Qingming Festival in March

Since ancient times, Thanh Minh Festival (held on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month every year) has become an important and sacred holiday for Vietnamese people. For the Tay and Nung people in the Northern mountainous region in general and Bac Kan province in particular, Thanh Minh Festival is one of the biggest holidays after Tet Nguyen Dan. This is not only an occasion to remember ancestors but also a time for descendants to gather and strengthen family ties.

Five-color sticky rice is prepared by Tay and Nung ethnic groups to offer during Thanh Minh Festival.

In Ban Hon village, Banh Trach commune, Ba Be district, Bac Kan province, preparations for the tomb-sweeping day usually take place from the 2nd day of the third lunar month. Many families have slaughtered pigs and prepared food to make offerings to their ancestors and the dead.

Early in the morning of Thanh Minh Festival (March 3), families prepare offerings to their ancestors and tools to clean graves. Offerings include boiled chicken, pork, fish, five-color sticky rice, wine, cakes, etc. Each family and clan cleans their graves, lights incense, burns votive paper, and places fresh flowers on the graves.

Offerings at the graves of grandparents and ancestors

In addition to visiting graves, the offering ceremony at Son Lam - the place where the graves are located - is also very important. Everyone wears formal clothes, the elderly wear traditional costumes of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups to pray at the graves of their ancestors, praying for health and peace for their descendants. Young people clean, repair and rebuild graves as a way to express filial piety. Children are also taken by their parents to visit graves to understand their ancestors and practice respecting them. Many people who work far away also take the opportunity to return to their hometowns on this day to visit graves and reunite with their families.

After completing the tomb-sweeping ritual, everyone gathers around the Tet meal. In addition to wine and meat, people also prepare many traditional cakes. The most typical dish of the Thanh Minh Festival is "khau dam deng" - a colorful sticky rice dish dyed from forest leaves, which is both beautiful and safe. In addition, there are also ant egg cakes, mugwort cakes, gai leaf cakes, cakes filled with wild banana flowers... These are dishes that bear the culinary mark of the Tay and Nung people here.

Descendants offer offerings at the graves of their grandparents and ancestors during the Qingming Festival.

Thanh Minh Festival not only has spiritual significance but also demonstrates the nation's morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking water". This is an opportunity for descendants to show gratitude to their ancestors, foster family affection and maintain good traditions through many generations. These values ​​contribute to creating the unique cultural identity of the Tay, Nung and other ethnic communities in Vietnam.

Duc Hong (Ethnic and Development Newspaper)

Source: https://baophutho.vn/thanh-minh-trong-tiet-thang-ba-230633.htm