder, followed by the dancers, gong players and the person holding the harvest tree. When the guests enter the gate, the trumpet sounds to signal the auspicious hour, and the artists representing both sides sing Tam Pot in the M'nong language, a typical folk song-and-response form, expressing respect and hospitality.

The offerings for the ceremony include a pig to worship the pole, a chicken, baskets containing typical agricultural products, four jars of rice wine, bamboo rice, grilled meat... arranged solemnly around the pole, with sacred meaning, symbolizing the harmony between heaven, earth, humans and gods, expressing the community's respect for the gods. In the main ceremony, the village elder performs the ritual of worshiping the gods, thanking the gods for giving the people a bountiful harvest, a prosperous life and praying for a peaceful new year, hoping that the gods will continue to protect and give the village a peaceful life, a favorable new crop.

After the worshiping part, the village elder uses chicken blood mixed with wine to smear on objects such as knives, axes, rakes, doors, kitchen stones, rice warehouses, etc. with the meaning of inviting gods and ancestors to join in the fun and bless the village. When the ritual ends, the village elder performs the ritual of opening the wine, praying to invite the gods to witness. After the ceremony is completed, the village elder invites guests to enjoy the wine as a blessing and gratitude.

The ceremony ended with a special ritual of lighting a sacred fire by the village elder and local government representatives holding torches to light a large fire in the middle of the ceremony yard, symbolizing life, faith, warmth and the strength that unites the community.

The festival is organized with many exciting activities such as gong beating, folk singing and dancing, folk song and dance performances around the campfire, cultural exchange between the communities. In the festival, an indispensable cultural feature, demonstrating the sharing spirit of the M'nong people, is that the sacrificial meat is processed on the spot, divided equally among each family, even those who do not attend are also given a share...

The festival lasted until late at night with group performances and folk song artist Ot N'drong with endless epics, recreating the working life of the M'nong people through traditional singing, recalling the tradition of close ties between members of the M'nong community for generations...

CHAN HUNG, HOA AN

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/le-mung-mua-cua-nguoi-m-nong-o-quang-truc-386731.html