Thanh Minh Festival of the Muong people

This year, the Thanh Minh Festival of the Bui Van family was organized quite carefully because every 4 years, a buffalo is slaughtered.

Mr. Bui Van Thanh, Head of the Bui Van family, said that his hometown is in My Thanh commune, Lac Son district (Hoa Binh province). In 1955, he followed his parents to Hoa Thang commune and has lived there since then. For the Muong people, Thanh Minh festival takes place from the 12th day of the second lunar month to the end of the third lunar month. At this time, the season of trees changing leaves and budding is over, and they are worried that the tree roots will grow too fast and penetrate the graves of their grandparents and ancestors, so their children and grandchildren focus on cleaning and clearing trees.

In addition to worshiping ancestors and grandparents at home as usual, there is also a grave-visiting ceremony, also known as "cooling the grave" (grave) to dispel bad things, pray for a year of favorable weather, good crops, health, peace, good luck, and prosperity for everyone and every family.

After the ceremony, descendants of the Bui Van family took turns burning incense to worship their ancestors.

If in the past, a chicken or a few grilled fish were enough to complete the Thanh Minh Festival ritual in the true sense, today many families slaughter pigs, buffaloes, and cows. According to Mr. Thanh, the cycle of offering pigs in the first two years, cows in the third year, and buffaloes in the fourth year is called a grand ceremony, because the buffalo represents strength, "healthy as a buffalo"; the buffalo is a powerful plow animal for humans, so offering buffaloes is to invite grandparents, ancestors, and forefathers with the wish for a new year of prosperity, wealth, health, and good crops.

Before that, the children gathered to set up a tent in the field, each person had a job to prepare the offerings and place them neatly on banana leaves. The tray also had to be full of vegetarian food on top and meat on the bottom, the chicken eggs were boiled and dyed in five colors, two indispensable dishes were colorful cakes and white fish symbolizing swimming and bathing in the stream. According to the concept of the grandparents in the past, the children were welcomed wherever they went, work was smooth, everyone loved and protected each other.

After the ceremony to invite ancestors to enjoy the blessings, shaman Bui Van Thanh asked ancestors to bless their descendants with health and peace.

After the offerings are fully prepared, the shaman begins the ceremony to invite the local tutelary deity, ancestors, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and descendants in the family to enjoy the benefits. Then, the descendants in the family line up to light incense around the offerings, then each person will pour wine into 9 small glasses on the trays. After the shaman finishes, he will hold a bowl of filtered water with bamboo leaves and sprinkle the water around everyone with the wish to bring good luck, health, and peace to the descendants.

This year, on Thanh Minh Festival, the Bui Van clan called all of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, nearly 100 people, to attend the Tam Kinh (meaning the mandarin's thanksgiving) ceremony and cool their graves. The tradition of remembering and showing gratitude to their ancestors is maintained by the Bui clan (Muong ethnic group) in Hoa Thang commune, to remind their descendants, no matter what job they do or where they are, to try to return home to reunite and continue to maintain the good customs and practices that have been built and nurtured.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/van-hoa-du-lich-van-hoc-nghe-thuat/202504/tet-thanh-minh-cua-nguoi-muong-43b1b14/