Unique new rice family in Thach Dong village

(Baonghean.vn) - Every year on the 11th day of the 9th lunar month, when the summer-autumn crop has just been harvested, the people of Thach Dong village (Quynh Thach commune, Quynh Luu) are busy preparing for the New Rice Festival.

The New Rice Festival is a cultural beauty that has been preserved for about 600 years, associated with the process of founding and establishing Thach Dong village. On this day, villagers are busy preparing trays of food to bring to their family to perform the ceremony, so the locals here call it the New Rice Festival.

Mrs. Van Thi Thuc, Thach Dong village prepares the offering tray. The offerings on the New Rice Day cannot lack sticky rice, chicken or pork.

At the end of the 15th century, during the Le-Mac war, four young men from the North, Nguyen Sy, Hoang Dinh, Ho Duc, and Nguyen Dang, realized that the war only brought pain and loss to the people. If they participated in the war, whether they won or lost, their sacrifices would be in vain. Therefore, they decided to move to Nghe An to make a living. Arriving in Nghe An, they chose to stop in Thach Dong, organizing and encouraging people to actively reclaim land and expand the cultivated area. Due to the prolonged war, they built families and lived permanently in Thach Dong.

At about 8am, people started carrying the trays of food to the family church to prepare for the ceremony.

However, it was not until the third generation, that is, until the grandchildren of the ancestors, that Thach Dong village was officially established. Mr. Hoang Dinh Thiem, Nguyen Dang Khoat, Ho Duc Nhuan and Nguyen Phuc Thang, representing the descendants of the four families, established Thach Dong village after Mr. Nguyen Phuc Thang of the Nguyen Sy family passed the Hieu exam during the reign of Le Hy Tong (Chinh Hoa reign), and was trusted by the people to be the village chief. Up to this point, Thach Dong village had 21 families living together in hamlets 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and hamlet 8.

The ceremony was solemnly held according to the rituals of each clan. In the photo is the ceremony at the Nguyen Sy clan in Thach Dong village.

The New Rice Ceremony was also born from that time, associated with the merit of founding the village and building prosperous villages of the descendants of the four families Nguyen Sy, Hoang Dinh, Ho Duc and Nguyen Dang. It has become a beautiful traditional cultural feature. Every year on the 11th day of the 9th lunar month, the descendants of 21 families in Thach Dong village joyfully organize the New Rice Ceremony to thank their ancestors for giving birth, raising and supporting their children to grow up and have a bountiful harvest. At the same time, the New Rice Ceremony is also an occasion for the children and grandchildren in the family and the village to unite, love and help each other in life.

Offering tray on New Rice Day

Offerings to ancestors on this day include sticky rice with chicken and sticky rice with meat. Each family member will prepare a tray of offerings to bring to their family to participate in the ceremony. The people of Thach Dong originally came from an agricultural production area, so they often took the sticky rice they had just harvested to offer to the gods and ancestors. On this day, even though their children work far away, they arrange to return to their hometown to participate in the village festival.

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