Thai ethnic gong festival in Muong Choong

(Baonghean) –Recently, in Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop district, Nghe An), the Thai ethnic gong festival took place in Muong Choong. This is the first gong cultural competition organized by the Party Committee and People's Committee of Chau Ly commune, with the direction of the Youth Union and the Commune Cultural Committee..

The competition consists of 7 teams with more than 50 participants. Each team consists of 4 people, including 2 men, 2 women, one drummer, one trumpeter, and 2 gong players. The teams must go through the following mandatory contest tunes: Ti coong bo tune, which means playing gongs 1, 3, 2 to 4; playing gongs 4, 2, 3 to 1 and playing them twice in reverse; The second tune is Ti coong ha, which means playing gongs 4, 3, 4 and 2, this tune has a drummer and a trumpeter who must follow the rhythm of the gong player.

Performing gong melodies in the competition.

In addition, the teams can perform self-composed melodies. Each team has 7-10 minutes to perform. The gong teams performed smoothly, ensuring the correct rhythm of the melodies, coordinating smoothly between the drummers, trumpeters and the gong beaters. In particular, the Ban Con and Ban Choong teams had self-composed melodies with rich content such as: "Celebrating the rice harvest", "Celebrating the pole", "Celebrating the New Year" and accompanied by dances... Through the sound of gongs, the thoughts and feelings of the Thai ethnic people here are expressed.

Mr. Lang Van Khuyet, 72 years old, in Tham village, Chau Ly commune, excitedly told us: Seeing the commune organize the competition, he was very happy, very glad, because the competition had gong melodies restored, especially for the children and grandchildren, the young generation, the gong culture of our Thai people is not forgotten but is increasingly passed down to the children and grandchildren.

Award ceremony.

In customs and practices, gongs play an extremely important role in rituals, having significance in the spiritual life of gods, in weddings, funerals, grave abandonment ceremonies, fines, ghost ceremonies, New Year's thunder ceremonies, new rice ceremonies, ceremonies to the earth god, mountain god, river god, sky god, health wishes ceremonies... The competition has brought many practical meanings to promote gong culture in particular and the traditional cultural identity of the Thai people in general.

At the end of the competition, the organizing committee awarded first prize to Ban Xiet team, second prize to Ban Con team, and third prize to Ban Choong team.

Huy Nham