Long Tong Festival in Northwest Vietnam

Long Tong festival - the colorful culture of Tay and Nung ethnic groups

Long Tong Festival is a very unique cultural and religious activity of the Tay and Nung ethnic cultures in local villages in Southwest Highlands. After a year of hard working, the festival is opened to bring the rested peaceful time that people have the opportunity to meet and praise each other. At the same time, there is also a chance to express the love between the girls and the boys through the emotional songs and lyrics. The festival is usually held after the Lunar New Year, from 4 to 25 January (lunar month), depending on each area’s custom, the holding date is different. But the time is usually 3 days.

Before the festival, the villagers make very good preparation, such as meetings of the executive committee of the prestigious elderly villagers; repairing, cleaning the house, decorating churches, building the altar (consists of three levels representing Thuong Nguyen, Trung Nguyen, Ha Nguyen), planting a “neu” tree, making chess board, chess pieces, zip coils, or making crossbows, arrows, etc.
 

About the sacrifices, Tay and Nung ethnic groups prepare very carefully, all of the participants and objects must be clean. Food must be delicious, essence, sophisticated and decorated beautifully. Some of the dishes must be prepared for the ceremony including sla cao, peng ngo, thoc thec, khau sli, Tay sticky rice cakes. The boiled chicken as offering must be carefully chosen. Also, the offering pig must be from 50 kilograms. Moreover, the offerings also include many other agriculture products.
 

Main parts of the festival

After placing the offerings food including pork, chicken, wine, water, sla cao, thoc thec, khau sli, etc. on the altar, the owner holds a ritual to ask the god to bless the villagers a bumper harvest, flourish plant. Obviously, the most important purpose of the owner is to ask for the permission of holding the festival. This is a very important ritual to show respect to the gods.

Placing the offerings on the altar, the owners of the ceremony also wants to report to their ancestors and Ngoc Hoang (Ruler of Heaven), asking them to allow the people in the village to open the festival.
 

After finishing the ritual of asking for permission, villagers bring the offering trays to the Thanh Hoang (tutelary god) and The Agriculture God. The owners report the god about the working results of the whole past year for example, the villagers do work hard, have a bumper crop and, everyone in the village are happy and healthy. They send thanks to the Thanh Hoang, the gods blessing the villagers live in affluence.

Games in the festival include Lion Dance, welcoming the god’s performance, doing the martial art, playing tug, and many more interesting activities. These games are extended from the beginning to the end of the festival. Besides playing games, singing is also one of the most favorite parts of the festival. The main content of the song is giao duyen (love songs) singing, dancing and welcoming spring singing. Especially it is the chance for the young couples to get to know each other to become spouses later.

The Tay festival or the festival of praying for rain of the farmer is a tradition which is the profession of the Tay, Nung. The festival is to welcome the new spring, celebrate the previous year for the bumper season. Furthermore, the festival is held for everyone with a high hope to wish every family in the hamlet good health, happiness, and peace in the coming year.
 

It can be said that Long Tong Festival which is one of the traditional festivals of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups in the Northwest Highlands, has become a place to preserve and promote the national cultural identity. This place is considered to be a living museum, passed from generation to generation. Through the rituals, forms of performance, traditional games, it is possible to see the development history of a village from ancient to modern. Since then, people educate the young generations about the love of hometown and country.

The Long Tong festival of Tay, Nung is a tourist attraction of Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Bac Can, Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Yen Bai provinces. These places are the favorite destinations for many people who want to travel to the Northwest land. If you make a tour in the north Vietnam during this season, you may take part in this festival and you will discover more about Vietnam authentic.