Coming of age ceremony of Cham people following Ba Ni religion

Around June, August, or October of the Cham calendar, the Cham people who follow the Bani religion organize the Kareh and Katal ceremonies - the coming of age ceremony or initiation ceremony - for girls and boys aged 15 and above. This is one of the important ceremonies in the life of the Cham people who follow the Bani religion. According to the customs of the Bani Cham people, only after going through the Kareh and Katal ceremonies can young men and women be recognized by the gods as adults and be allowed to carry out important tasks in their lives.

Author Tran Tam My with the photo series "Coming of Age Ceremony of the Cham people following the Ba Ni religion", to introduce a unique coming of age ceremony that the Cham Ba Ni people often hold every year for boys and girls aged 13 - 15. The photo series was submitted by the author to the Happy Vietnam Photo and Video Contest, organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications. The festival takes place over two days. After two days of gathering for the ceremony, the children officially become adults in the Ba Ni religion, Cham people, Bac Binh Binh Thuan. The girls are given a separate ceremony in a separate place. The girls are bathed, their hair is cut and they are purified. Their parents dress them in traditional clothes and give them jewelry as a dowry. The boys are also blessed and circumcised.

Traditional costumes children wear on holidays.

The Cham Kareh Katal ceremony usually lasts for 3 days and 2 nights. On the first day, everyone in the family prepares costumes and sets up a tent. On the second day, they make traditional cakes and fruits such as bananas, popped rice, sticky rice cakes, and xalam cakes. And the ceremony will take place on the third day. The family will invite all the villagers to attend to witness the moment when the son or daughter is recognized by the gods as an adult.

Jewelry for children to join the festival.

Make a break for girls

Prepare traditional costumes for children and grandchildren

The boys are dressed neatly in traditional costumes.

After being baptized in the river, the young men and women were taken to the pavilion, where the official ceremony took place. Here, the celebrants officially named the adults in this batch. The names were taken from the names of their patron gods. This was the name that the person would use when he or she passed away, in the afterlife.

The girls had their hair cut by Mr. Mum De.

The boys kneel during the ceremony.

Previously, those who participated in the Kareh Katal ceremony had to go to the pond to catch fish and the forest to chop wood to prepare for the ceremony. And after the ceremony ended, these people continued to stay and serve the host for 7 to 10 days. From the beginning of the ceremony to the end of the ceremony took nearly half a month, but now it has been shortened to 3 days.

At the end of the ceremony, the family invited the neighbors who had come to witness the moment when the son and daughter were recognized by the gods as adults to have a meal together. Here, the girls and boys who had just been recognized as adults were given gifts by relatives and friends. From then on, they officially became Bani Muslims.

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