Cultural features of the Khmu community. Lesson 4: After sowing rice, worship the village

(Baonghean) - If the "buffalo eating" ceremony is to repay the parents, the village worship ceremony is almost the only occasion for each family in the village to pray to the village gods and spirits to bless their business to be favorable. This is also the only day of the year that the sacred temple in the forest next to the village gathers people to worship.

For a long time, I thought that the Khmu people had few holidays and festivals. Apart from the Lunar New Year, the day of celebrating new rice, house building and weddings, there were not many happy occasions. This turned out to be wrong because this community, which is the most innocent of all ethnic minorities in the Western region of Nghe An, has quite a lot of holidays and festivals. There are about 7 or 8 kinds of holidays and festivals, which is not a small number. For them, occasions such as weddings, housewarmings or the "gơ rô" New Year celebrations are also happy occasions and festivals for the whole community. That is not to mention the village worship ceremony.

Temple of Cha Ca 1 people - Bao Thang, Ky Son.

The cutting board and cooking utensils were left at the temple.

The sacred temple worships gods and demons

Let's continue the series by returning to Mr. Xeo Pho Manh in Cha Ca 1 village (Bao Thang - Ky Son), a character who is most knowledgeable about customs in the Khmu community that we have had the opportunity to meet. After the story about the "buffalo eating" ceremony that we had the opportunity to introduce in the previous article of this topic, Mr. Manh continued to tell about another holiday of the Khmu people, the village worship ceremony. It is called a worship ceremony but in fact it is a festival because after the worshiping of the gods is the festival with activities such as drinking rice wine and singing Tom, which are very typical of the Khmu people. People worship the village to ask the gods to protect a peaceful and prosperous life for the village.

Seeing us eager for the new story, and taking advantage of the hot weather to not be able to go to the fields to sow rice, Mr. Xeo Pho Manh took another sip of forest water to adjust his voice. We looked up expectantly but not in a hurry, the shaman waved his hand in front of his face as if calling some sacred being to return. At this moment, the old man's bony face seemed to be covered in a veil of mist.

Xeo Pho Manh continued the story: “Every year, our village holds a temple worship ceremony. The temple is a house like a stilt house, but it is very sacred.” My companion stared at Mr. Manh with a strange look. I understood that he was imagining a temple on the mountain worshiping a mountain god or an official who had contributed to guarding a certain border area. Or even a temple in the middle of an old forest like in a Chinese swordplay movie… However, Xeo Pho Manh brought him back to reality. The village temple only worships the sky and the forest ghosts and village ghosts. The temple was built temporarily and often had to be repaired after a few years of exposure to wind and rain. The Khmu people in Cha Ca 1 village call their village temple “sơn luong” as the Thai people call it, meaning a large temple. The thatched temple was built next to an ancient tree like the Thai people in My Ly (Ky Son) often build village temples.

Cast the card to call the gods

“On the day of the temple worship ceremony, everyone in the village goes to eat,” Mr. Manh continued the story. People chose the day of the temple worship ceremony on July 15th according to the Lao calendar. At that time, the rice had already been planted in the fields, waiting for the day to weed. The villagers took advantage of this free time to organize the festival. Before that, a pig was chosen to worship the gods and heaven. It didn’t matter if it was big or small, as long as it was enough to prepare a feast for the whole village to eat. The money to buy the pig was contributed by the whole village. Early in the morning of the ceremony, each family in the village brought their own offering tray to worship the gods. Each family offered a chicken and two bowls of sticky rice.

The forest where the temple is located is quiet all year round. If there is nothing to do, few people come here. People here do not have the custom of burning incense at the temple every month or bringing incense to the temple when they need to pray like people in the lowlands. Therefore, when there is a ceremony, the area around the temple becomes bustling with people coming to worship.

“The ceremony usually starts around 7am and ends at 11am or 12am” - shaman Xeo Pho Manh continued the story. Before reading the prayer, the shaman held two small bamboo strips. One side was green, which was face down, the other side was white, which was face up. The shaman prayed: “If all the gods have arrived, please give one face up and one tail up.” After three tosses, if the results were one face down and one tail up, it meant that all the ghosts and gods had arrived. If the results did not match, the process had to be repeated until the bamboo sticks “informed” that all the ghosts and gods had arrived.

When all the guests had arrived, the worshiping ceremony, which was also the rice offering ceremony, began. The shaman read the worshiping prayer in a melodious voice like a song, telling about the things the villagers had done during the past farming season. In the village, some families had raised many buffaloes, worked on many fields, their hunger was gone, and poverty was also reduced. People who had been sick for a long time had also recovered. In the village, some people had gone to study far away, joined the army, or worked as cadres.

The prayer also reminds us that: However, the villagers still have families that have had crop failures because wild birds and rats destroy the rice. The buffalo they are raising suddenly goes astray, some people are sick and have not yet recovered. Some people, despite working hard, are still poor. The prayer asks ghosts and gods to come and eat meat and sticky rice, then bless those who have made a living so that they will have a smooth business all year. If the family has a crop failure, the rice will grow well again, and those who have recovered from illness will be healthier. Those who are sick will be shown the way to find a cure.

Taboo days

After the communal prayer, it was each family’s turn to set up their offering trays. Each person came and placed their trays on the pre-made stands next to the temple and recited prayers to express their wishes and those of their families for the upcoming farming season. This was almost the only occasion for people to worship and pray. They did not pray for wealth or promotion. They asked the mountain god, the forest god, the village spirit, and the Then, the most sacred beings in heaven, to bless them with rain and sunshine all year round, so that the rice plants would grow into plants, flower, and bear grain. The buffaloes, cows, pigs, and chickens would not be affected by diseases…

In the past, feasting and drinking often took place right next to the temple after the ceremony. People shared pork and chicken brought by the villagers to share the feast. Now, the space around the temple is narrow, so villagers often choose the house of the Party cell secretary or the village chief to gather and eat after the ceremony. At this time, rice wine is opened, and Tom Co songs are sung spontaneously.

The temple worshiping ceremony is also a taboo day. People usually stay at home and do not go far away. However, nowadays, in the communities, there are people who work or study far away and cannot return home on the day of the temple worshiping ceremony, so the temple worshiping ceremony today is not as bustling as before. However, this is still an indispensable ceremony for the Khmu people in Cha Ca 1 village.

Huu Vi - Dao Tho