Pa Co people's seeding festival in A Luoi

The A Pier Festival (Sowing Festival) of the Pa Co A Luoi people, Thua Thien Hue has existed for a long time, with the meaning of Sowing, sowing shows that the new crop season has begun, the varieties of crops planted in the ground begin to grow and develop well. When the APier Festival takes place, people often perform folk religious rituals to pray for green trees, firm rice grains, heavy millet branches... praying for a bountiful harvest, to feed the villagers.

We invite you to join Vietnam.vn to learn about the sowing festival through the photo series "The sowing festival of the Pa Co people in A Luoi" by author NGUYEN XUAN HUU TAM. The photo series was taken by the author in Thua Thien Hue, depicting the A Pier Festival (Sowing Festival) of the Pa Co people in A Luoi, Thua Thien Hue. According to the animist belief, the Pa Co people believe that the gods (Giang) reside over all fields and streams. They always believe in the protection of the Yang for their villages. In their agricultural beliefs, the people always show their worship of the Mountain God, the River God and especially the Rice God to pray for favorable weather and bountiful crops. For that reason, every year the Pa Co people often hold the A Pier festival before sowing rice and seeds in the fields. Because they believe that if they do not perform this ceremony, the Rice God will not wake up, the crops will not be good, and will be destroyed by worms and weevils, so performing the ceremony to worship the God is an important ritual in the culture of the Pa Co people - the village chief will hold a village meeting and choose a good day and time to choose a piece of land for the sowing ceremony. After the meeting and preparing the land, they will together renovate that piece of land into small pieces to prepare for the sowing ceremony. Once the land has been selected and renovated, the Pa Co people will erect a pole on that piece of land and choose the time for the ceremony. The photo series was submitted by the author to the Photo and Video Contest "Happy Vietnam", organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

According to the customs of the Pa Co people in the past, the A Pier Festival is performed in the form of 5 traditional rituals. (Step 1. Meeting; Step 2. Opening the sacred field; Step 3. Official rice planting; Step 4. Awakening the rice seeds; Step 5. Making fences; Step 6. Washing the curry).

After washing the curry, the girls and boys bathe in the stream together, playing happily to celebrate the success of the festival. The A Pier festival is maintained by the Pa Co people, especially in villages and communes that still cultivate fields, and has become a unique traditional cultural feature of the Pa Co people.

The A Pier Festival ended, Giang had eaten his fill and was on his way back to his throne, to look after and protect the village, the land, the crops, and the Pa Co people. At this time, the village elders, the village chiefs, and the villagers gathered together, ate and danced together with the hope of a new bumper crop, making the villagers warm, happy, and increasingly wealthy. They were happy and cheered with excitement. They danced together to the traditional dances, drums, and panpipes of the Pa Co people to celebrate the festival, to celebrate the successful planting of the new crop.

Currently, all festivals in general and A Pier festival in particular have become tourism products and services serving tourists on demand. This is a meaningful activity in the work of preserving, maintaining and promoting national cultural identity associated with tourism development of A Luoi district.

In 2024, the Photo and Video Contest "Happy Vietnam - Happy Vietnam" continues to be organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications in coordination with the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists on the website https://happy.vietnam.vn for all Vietnamese citizens and foreigners aged 15 and over. The contest aims to honor individuals and groups with positive information products, making practical contributions to the propaganda and promotion of beautiful images of Vietnam to the world. Thereby helping people in the country, compatriots abroad and international friends access authentic images of the country, Vietnamese people, Vietnam's achievements in ensuring human rights, towards a happy Vietnam.

Each contest category (photo and video) has the following prizes and prize values:
– 01 Gold Medal: 70,000,000 VND
– 02 Silver Medals: 20,000,000 VND
– 03 Bronze Medals: 10,000,000 VND
– 10 Consolation prizes: 5,000,000 VND
– 01 most voted work: 5,000,000 VND
The winning authors will be invited by the Organizing Committee to attend the announcement ceremony and award prizes and certificates on live television broadcast of Vietnam Television.

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