According to tradition, Tet dancing is only held in the “house” space (a house with an ancestral altar) and is also considered a common Tet for the whole region, expressing respect, gratitude, and appreciation for the merits of ancestors. . However, if the head family cannot organize it, the whole family will meet to discuss and choose the most prestigious family to take care of this job.
Tet dancing is a cultural activity typical of the Dao Quan Chet people in Thai Nguyen. Clip: Ha Thanh
In each place, each Dao family has a different concept of how and when to celebrate Tet dancing. Previously, this ceremony was held periodically once a year. If any Dao family does it, the ceremony must be held for three consecutive years. In the same village, when one family holds a Tet dancing ceremony, other families are not allowed to do it. Any family that wants to organize a ceremony must wait three years.
This is a ritual organized by a family to worship their ancestors. All work is carried out at the family head’s house, where the family’s ancestral altar is located. The main purpose of this ritual is to pray to the ancestors to bless everyone in the family and lineage with good health, good weather, good harvests, and livestock and poultry to grow without disease. …
The main purpose of the Tet jumping ritual is to pray to the ancestors to bless everyone in the family and lineage with good health, good weather, and good harvests. Photo: Ha Thanh
According to legend, in the past, during the trip across the sea to find a way to survive of the 12 Dao families, when facing danger, near big waves and strong winds, the Dao people on that stormy boat trip prayed to Ban Vuong and their ancestors for blessings. to recover from the accident and promised to make a thanksgiving offering for salvation. Since then, the Dao people have organized a Tet dance to show gratitude to their ancestors and Ban Vuong for saving lives at sea, training soldiers to protect family life and clans, praying to ancestors. The fairy protects the family, the village is healthy, and business prospers.
This year, the Tet dance festival was organized lavishly by the Duong family, represented by Mr. Duong Trung Son’s family (Tan Lap residential group, Quan Chu town, Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen province) after about 30 years. have organizational conditions. This year’s Tet dancing ceremony is combined with the Lunar New Year, so there are many relatives and neighbors participating.
The Tet dancing ceremony is attended by many relatives and neighbors. Photo: Ha Thanh
Share with PV Vietnamese people, Mr. Duong Trung Son said, the Tet dancing festival has existed for many generations and is passed down from generation to generation. Previously, the Tet dancing festival was held continuously for 3 consecutive years, but today it has been improved and is only held continuously for 3 days and 3 nights.
According to Mr. Son, the Dao Quan Chet people in Tan Lap residential group, Quan Chu town are divided into 5 families including: Trieu family, Ban family, Dang family and Duong family, of which the Trieu family is the largest family. best. The Tet dance festival is performed by different families in turn at the end of the year, usually in December before the Lunar New Year.
To celebrate the Tet dancing festival, families in the Dao Quan Chet people will go to see the teacher and choose a good day. After that, everyone prepared food and decent food for a whole year before organizing the event.
Tet dance consists of two main parts: ceremony and festival, intertwined. Rituals include offerings to the Lunar New Year; Transitional worship (worshiping from the Lunar New Year to the Spring Festival).
To prepare for Tet dancing, families will set up an altar, display offerings, pray to invite Ban Vuong, gods, and ancestors to attend the ceremony, and organize for children and grandchildren to learn to dance and read books. They repaired and replaced the altar, making tube cakes and day cakes. The New Year’s promise ceremony is a pig’s head symbolizing a pig weighing about 10 – 15kg, 5 rice cakes or tube cakes. If there is no pig in a house, one duck or three chickens should be slaughtered and placed on the ancestral altar to pray for good fortune, fortune, and to take care of all tasks such as: Disasters, eliminating evil…
Everyone prepares offerings and offerings. Photo: Ha Thanh
The altar is placed in the right corner of the wall of the outer space (main door), in the middle of the altar there is a bowl of incense and 2 pictures stuck on the wall, symbolizing ancestors in each hierarchy, like their own lives. When burning incense to worship ancestors, bring out a wooden chair to place worship objects on it. According to Tet custom, they only offer meat and cakes.
Although this is a family holiday, it is considered a common Tet by all villagers in the area. During this festival, all descendants of the clan gather together with neighbors to participate in dancing with many traditional dances such as flag dance, turtle sacrifice dance, sword dance, bell dance…
The descendants of the clan gather to dance during the Tet dance ceremony. Photo: Ha Thanh
The Tet dance ritual includes many parts. During the opening ceremony, on the scheduled date and time, the shaman is invited to begin setting up the worship altar. After the purification ritual, the shaman performs the ceremony of opening and hanging the sacred paintings (flags), displaying the worship offerings, praying to celebrate Tet Nhay and respectfully inviting the gods, Ban Vuong, and ancestors. come to attend the ceremony. This ceremony is performed with invitational dances such as offering roads and bridging to welcome gods and ancestors back to celebrate Tet.
The opening ceremony is performed with the ceremony of opening and hanging sacred paintings (flags), and displaying worship offerings. Photo: Ha Thanh
The main part of the ceremony begins with the opening ceremony and ends with the recruiting ceremony. Throughout the main ceremony, there are dances and songs combined with the bustling sound of gongs and drums to worship and process wooden statues.
The opening ceremony is presided over by a shaman with the content of reporting the preparation work to the gods and asking to officially perform the ceremony. After that, the ceremony begins with successive dances. Each dance strictly follows tradition and is symbolic and symbolic of the action. The dance movements are performed accurately, continuously, skillfully and delicately, performed many times along with the performance of ancient songs telling about the origin of the Dao ethnic group, about the process of the Dao people overcoming the Dao people. sea, the process of making a living on a new land, getting married, and giving birth to children in each family. Hidden in the songs and dances make viewers feel like they are living in an illusory, spiritual world.
After the opening ceremony, the ceremony begins with successive dances and dances. Photo: Ha Thanh
At the farewell ceremony, everyone began making offerings to Ban Vuong, gods and ancestors. In front of the homeowner’s altar, the shaman offers thanks to end the Tet dance. The main content of the offering is to thank the gods, the land, and Ban Vuong for coming to receive and witness the sincerity of the homeowner during Tet dance. In addition to offering thanks, the offering also prays to the gods to forgive sins if the homeowner has any negligence during Tet, praying to the gods, Ban Vuong, and ancestors to bless the family, clan, and village. The new year will bring good health, peace, good harvests, and prosperous livestock farming.
At the end is a flag dance to send the ancestors’ souls back to their ancestral homeland. The priests cast spells to bring back their holy generals and evil soldiers back home. During the 3-day ceremony, the host family is always bustling with the sound of musical instruments, the singing of the performers and the voices of the participants; The homeowner slaughters pigs, wraps cakes, and prepares a feast for guests. They worshiped, drank wine, ate, danced and sang continuously for 3 days and 3 nights.
While the rituals of the ceremony are taking place, the host will prepare a feast to treat guests after each ritual ends. Photo: Ha Thanh
Mr. Dang Le Minh – Secretary of the Party Committee of Quan Chu town said that in recent years, the local government committee has been very interested in leadership, direction and orientation on promoting the value of cultural identity. nation. Especially in Quan Chu town, there is the Dao ethnic group with long-standing unique cultural features that continue to be preserved and promoted such as the festival and Tet dance. The locality also has many policies, especially propaganda and orientation for people to preserve and promote these cultural values, associated with local ecological and spiritual cultural tourism.
Tet dancing is an activity that synthesizes various types of folk art such as: Dancing art, musical art and verbal art, telling stories about ancestors’ merits to visual arts with various types of worship paintings and paintings. paper cutting, wooden sculpture.
The dancing festival of the Dao community in Thai Nguyen province has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.