THUA THIEN – HUE – After each upland rice crop, the Pa Ko people in Truong Son range celebrate A Da ceremony, also call a new Tet, to thank the gods.
The Pa Ko people live mainly in two districts A Luoi (Thua Thien Hue) and Dak Rong (Quang Tri). For many generations now, A Da is an important and indispensable ritual of the Pa Ko people, similar to the Lunar New Year.
A Da ceremony aims to thank the spirit for giving the people a good harvest, the family is full of health. This is also an opportunity for children and grandchildren to go away to reunite and gather together with their family. Whether or not the crop is good, the villagers offer the best agricultural products to the gods, including newly harvested upland rice, cattle, goats and pigs raised around the house …
Unlike Lunar New Year, A Da does not have a fixed day but depends on the harvest of the crops. This year, 8 clan families in Ker 2 village, Hong Thuy commune, A Luoi district, agreed to choose the full moon day of December for the ceremony. According to old A Kieng Dung, head of family A Kieng, at that time, the rice seeds on the fields were dried and packed in the house.
A Da is organized according to the village level, the clan members in the village appoint representatives, discuss and agree between the organization date and then inform the children. Therefore, every year-end, there are many new Tet meals in the Truong Son range.
Kon Ngai village chief said the most important in A Da was the animal sacrifice to the gods, which lasted from the night before until the early morning of the next day of the holiday. In a community yard of about 100 m2 wide, large trees 1.2-1.5 m long were erected, next to tie bamboo trees, forming flowers and bamboo.
The village head of Kon Ngai explained that this was the field of sacrifice, each clan contributed a buffalo, cow, or goat to make offerings to the gods. Offering is arbitrary, depending on the economic capacity of each clan, not compulsory. Along with cattle, the indispensable offering is the Brocade of the Pa Ko people. This year, the clans of Ker 2 contributed 5 cows, many goats and pigs …
On the eve of A Da ceremony, descendants of the whole village gathered to the community yard, made rituals and talked with the gods. In the story, they give thanks to the gods for helping to have a good crop, handing the animals over to the gods for a new crop of health, full of grain. During the night, the villagers focus on singing, playing gongs and drinking canola wine.
Cattle were left overnight, and until early morning the next day, the buffalo stabbing ceremony was held to officially start A Da. “In the past, the village elders organized the stabbing of buffaloes and cows to sacrifice right at this yard, the beef and buffalo meat were also required to eat them all, but now it is different,” said Kon Ngai village chief. People are allowed to bring their buffaloes, cows and goats home to kill meat, apart from a small portion for worshiping, the rest is sold to traders.
“We invite the gods to witness the ceremony for giving crops. The buffaloes bought back, blessed by the spirit, give birth to the gods,” explained Kon Ngai village chief.
After the common sacrifice of the whole village, each lineage brought the offering to the head of the family to worship. The ceremony consists of a pan cake with the above bamboo flowers, a little beef, goat, and chicken meat … The bamboo is small, split into the flower like a flower. Bamboo flowers have a beautiful meaning, brothers are happy, people innovate, happy like blooming flowers.
In the spacious two-story house, dozens of A Kieng family returned to their chief’s house to help become A Da. They contribute agricultural products to the heads of the family to celebrate, not in each family.
The house in the yard of the house, Mrs. Ho Thi Hoa, 75 years old, said that upland rice was the main crop of all Pa Ko families, so the cake wrapped from upland rice was the representative of the rice plant on the ceremony. is an indispensable offering. A shouting is wrapped from upland rice fields, without any nucleus, and wrapped with leaves from the tree. The cake is small in the palm of the hand, with 2 sharp points, someone called it the croissant.
“This year there are floods and crop failures, so we only pack 30 cans of glutinous rice in our family. Every year we have a good season, we will pack a lot and share it with relatives,” Ms. Hoa said. After wrapping, the rice is soaked in water for about 2 hours and then boiled to make the cake cooked faster.
While Mrs. Hoa and some other women make banh ana, the men make chicken, cut bamboo to roast meat, cook rice.
In block 6, Khe Sanh town (Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri), Mr. Ho Quang Phu crossed 80 km to worship them to replace his deceased father. “When people finish choosing the day, we will return to worship, we have to come back as far as possible”, Mr. Phu said. This year, Mr. Phu brought back a goat to worship them. For him, like many other Pa Ko people from other hometowns, A Da ceremony is an opportunity for reunification and return to visit relatives and relatives.
The new rice festival lasted 2 days, ending with blessings, the Pa Ko people went up to the field again, making an appointment for the next A Da year.
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