Happy Muong Tet

Celebrating Spring and Tet is a long-standing cultural beauty of the Vietnamese people. In each ethnic group, although the customs and rituals of celebrating Tet are different, they all share the same joy, wishing for a new year of warmth, peace, happiness and prosperity. The New Year of the Muong people (Tan Son district) is the same - a cultural beauty from thousands of years ago, expressing humanity and community identity. Not only is it an occasion to celebrate Spring, Tet for the Muong people is also a day of reunion of community culture; where solidarity is firmly and steadfastly bonded...

Can wine - a culinary culture of Tet holiday of Muong people, Tan Son district.

On the last night of December, the small village of Chieng (the name of an original Muong village, now in Zone 5, Kiet Son Commune) was still covered in thick fog. From the traditional stilt house, the deep and high sounds of the gong echoed throughout the mountains and forests. A few minutes later, the yard of the village's community cultural house was packed with people. Dressed in traditional costumes, the old, the young, the girls, and the boys of the Muong land walked step by step around the village. They played the traditional musical instruments of their people; sang in the Muong language, inviting the heavens and the earth to witness: The Muong village held a festival, welcoming Tet - opening Spring.

This is an important ritual in the New Year customs of the Muong people in Tan Son district. Only when the gong strikes three times, resounding throughout the village, does the Muong land officially enter the new year, and other rituals during the New Year begin to be performed.

The custom of carrying the rice spirit in the rice-planting festival of the Muong people in Thu Cuc commune, Tan Son district.

Like many other ethnic groups living in their homeland, the traditional Tet holiday is one of the biggest festivals of the year for the Muong Tan Son people. Therefore, long before Tet, the Muong people have planned to raise pigs and chickens, choose delicious sticky rice and green beans, save up for Tet to steam sticky rice, wrap cakes, make a couple of jars of rice wine to serve guests... following the traditional customs of "steamed rice, stilt houses, water on a shoulder pole, roasted pigs".

Mo Muong artisan Ha Van Quang (zone 5, Kiet Son commune) said: “For the Muong people, the ceremony to worship grandparents and ancestors is the most important ritual on Tet holiday. Therefore, the Muong people's altar on these days cannot lack a tray of five fruits, especially two sugarcanes placed on both sides of the altar (meaning for the ancestors to lean on their canes to return to their descendants, leading the ancestors' souls from heaven to the earth). The Muong people believe that how they eat is how they worship, so the offering tray will have all the dishes for Tet holiday such as: boiled chicken, traditional cakes (tube cakes, small cakes, croissants, love cakes), corn wine, sticky rice, boiled meat, grilled fish, betel and areca nuts, and fish sauce. The family worships those who offer the same number of cakes and meat to worship their ancestors, showing filial piety and remembrance of the deceased.

In the traditional cultural colors of the Muong people's Tet, in addition to the rituals of ancestor worship, gong beating to open the festival, the culture of New Year greetings, "entering the house" and inviting wine also has its own unique features. Respecting filial piety and gratitude, in Muong villages, the first place to welcome guests is usually the families of village elders and shamans. Having fun with the jar of rice wine, the host invites guests, each wish will be answered and expressed through the soulful and profound Vi and Rang songs. In some Muong villages in the district today, the custom of singing and playing spells on Tet is still preserved and passed down by the people here. Accordingly, a team of Muong people in the village (about 12 people, regardless of age, young, male or female) who know how to play gongs and sing will gather to form a spell troupe. After the night of "nine mortars in March" (the last night of December) to wake up the gongs, they will go to each house, beating the gongs to the rhythm and then singing. The Muong people believe that the loud, resounding, and rumbling sound of gongs combined with joyful, sincere congratulatory songs is a sign of a good, lucky new year.5

Tet is an opportunity for Muong people in Tan Son district to exchange culture and strengthen community solidarity.

“New Year’s Eve” (also known as New Year’s Eve) is the biggest festival of the year for the Muong people in Tan Son district. Tet starts on the 27th of December and ends on the 7th of January (lunar calendar). From the 27th to the 30th of December, the Muong people will perform tasks such as: cleaning graves, planting poles, cleaning houses, washing production tools... This is a way to clean away dirt to welcome the new year with the hope of having good luck and peace. The last day of Tet will end on the 7th of January (the first day of summer). On this day, the Muong people will organize a festival to go to the fields (rice spirit procession), praying for a new year of bountiful crops, peace and prosperity. After this day, Tet celebrations will officially end and the Muong people will start going to the fields to plow and plant the first rice crop of the year.

Tet in Muong villages is an occasion for villagers to gather, for men and women to meet, make friends, and exchange love; where community culture is promoted and spread. Therefore, during the main days of Tet, all Muong villages organize attractive cultural, sports, and entertainment activities, with unique national characteristics. From old to young, girls and boys, everyone chooses their best clothes to go to the festival and enjoy the Spring. The joyful, bustling atmosphere of Spring is present throughout the Muong villages.

As a mountainous district with the Muong ethnic group accounting for over 70% of the population, in recent years, in order to preserve and promote the good traditional values ​​in the traditional New Year customs of the Muong people, the People's Committee of Tan Son district has developed a plan and directed the district's Department of Culture and Information to guide communes in the area to organize a variety of cultural exchange activities to celebrate the Party and Spring, associated with preserving and promoting the beauty of the traditional New Year culture of ethnic minorities in the area in general and the Muong people in particular. Notable examples include: Organizing the festival of going to the fields (associated with the custom of carrying the rice spirit) in Thu Cuc commune, the festival of the Holy Temple in Thach Kiet commune; organizing cultural exchange activities, sports, entertainment with the Muong ethnic identity (such as Vi singing, Rang singing, Sinh Tien dancing, gong playing, Cham Duong; crossbow shooting, throwing con, swinging, etc.).

January - the sunshine brings the brilliant spring air to every stilt house. In the warm wine, the bustling gong sounds, the Muong people join in the joyful spring songs. Not just a simple festival, preserving and promoting the beauty of the traditional Tet is the way the Muong people here are continuing the soul and cultural identity of the nation.

Bich Ngoc

Source: https://baophutho.vn/vui-tet-muong-227194.htm