Traditional folk games during Tet (Vietnamese New Year)

(Baonghean) - Every rural area, every village, every hamlet, every commune in general has its own traditional folk game. In some places, folk games are associated with the name of the village or hamlet, and with the unique character of the people in that region.

At nearly 70 years old, Mr. Phan Van Quang, who has been a referee for almost 20 years, cannot hide his passion when recounting the traditional wrestling festival of Van Dien commune, Nam Dan district: The wrestling festival of Van Dien village dates back to the time of King Mai Hac De and has been preserved by the people to this day. Every year, on the afternoon of the second day of Tet (Lunar New Year), thousands of people eagerly flock to Van Dien commune to watch the wrestlers compete. In the atmosphere of early spring, crowds of people stream along the roads to attend the festival. Red flags adorn the roads leading to the village, adding to the solemnity of this ancient traditional ceremony. The wrestling festival lasts from the second to the sixth day of Tet.

Locals believe that a year without a wrestling festival will bring bad luck and a poor harvest. Therefore, at exactly 2 PM on the second day of the Lunar New Year, when the drums officially begin the traditional spring wrestling festival, every household rushes to watch. The drums resound and cheers echo throughout the area. Thus, wrestling is an indispensable part of the New Year celebrations, contributing to the completeness of the spring festivities in Van Dien. In previous years, the Van Dien wrestling festival only lasted one or two days, but in recent years, due to popular demand and the large number of wrestlers participating, the festival has extended to five or six days. Encouragingly, the festival is attracting more and more young wrestlers, including teenagers.

Wrestling festival in Nam Dan.

The coastal town of Cua Lo has 7 wards and communes, but more than half of them regularly maintain folk games during Tet (Lunar New Year). As a fishing community, boat racing is a long-standing tradition in Nghi Hai. However, Nghi Hai has not been able to organize a traditional boat race annually, only holding it once every three years. In 2005, Nghi Hai organized the race on the second day of Tet, attracting 100 athletes from 11 different groups. It can be said that the atmosphere of preparation for the race lasted a whole month, filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and hope. The people of the coastal community believe that this is both a boat race festival and the first time of the year that the young men of the village go out to sea; whichever team wins will have a bountiful shrimp and fish harvest that year. Therefore, any family with a son or husband participating in the boat race cannot help but feel hopeful and anxious.

This Tet holiday in 2014, Nghi Hai will not be holding its traditional boat race. Instead, on the night of the 30th of Tet, at Lang Hieu Temple (dedicated to the local tutelary deity of Nghi Hai), the Lang Hieu Temple Relic Restoration Club will organize a lottery-style fortune-telling activity for fishermen. According to Mr. Tran Van Danh (73 years old, residing in Hai Tan ward), this activity has been promoted for several years and is very popular with the locals. Every New Year's Eve, the people of Nghi Hai traditionally go to the temple to light incense, pray for good fortune, and pick lucky charms. The club came up with the idea of ​​making colorful lottery slips, each containing couplets or poems wishing a prosperous and successful new year, so that people can pick slips of their choice when they come to pray for good luck.

In Nghi Tan ward, the atmosphere of preparation for Tet (Lunar New Year) has truly arrived for families with young roosters reaching the age to compete. As a locality with a tradition of cockfighting and human chess, every year, during the Lunar New Year, Tet, or the Van Loc Temple Festival, Nghi Tan enthusiastically prepares for these games that reflect the unique beauty of its rural area. Mr. Phung Ba Diem – Chairman of the Elderly Association of Nghi Tan ward – excitedly said: “The human chess game, passed down from our ancestors, was revived in Nghi Tan in the 1980s. Today, Nghi Tan's human chess team has become a formidable opponent for other wards and communes in Cua Lo town. And importantly, this game is very popular among the elderly.” Mr. Tran Nam Tien (88 years old), a resident of Block 6, Nghi Tan ward, proudly stated: “Nghi Tan has the most beautiful chess set in the town. I participate every year, and human chess has long become a very unique and beautiful game of this locality.”

Besides the human chess game, Nghi Tan also maintains the traditional cockfighting game. No one remembers exactly when the Nghi Tan cockfighting association started, but it is known that currently there are dozens of families in Nghi Tan specializing in raising fighting roosters to prepare their forces for the arena. This has been present for decades as a beautiful tradition and a passion of the people in this coastal region, who are accustomed to living by the sea and speaking with the wind.

To learn about raising a fighting rooster until it's ready for the arena, we visited Mr. Dao Trong Uy, 66 years old, in Block 6 – one of the well-known fighting rooster breeders in the area. Knowing we wanted to learn about the hobby of cockfighting, he was very enthusiastic, immediately bringing out his most prized fighting rooster to show off, as it had previously defeated opponents from Vinh City, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, and Nam Dan. Currently, he has over a dozen fighting roosters in his coop of various ages: 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year old. However, raising a truly skilled fighting rooster requires a great deal of effort. First is the selection of the breed (dogs breed from the father, chickens breed from the mother). Cockfighting enthusiasts must know the pedigree of the parent roosters.

With a keen eye and years of experience, people select chickens that meet certain criteria: bright yellow eyes, strong beaks and spurs, a body like a cormorant, and a head like a peacock. It's incredibly difficult to find a chicken that possesses all the necessary qualities: a peacock's head, a cormorant's body, shell-like wings, a long crop, short shanks, protruding spurs, and a tail fanned out like a phoenix. After selecting the ideal chicken, caring for it is also crucial. Speaking of chicken care, Mr. Uy chuckled and told us: "My wife might not get to take her own tonics, but I always have tonics for chickens like ginseng and honey readily available."

To prepare for the cockfight on the 28th and 29th of Tet this year, Mr. Uy's entire family spends all day gathered around the coop of their prized rooster. Sometimes they check if the electric heater is warm enough, sometimes they feed the rooster rice, and once a week they let it out for a walk and practice fighting with opponents. A week before the fight, Mr. Uy's rooster is nourished with meat, eels, fish, snakes, shrimp, ginseng, honey... and they don't forget to boil various aromatic herbs to use as a massage and foot soak for the rooster. Watching Mr. Uy enthusiastically recount his rooster's fights and occasionally caress it with affectionate eyes, we suddenly realized that people like Mr. Uy and Mr. Diem are the crucial bridge connecting future generations to preserve and develop traditional folk games so they don't fade away.

Another new year has arrived, and this Tet holiday we can not only watch card games and traditional Vietnamese card games in Le Mao (Vinh City); cockfighting and human chess in Nghi Tan (Cua Lo Town), but also travel to Dien Chau and Dien Bich to watch rice cooking competitions, participate in rope swinging and bridge crossing games in Dien Phu and Dien An... Down Highway 46 to Van Dien and Nam Anh (Nam Dan) to watch wrestling festivals... Localities all share the desire to create beneficial recreational activities for the people during Tet, while preserving the beauty of traditional culture amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

Thanh Thuy