In the early days of the Lunar New Year 2023, anyone who has the opportunity to visit Dong Ky (Bac Ninh) will experience the unique regulations “top projection, bottom projection” – this is a longstanding cultural custom that is still maintained in the land to “touch” this billionaire.
| Dong Ky “billionaire” village still retains many unique cultural features. |
The culture of “showing above, showing below”
This custom stipulates very clearly who can sit on the upper mat, who can sit on the lower mat, who cannot sit, who sits on the left, who sits on the right. Criteria for “placement” is the role in the family, age, male – female … This culture is not only maintained at family meals and clans every holiday, Tet but also is most clearly expressed in temples, pagodas, communal houses.
Every year on the 4th of January, Dong Ky villagers jubilantly opened the firecracker procession. This is also the time to open the doors of pagodas, temples, and communal houses to welcome the senior elders in the village to gather, drink betel nut water with the local people, burn incense, perform Holy Mass to pray for a prosperous new year and good things. The best will come. Here, the elderly when leaving the communal house must sit in the order of “upper mat, lower mat”, clear left and right, etc.
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| The “Billionaire Village” in Kinh Bac has been looking for a wife for their children since the age of 8. |
Nguyen Khanh Tu (an elderly man in Dong Ky) said: “Although the economy is very developed and people’s lives are well off, it is not because of that that the traditional customs of the village are lost. one”.
According to Mr. Tu, the former Kinh Bac, Bac Ninh, today is one of the cultural cradles of the Vietnamese and Dong Ky is one of the localities that still maintain many of the most traditional cultural features.
“It is also thanks to the customs and cultural life from the past that generations here have achieved success. Today, despite the development of the economy and the integration of technology, the young people here still retain those cultural traits. From the past until now, in the village, anyone who goes to learn letters should go, if not, learn woodcarving, there are almost no evils …”, Mr. Tu shared.
According to the elderly, the custom of the village is very clear when leaving the family, who can sit on which mat and who cannot sit on it.
“Many historians who come here are very surprised and like the “magic” of the village. The older people sit on the upper mats, the lower ones sit on the lower mats. The 100-year-old man will sit with the 100-year-old grandmother. There was only one 100-year-old man who sat on the mat alone.
Next is the elderly who are a bit younger like 99, 98 years old. In addition to the main festival days of the village taking place from January 4-6, the communal house door is also opened twice to meet the elders and committees in the village to summarize the work done during a year on the 12th. November 11 (lunar calendar) and discuss upcoming things to do or make a wish on January 10 (lunar calendar).
Two days of village meetings, the old men will sit on the right hand, the old woman on the left hand, “Mr. Nguyen Khanh Tu added.
Mr. Duong Van Hoa – Head of the Dong Ky ward’s relic committee said that, like many other ancient communal houses, Dong Ky communal house still retains its architecture from the Le Dynasty (17th century). The communal house floor is made of wooden floor about 1m higher than the communal house yard to avoid flooding in the rainy season. This wooden floor is also very nicely designed, the wooden floor close to the outside of the door is made about 10cm higher inside to make room for mats for seniors or “upper mats” to sit when there is a village job. .
“Our buffalo eat our grass”
Although the life of the people of Dong Ky is much better than before, like other villages across the country, a village “Go out to meet the billionaireThe village has changes in appearance, the village roads are poured with concrete, the houses are built much bigger and more beautiful than before, some customs that are no longer considered good things are still preserved by the people. Notably getting married and getting old.
The strange thing is that it is rare to see boys and girls in Dong Ky village getting married and getting married. Perhaps the influence of the old custom is still there. According to the custom in Dong Ky in the past, when a son was 8 years old, his parents paid attention to find out if there was a healthy, agile girl in the village who wished to have a child. calculate a hundred years for his son.
The wedding ceremony in Dong Ky is also quite special, before the wedding day, the groom’s family offers enough gifts to the bride’s family to invite relatives and neighbors. The wedding favors are usually 2.5 quintals of pork, 20 pots of plain rice, 5 pots of glutinous rice, betel nut and tea leaves, which are enough for the bride’s family.
In addition, there is a little cash depending on the specific circumstances of the groom’s family. On the day of welcoming the bride, the groom’s family prepares a betel nut casket, which must be half of the betel nut in the casket.
The number of areca in the betel nut casket to welcome the bride is never even, but must be odd, the number is specified as 21 or 23 pieces. This number of betel and areca will be divided among each person, and the bride’s family has delicately counted the number of people present at the wedding so that every tray has a plate of 4 pieces to each plate.
Up to now, the Trau Trap law is still maintained by the villagers in the wedding, this ceremony is considered a highly cultural custom showing the inherent solemn tradition of the Kinh Bac people.
In addition to the customs and habits that have their own characteristics in this village, the Dong Ky firecracker festival is also very special. The meaning of this festival is to commemorate General Thien Cuong’s battle against the enemy.
Although for many years at the Dong Ky firecracker village festival, there is no longer the sound of firecrackers, but the people here still preserve and promote the good traditional values left by their fathers.
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| Mr. Nguyen Tien Quyet – Vice Chairman of Dong Ky Ward People’s Committee. |
Share with reporters about this unique local culture, Mr. Nguyen Tien Quyet – Vice Chairman of Dong Ky Ward People’s Committee (in charge of culture) assessed: “The cultural beauties of the village, family and clan in Dong Ky have existed for a long time and have been maintained and continued. from generation to generation.
Despite the development of society and the introduction of Western culture, in Dong Ky, traditional cultures have not disappeared, typically the upper and lower projection cultures.
“As a manager, we always actively propagate and promote the young generation to keep the unique culture and good local identity.