Preserving customs and practices: Must "filter out the muddy and bring out the clear"

(Baonghean) - Nghe An is a province with many ethnic groups living together, creating a colorful cultural picture of customs and practices. In which, funeral and wedding customs of each ethnic group have their own characteristics, creating diversity and uniqueness for each region, especially in the West. However, there are still many bad customs, leading to sad consequences... Therefore, to preserve the identity of ethnic groups in weddings and funerals, we must know how to "separate the muddy and bring out the clear".

The Xang Khan festival of the Thai people in Nhon Mai commune, Tuong Duong district prays for a prosperous life and good health.

Traditional custom

Going to the highland commune of Tay Son, Ky Son district, we were lucky to attend a wedding of the Mong people. The bride Tho Y Pia, from Huoi Giang 1 village, was dressed up in traditional dress. She was proud to wear a colorful dress made of linen, dyed indigo black, decorated with patterns, pleated, and flared like a peacock's tail. Tho Y Pia was also adorned with jewelry such as: hairpins, earrings, silver bracelets, and even her hair bun... That was also the dowry her mother gave her daughter before she went to her husband's house.

The unique features of the Mong people's wedding rituals have been preserved almost intact. Over time, the Mong people's "wife-catching" custom has changed somewhat, but the symbolic rituals have remained. The bride Tho Y Pia and the groom Vu Pa Tua spent some time getting to know each other and both were "satisfied". The bride agreed to go to the groom's house and was made a spirit, and went through the "spirit possession" procedures. 3 days later, the groom's family and the matchmaker, who represented them, went to ask for a wife for the groom; bringing traditional gifts (rice, pigs, chickens, wine, etc.). For the Mong people, the matchmaker will be responsible for offering the ancestral food tray of the groom's family to the bride's family during the engagement as well as the wedding ceremony. The matchmaker is chosen from a prestigious person in the village; the person who organizes the wedding ceremony for the couple; with the meaning of being a bridge of happiness, bringing luck to the bride and groom. Village chief Vu Ba Denh said: “In the past, the Mong people’s wedding customs were still burdened with complicated rituals, and the matchmaker had to be the one in charge of these rituals. Now, boys and girls in the village are free to get to know each other, and only when they like each other can they discuss marriage, so the customs have also been shortened. The Mong people now no longer ask for a large silver dowry and do not hold lavish, expensive parties like before.”

Like the Mong ethnic group, the spiritual cultural beauty passed down from our ancestors in the weddings and funerals of the Thai ethnic group has matchmakers and shamans. Coming to Phong village, Thach Giam commune, Tuong Duong district, we followed shaman Sen Van Quan to be the matchmaker for the couple Moong Y Binh in Chan village. Shaman Quan is now 80 years old, and has been in the matchmaking profession for more than 40 years. Up to now, shaman Quan can no longer remember how many couples he has been a matchmaker for. Mr. Quan said: In the past, the principle of choosing a matchmaker or matchmaker was someone who was prestigious, knowledgeable about rituals, fluent in speaking, and most importantly, both husband and wife, and the children were gentle and successful in life. The Thai people call matchmakers "Anh lam" and "Me lam" as they play the role of biological parents, deciding important issues throughout the lives of the couple. Today, the wedding customs are still preserved, but there is a small change, that is, the matchmaker for the young couple is no longer required to be a shaman or an elderly person in the village. Now, families invite relatives with social status to officiate the wedding.

In Thai funerals, the tradition has been maintained from ancient times to the present, the shaman is the one who presides over the ceremonial activities of the family having the funeral. Currently, funerals in Thai villages have been carried out according to the new lifestyle, but many families still maintain the village's customs such as: performing the custom of "non tang, mop tang" (lying on the road); that is, when the father or mother dies, the sons lie in the middle of the road for the hearse to pass by with the meaning of carrying the sins of the world so that the descendants can live in peace; the daughter-in-law wears a black dress to mourn her father or mother-in-law...

"Filter the muddy, bring out the clear"

In the past, the Dan Lai people in Co Phat village, Mon Son commune, Con Cuong district suffered from hunger all year round, and backward customs and practices persisted; whenever someone got sick, they invited a shaman to perform a ritual. Many people who got sick died because of the belief that the illness was caused by a forest ghost. Ms. La Thi Ha, Co Phat village confided: “Last year, my husband had a severe stomachache, many people said it was a ghost that had come back to do evil, so the family went to find a shaman to exorcise him. The shaman came back and slaughtered pigs and chickens and performed a ritual for more than a day but still could not exorcise the ghost from his body. Luckily, the border guards took him to the clinic for examination, diagnosed him with poisoning, and he was given an injection, IV fluids, and medicine, so he recovered…”.

Going to Tri Le, a particularly difficult highland border commune of the remote Que Phong district, we could not help but feel sad when hearing the stories of students who were only 14 or 15 years old but had to become fathers and mothers... Luong Thi T. in Ta Pan village, a 9C student, studied for half a semester and then suddenly dropped out of school. Teachers traveled nearly half a day to the village to ask about her and found out that she dropped out of school to get married. The custom of "wife-catching" causes early marriage to still occur frequently in the highland Mong villages. Vice Principal of Tri Le Secondary School, Bui Thi Cuc, sadly said: "Every year, there are 4-5 cases of Mong students dropping out of school to get married, including some who are good students. Most parents agree to let their students drop out of school, because most of them still believe that women do not need to study at a higher level, they only do their duty of working in the fields and giving birth."

In addition, the work of preserving and promoting the cultural beauty in weddings and funerals in particular and the customs and practices of ethnic minorities in general still faces many difficulties: economic development and the integration process have partly eroded and faded the good traditional beliefs of ethnic minorities; propaganda work is still limited due to difficult transportation and low educational level... Therefore, some villages in remote areas still have backward customs. It is thought that in order to preserve the beauty in traditional customs, it is necessary to pay attention to the principle of "living preservation", that is, preserving intangible cultural forms right in community life.

Currently, when the campaign "All people build a cultural life" has spread to villages and hamlets, to the community activities of ethnic minorities, the bad customs in weddings and funerals are gradually being eliminated. However, in remote villages and hamlets such as Nhon Mai commune (Tuong Duong), the old customs of the Mong people are not easy to eliminate. Mr. Kha Van Luong, a cultural officer of Nhon Mai commune, worries: "The custom of the Mong people is that when a married man dies, if the wife of the deceased agrees, the brother can (voluntarily) marry his sister-in-law. Although the Law on Marriage and Family has been disseminated to every citizen; the custom has been deeply ingrained in the thinking and lifestyle of the people, although it has gradually decreased, but in the commune there are still cases of marrying a sister-in-law"...

The wedding and funeral customs of ethnic minorities in the highlands are contributing to enriching the cultural capital of ethnic groups in Vietnam in general, and in Nghe An in particular. Therefore, in order to preserve and promote the beauty of good customs and limit and eliminate some customs that are no longer suitable, the Provincial People's Committee has recently issued and implemented decisions, regulations and projects on a number of policies to support the preservation and development of the culture of ethnic minorities in Nghe An province. Among them, many projects have been directed by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to be implemented effectively, such as the Project "Preserving and Promoting National Cultural Identity in Association with Tourism Development in the 2011-2015 Period" of Tuong Duong District, the Project "Building a Cultural District for Mountainous and Ethnic Minorities" in Quy Hop District... In addition, the province and district have paid attention to investing in the planning and development of the system of grassroots cultural and sports institutions.

Mr. Lo Xuan Thu, Chairman of Tri Le Commune People's Committee, Que Phong District, said that in recent years, the life of Mong people has become more and more prosperous, and backward customs have gradually been eliminated thanks to the great contributions of village chiefs. Typically, in Huoi Moi 1 village, in recent years, thanks to Village Chief Ly Tong Sua taking the lead in implementing a new lifestyle, and mobilizing each household to organize weddings and funerals according to the new lifestyle to save costs, in Huoi Moi 1, Mong people no longer have early marriages, do not leave the dead in the house for many days... It can be seen that the role of the heads of villages and hamlets is extremely important. In addition, it is necessary to know how to promote the role of artisans, individuals and families who have made efforts to preserve the customs of their ethnic groups. Because artisans and families with a tradition of preserving the beauty of customs and practices of ethnic groups contribute significantly to shaping and promoting traditional values ​​in today's life.

Dinh Nguyet - Pham Ngan