Recently, Tay Giang district successfully organized the 8th Thanksgiving Festival for the Forest in 2025 with the participation of many local people and tourists. Through many cultural performances, reenacting the forest god worshiping ritual of the Co Tu people, the festival hopes to pray for a year of favorable weather, community peace and development...
Community cultural values
Mr. Polong Plenh - Deputy Head of the Department of Culture - Science and Information of Tay Giang district said that the festival has the cultural characteristics of the Co Tu community, usually held at the beginning of the year, before preparing for the harvest season with the meaning of thanking the gods, praying for good things to come to the villagers. Therefore, in addition to opening the year to pray for good luck, the forest thanksgiving ceremony is also a promise of the local people to raise awareness of forest management and protection.
According to Mr. Polong Plenh, from the wishes of local people, starting from 2018, Tay Giang has restored and organized the opening ceremony of the year of forest thanksgiving to preserve long-standing traditional cultural values.
Since then, the locality has organized a festival on a district-wide scale almost every year, reenacting many traditional forest god worshiping rituals of the Co Tu people. After a period of organization, this unique cultural activity has become a large-scale festival, mobilizing the entire local community to participate.
“In the past, this festival was held by each household or village, with the main meaning being to thank Mother Nature for protecting and giving life to the Co Tu community during hundreds of years of existence. Because the Co Tu believe that all things have gods.
"Worshiping the forest god and considering the forest as a common property of the whole community is the way the Co Tu people educate people about responsibility so that they can protect the forest and mother nature from external influences," Mr. Poloong Plenh shared.
Tay Giang assigned the hosting task to the People's Committee of A Xan Commune for the 2025 Forest Thanksgiving Opening Ceremony with the aim of preserving community values from the grassroots level and promoting the role of the community in the local cultural activities. As expected, when the festival took place, both the government and people of A Xan Commune joined hands to respond.
Along with renovating the community cultural house at Pơmu Eco-tourism Village, after the Lunar New Year, village elders and artisans supported the community in practicing the gong drum team; participated in setting up tents, decorating poles, organizing folk songs and reciting folk songs... creating a highlight for the traditional festival of the Co Tu people in the locality.
Shaping unique tourism products
According to Mr. Arat Blui - Vice Chairman of Tay Giang District People's Committee, from the cultural significance of the Co Tu community ritual, in recent years, the locality has maintained the organization of the Opening Year ceremony to thank the forest, gradually shaping a unique cultural tourism product for visitors. Through the ritual of worshiping the forest god, it is to thank Mother Nature for protecting and sheltering her "children" under the Truong Son Dong forest.
Mr. Arat Blui said that this year's festival continues to be held with many accompanying activities to fully and completely recreate the traditional forest god worshiping ritual of the Co Tu people.
To ensure the festival takes place safely and solemnly, local authorities established ceremonial subcommittees, service subcommittees and assigned specific tasks to each participating member.
The role of artisans and village elders is promoted to help the festival become more and more popular. The rituals are performed in accordance with the prescribed steps in the cultural traditions of the Co Tu people. Through the festival, we aim to both preserve unique traditional cultural values and promote identity, aiming to turn the festival program into an impressive tourism product for visitors to visit and experience.
“This is also an opportunity to honor and recognize the unique and typical values of the ecological landscape of the heritage forest in Tay Giang. Thereby helping to promote attraction, call for investment and exploit tourism development based on the inherent potential and advantages, creating sustainable livelihoods for local people,” said Mr. Arat Blui.
Tay Giang currently has more than 2,557 Vietnam Heritage trees, forest coverage reaches 72.46% and there are many primeval forests, rare woods such as: ebony, green lim, pơmu, doi, sen, do rhododendron, red pine. Especially the ancient pơmu forest with more than 2,000 trees, ages from several hundred years to thousands of years old; of which 725 pơmu trees have been recognized as Vietnam Heritage Trees.
Promoting existing advantages and potentials, in recent years, Tay Giang has expanded the organization of the Opening Year of Thanksgiving for the Forest ceremony, considering it an opportunity for the local community to commit to protecting the upstream forest, respecting Mother Nature from the risk of external impacts...
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/dong-bao-co-tu-vao-hoi-khai-nam-ta-on-rung-3149170.html
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