Bustling Children's Day of the Ha Nhi people

In the highlands where clouds and mist cover the whole year, the Black Ha Nhi people welcome the new spring with many traditional festivals of profound humanistic significance. After the forest worship ceremony to thank the forest god for providing a safe living space, a peaceful life, and good crops, the Black Ha Nhi people will celebrate Children's Day to pray for the children in the village to be healthy, well-behaved, and achieve good results in their studies.

Although photographer Thanh The Vinh lives and works in Hanoi, he spends a lot of time researching and doing fieldwork in the northern mountainous provinces. The Ha Nhi Children's Festival is one of the festivals that bears the cultural mark and joyful spirit of the people in Kin Chu Phin village, Nam Pung commune, Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province, which the photographer wants to share information and introduce a photo collection to readers of Heritage Magazine.

The forest worship ceremony (Ga Ma Do) and Children's Day (Ga Ma O) are the two most important community cultural activities of the Black Ha Nhi people when spring comes. If the forest worship ceremony is held on the first three days of the Dragon, Snake, and Horse in January, the Children's Day is held right after the Horse day when the final procedures of the forest worship ceremony are finished.

There are two parts of the ceremony and festival on Children's Day. The ceremony will only be attended by married men. The shaman and representatives of families, usually those with good news such as a new couple getting married or a new baby, will perform the ceremony to ask the gods and ancestors for health, wisdom, and peace.

The offerings to the gods and ancestors are carefully prepared, including mountain and forest products or traditional delicacies prepared by the locals from pork, chicken, stream fish, peanuts, beans, pumpkin, potatoes and wild vegetables, eggs... and of course, cups of wine are indispensable. In particular, each offering tray has a branch of flowers such as peach blossoms or wild flowers in full bloom.

Heritage Magazine