Let's learn about this ceremony with author Duong Quoc Toan through the photo series "Cap sac ceremony of the Red Dao people in Lao Cai". The photo series was submitted by the author to the Photo and Video Contest Happy Vietnam - Happy Vietnam, organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications. 
The Cap Sac ceremony, also known as the establishment ceremony of the Dao people in Lao Cai, is usually held from October of the previous year to February of the following year. Although the rituals and organization of each Dao branch have different characteristics, they all have the same meaning: the coming of age ceremony for the men in the family. 
It is not only physical maturity but also spiritual maturity, human morality, and the role of the individual in the community. 
The 12-lamp initiation ceremony of the Red Dao people not only has mysterious rituals but also creates a performance environment, expressing art forms: aesthetic art and folk visual art. 
In the opening ceremony, the shaman beats the drum to invite the ancestors to attend, and informs the ancestors of the reason for the ceremony. During the ceremony, many rituals take place inside and outside the house. Inside the house, the ceremony of empowerment will take place through records in ancient books of the Dao people and ritual props such as candles, mats, seals, sticks, dice, rice bags, etc.
A ritual that contains the sacredness of the ceremony is to “lead” the students to the underworld... After the ceremony is finished and the request for the underworld is successful, the teachers will lead the students to lie down straight and place a mask and a pair of chopsticks on their faces. The teachers will walk around the students 3 times, praying while walking and removing the masks. Then the teacher will go to each student's bed, take a small sip of tea and spray it on their stomach, pat their chest and help each person sit up in a chair. (Photo: Duong Toan)
The ritual also reminds people to constantly cultivate themselves, contributing to the preservation, promotion and creation of a cultural space for the folk art values and traditional educational values of the Dao people to be maintained and developed sustainably. 
Before the ceremony, the shaman, after praying, will ask the gods to officially recognize the person receiving the title as an adult. At the end of the ceremony, prayers for good luck for the person receiving the title will be written on paper, wrapped up and burned after the ceremony.
Through the Coming of Age Ceremony, people are taught the morality of remembering the source of water, a healthy lifestyle, and responsibility towards family and community.Vietnam.vn
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