The era of the Hung Kings who built the country and the history of the Vietnamese nation in general and the people of the Ancestral Land in particular have left posterity with an extremely valuable cultural heritage treasure. Along with the tangible cultural heritages are the monuments of Temples, Temples, Communal Houses, etc., which reflect the folk beliefs about the period of Hung Vuong’s founding of the country, there are also intangible cultural heritages preserved in the form of: The festivals, customs and habits in the villages have reflected quite vividly the extremely arduous and hard working life of farmers and reflected the diverse and rich spiritual life of Lac residents. – Vietnam with wet rice farming since Hung Vuong period, forming a unique folklore picture imbued with cultural identity of Dat To region. One of the typical folk festivals of that belief in wet rice cultivation is the buffalo fighting festival in Phu Ninh commune, Phu Ninh district, which was formed in the history of building and defending the country and handed down over time. Nowadays.
This is a typical folk festival activity of the midland rice growing village that has been deeply imprinted in the traditional cultural consciousness of generations of people here, hard to fade.
Phu Ninh commune is located along the National Highway No. 2 with typical midland terrain with hills and mounds as close as upside down bowls interspersed with single-crop and double-crop wet rice fields.
Phu Ninh commune has 4 villages: Cao village, Phu Man village, Ngoc Tru village and Ngoc Khoi village. Previously, in the commune, there was 1 temple named Lan temple and 3 village communal houses worshiping 4 gods related to Hung Vuong’s beliefs, which are:
– Suddenly Cao Son Minh Quang Duc is the Great King;
– The capital city of the imperial city, the emperor, the king of the mountain, the king of the king;
– Under Heaven’s capital, the imperial city, the mighty and mighty king, the imperial capital;
– The earth mandarin oppresses the king.
On the 2nd day, the villagers celebrate at the Temple of Lan, on the 4th day of the New Year, the villagers make sacrifices at Phu Man communal house, on the 5th day of the Lunar New Year, the festival opens in Ngoc Tru communal house, on the 6th day, the festival opens in the village communal house. Ngoc Khoi. Right from the 3rd day of Tet, the village festival is held with a very dignified ritual to worship the Hung King on the bridge with many five-color flags. When there was wind, the flag was flying, the villagers considered it a harbinger of King Hung’s return and began to hold a ceremony with the ritual of slaughtering a black pig. After the pig is slaughtered, the pig’s blood is covered with the pig’s body and the entrails are placed on the pig’s back. On the 4th day of the Lunar New Year, Phu Man village organizes a festival with a ritual of praying for nails (for the sake of fertility and generation) with the offering of banh day and organizing folk games such as tug of war and robbery for good luck in the new year. new. Before entering the tug of war, according to the custom of honoring the elderly (respecting the elderly), the villagers arrange for some elderly people to pull the tug of war first with the meaning of asking permission from the gods, the tutelary emperor for permission to open the festival, then it is their turn. tug-of-war youth. In addition, the celebrant, after conducting the ceremony, holds some coins and throws them out for everyone to rob, whoever gets it will be lucky in the year.
On the 5th day of the Lunar New Year, it is Ngoc Tru village’s turn to open the festival. The ritual ceremony was solemnly held at the communal house, followed by a festival with the exchange of Xoan singing between Kim Duc village and Ngoc Tru village. The “boys and girls” have the opportunity to compete through Xoan singing, this is also an opportunity for them to learn to get to know and express their love for the couple if they feel that “the mind is in harmony”.
On the 6th day of the Lunar New Year, Ngoc Khoi village held a festival at the communal house with the ritual ceremony conducted by the elderly in the village. At the end of the sacrifice, there was an opening ceremony with a wrestling game for prizes. Healthy young men competed in the wrestling ring at the communal house yard. The winner is the strongest wrestler who defeats all the opponents and receives the village prize.
On January 12, the village held a party at Mieu Lan in Cao village. The armor appoints people to “make Mo” to take care of buying gifts. The offering is a board of sticky rice, the chicken pecks right in front of the temple, but it is not boiled but left to live. The heart is grilled with young palanquins to the roots. In addition to the offering of chicken sticky rice, there is also an offering of slaughtered pigs, leaving the whole animal for sacrifice. This custom of buying gifts comes from the legend of King Hung hunting in the area of Phu Ninh commune in the ancient Van Lang set. In addition, in Cao village, there is a custom of having a market meeting twice a year on the 2nd day of the first month and the 10th day of the 10th lunar month at a place called Ham Rong or Nom market also known as Nhan market. Buffalo fighting festival is held on the occasion of the Nhon market meeting on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.
Prepare the fighting buffalo:
All 4 villages have to buy each village a buffalo (male buffalo), buffalo must have pure black fur without any white hair. The horns must be close together, spread wide with a buckle, the front and rear groins must be wide. When you have selected a qualified fighting buffalo, if you want to buy a buffalo, you must ask for yin and yang, if the saint responds to buy it, if the saint does not respond, you must choose another one. Once the buffalo is bought, the armor must send someone to “move” to raise the buffalo. Buffalo stables must be renewed and prepared clean and sealed around to prevent the buffalo from contacting other buffaloes, so that when fighting each other, the buffalo will be aggressive. People who “make mo” must be carefully selected with specific criteria as follows: Husband and wife must be perfect, have sons and daughters. The family has no funeral, live in harmony and kindness with the villagers. People who “make moths” when receiving buffalo to raise must “blank and open the flag” to bring the buffalo back to raise and wait until the market day for them to fight and slaughter to sacrifice to God.
Organizing buffalo fighting:
The villagers choose a large field in the Ham Rong market area (Nanh market), then take the bamboo around to be sure in case the losing buffalo will run out and endanger the spectators. Around the yard are flags, buttresses, parasols and gongs to cheer. On the afternoon of May 4, the ceremony was held at the communal house. On the morning of May 5, the fighting buffaloes were washed by the villagers and then led to the fighting ground at Nhan market to the sound of gongs and drums. One child in each village, 4 villages with 4 children divided into 2 pairs. In order to stimulate the buffalo to fight, the buffalo farmers often let the buffalo drink half a liter of wine and pour the wine on the buffalo’s body so that the buffalo can fight fiercely and rush into the fight.
Although there are 4 fighting buffaloes, there will be 2 winners and 2 losers. On May 5, only two losing buffaloes were slaughtered, and the two losers left a party on October 10 to fight the “final” match and then dissected both of them as sacrifices to God.
When slaughtering buffaloes to make sacrifices to God, people prepare things to store buffalo meat, which are baskets braided with rattan ropes lined with 7 leaves and banana leaves and arranged in 9 floors called “nine worms, seven leaves” display. without putting them in bowls or plates. The interior set to live to finish the ceremony to bring to boil. After the meat is presented, it is placed on a square and flat mound right in the middle of the market to make offerings to the gods, on this ground there is an incense burner. After the ceremony, everyone ate and drank at the market.
Buffalo fighting festival in Phu Ninh commune was formed from the legend of King Hung hunting: “It is said that when the generals of the Hung King went hunting, they passed Ham Rong market. Coming here, seeing two tigers fighting, the hunters immediately stabbed both of them with spears and then slaughtered them and ate them on the spot. Every year, on the day of the feast, the village rules for buffalo fighting and the above-mentioned eating and drinking rituals are presented to commemorate the hunters in the Hung kings’ time. They chose two buffaloes to fight each other to simulate the legend of two tigers fighting…”.
The places related to the buffalo fighting festival so far have changed their names as follows: Lang Cao is now Tho Quang village; Phu Man village is now Phu Doan village; Ngoc Tru village is now Ngoc Thang village and Khuan village is now Ngoc Khoi village.
Buffalo fighting festival in Phu Ninh commune, Phu Ninh district is derived from a legend dating back to the time of the Hung kings who built the country, which is legendary and folklore to become a festival with bold characteristics of folk beliefs. local rice farming. It was formed from the primitive sacrificial belief, then agriculturalized to become a festival of rice farmers with the image of the buffalo, a very important traction tool in farming. plowing work of farmers. That is also the basis for forming the concept of the role “The buffalo is the head of the farmer’s business”. The festival is organized with two main contents: the Ceremony and the Festival. The part of the ceremony (take place before the buffalo fighting festival) includes the sacrifice rituals, the ceremony of worshiping the God and the Citadel right from the time of asking permission to buy buffalo. Before opening the buffalo fighting festival, the village has to hold sacrifices with typical offerings of agricultural products such as day cakes and after the buffalo fighting festival ends, the losing buffalo is also slaughtered to sacrifice to the God. Thus, the ceremony is held twice at the time before the buffalo fighting festival and after the buffalo fighting festival ends.
The festival is held after conducting religious rituals with traditional folk performances such as Xoan singing (so besides Kim Duc commune, Phu Ninh commune is also home to Xoan singing) and folk games. Other activities such as tug of war, wrestling, buffalo fighting and the sale and purchase of products, gain fortune at the market (eating buffalo meat, drinking alcohol is a form similar to today’s fair).
The time of the festival is held at the time of harvest season (5/5 lunar calendar) and harvest time (10/10 lunar calendar). That is, it is very suitable for a growth cycle of rice and a production process of wet rice farming. After the crops are harvested, the work is less busy, the festival is held to welcome the successful, bountiful harvest, and a full life after hard work. Thus, the buffalo fighting festival has great spiritual significance in the cultural life of farmers in the midland countryside. It is an occasion to show gratitude to heaven and earth for favorable rain and wind through killing buffaloes to sacrifice to God and heaven and earth. At the same time, it is also an opportunity to organize meals and fun shows, creating stronger community cohesion. It can be said that the buffalo fighting festival in Phu Ninh commune is a festival imbued with the cultural identity of agricultural residents growing wet rice in the Land of Hung Vuong.
Dang Dinh Thuan – Going to the region of the Festival of Vietnamese Ethnic Origins (Volume 2)
