Tang Phan village opens rice wine festival

(Baonghean) -As the afternoon sun gradually disappears behind the mountains, Tang Phan village, Na Ngoi commune, Ky Son district reflects on Khe Nang stream, shimmering like a watercolor painting. Night falls. In the stilt houses, the electric lights shine brightly across the vast mountains and forests. Tonight, families in Tang Phan village are jubilantly holding a wine festival and celebrating the new rice festival. Since the afternoon, every family has prepared a ceremony to worship Giang and prepared the best jars of wine to drink with the officers and employees of Economic - Defense Group 4 to celebrate a year of favorable weather and a good harvest for the village.

Welcoming us at the beginning of the village, the village chief Tang Phan, Mr. Kha Hai Bien, insisted on inviting everyone into his house. At that time, the family was performing the ritual of offering new rice. In black clothes, with a white towel around his shoulders, next to a tray of sticky rice with the scent of new sticky rice, a boiled rooster and a plate of grilled fish placed in the corner of the living room under the ancestral altar, above the head of the bed, Mr. Kha Van Cuong, Mr. Kha Hai Bien's father, knelt down and prayed in all directions. The content of the prayer was to thank the mountain and river gods, thank heaven and earth for giving the family and village a bountiful harvest, pray for good crops, for animals not to destroy the rice and corn plants, for children not to get sick...

At this time, the fire in the middle of the floor was lit and the jar of wine was opened, the rod was inserted and the jar was filled with water. Mr. Kha Hai Bien took charge of the Cham to run the first week of wine. In the applause and cheers of everyone, Cham used a buffalo horn to drill a hole to scoop water from the barrel and let it slowly flow into the jar of wine until the prescribed amount was used up, then stopped. After the opening ceremony, everyone in the family and the officers and employees of the Economic - Defense Group 4 drank wine and danced Phon to the music playing from the pair of speakers placed next to the wall cabinet. A moment later, knowing that there were distinguished guests, many villagers gathered at Mr. Kha Hai Bien's house to enjoy the wine festival. In the flickering firelight and the smell of wine, everyone's face was radiant and rosy. After the group dance around the fire, it was time for the Lam Vong dance, each couple walked to the melodious music, exchanging affectionate glances.

Officers and soldiers of Economic - Military Group 4 and people of Tang Phan village
happy wine party

Having just absorbed the wine and wanting to witness the beauty of Tang Phan village at night, at the invitation of village chief Kha Hai Bien, along with Colonel Nguyen Xuan Dieu, I visited some families in the village. At every house, the rice was filled with granaries, packed into bags and piled up in piles. Some families were also celebrating the New Rice Festival and enjoying the wine festival. Visiting the house of village elder Luong Van Viet, after the wine ceremony to welcome guests, he told us about the wine drinking culture of the Thai ethnic group and said: "Up to now, 90 families in the village have solid stilt houses, nearly 100% of households have motorbikes and almost every house has a television. School-age children are all able to go to school, especially last October, our village was recognized as a cultural village."

On the way back to the unit, Colonel Nguyen Xuan Dieu said: “Carrying out tasks in the border area still has many difficulties. The Party Committee and the unit's commander determined that, first of all, we must help people eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and feel secure in doing business and living. Up to now, the ethnic people in the project area have known how to raise livestock and produce some crops and animals to supply the Tet market, many villages have grown two rice crops. Along with that, we have advised the local Party Committee and authorities and propagated and mobilized each household to develop and preserve the traditional beauty and cultural identity of their ethnic group, and build a new life in the residential area. Currently, there are 14 villages in the Ky Son Economic - Defense Zone that have achieved the title of cultural village and a number of customs and traditions have been preserved and promoted effectively by the ethnic groups.”

Despite many difficulties, these days the atmosphere of welcoming the New Year has reached every family in the Ky Son Economic - Defense Zone. A new spring of warmth and prosperity is coming to the ethnic people at the foot of Phuxailaileng with unique festivals imbued with Vietnamese traditions in a new way of life.

Phung Ngoc Thang (HT: 5NK - 129 Vinh)