Wine drinking customs of Thai people in Con Cuong
For the Thai people, during festivals, New Year, housewarming, weddings, welcoming guests, drinking rice wine is an indispensable cultural activity. Mixed in the wine is human love, love between couples, love for the homeland. For a long time, the processing and use of rice wine has become a traditional beauty, imbued with the cultural nature and customs of the Thai people in the mountainous district of Con Cuong in particular and the Thai ethnic group in Nghe An province in general.
Located on the left bank of Lam River, more than 10 km from Con Cuong town center is Mau Duc commune - a locality with a famous tradition of making rice wine in the district. In recent years, with the attention of all levels and sectors, the rice wine making profession has been promoted. Up to now, the whole commune has built 8 rice wine making branches with hundreds of female members participating. In recent years, rice wine has been favored by customers and has become a commodity. Thanks to making rice wine, the lives of people here have changed a lot.
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Photo: Tran Ngoc Lan |
To have a good jar of wine, the maker must go through many steps. The wine yeast is made from leaves available in the forest (called leaf yeast). These leaves are pounded until smooth with broken rice or tapioca starch, then shaped into a symbol of a boy or a girl, incubated with straw, arranged in even layers. After being incubated for 15 to 20 days, the smell of yeast rises, the yeast cakes are dried on the kitchen shelf. When needed, they are crushed and sprinkled into the wine, each batch of wine requires 7 to 9 cakes. The wine is made from rice husks that are washed thoroughly, mixed with sticky rice or unripe cassava, then incubated with banana leaves or forest leaves to ferment the wine, then put into jars, covered with banana leaves, boc boc leaves, or pieces of plastic.
After being incubated in the jar for 25-30 days, the wine can be drunk. The longer it is kept, the thicker and sweeter the wine becomes. People also make wine from other grains such as corn, cassava, and arrowroot, but using rice makes the wine of better quality, especially purple sticky rice which is very nutritious and delicious.
When drinking wine, there must be an arrangement according to rank. Usually, only the elderly and distinguished guests are allowed to sit at the top. The entrance is reserved for women and young people. Both sides sit in a circle around the wine jar but always create a boundary, not mixed. Only the person who is given the wine jar can drink it, guests cannot drink it without the invitation of the indigo maker. The indigo maker must invite everyone to drink wine solemnly, tactfully with the most affectionate and respectful invitations.
When having fun drinking wine, people get closer together, dispel all sadness, and even forgive each other for things that are not satisfactory or pleasing. Wine is an indispensable pleasure because it has entered the community life, becoming a valuable cultural identity. It is also a bridge for cultural exchange between ethnic groups. Besides, wine also helps increase income and improve the lives of ethnic minorities here.
Bao Ngoc - Ba Hau
