Reviving and making some typical traditional festivals of ethnic minorities become tourism products is an important content of the plan to implement the project on preservation and promotion of good traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development in the 2021-2025 period issued by Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee.
Unique festivals
Ede people in Ninh Hoa Town and Khanh Vinh District have preserved and practiced the river wharf worshiping ceremony for many generations. This is one of the long-standing customs of the people, which is held every year. The ceremony takes place from early morning. Ede people bring offerings to water wharfs to perform ritual acts such as worshipping ancestors and praying for rain. The worshiping ceremony at the river wharf ends with Ede girls taking water from the wharf to the village. After that, the people gather at the community area of the village to drink “ruou can” (wine drunk out of jars through pipes), play gongs and sing folk songs. After the harvest season, Ede people organize river wharf worshiping ceremony to pray for favorable weather, good harvests, and a comfortable and happy life. The ceremony can be organized at a large or small scale depending on the conditions of villages.
Performance of new rice ceremony of Raglai people in Khanh Son District
In Khanh Son District, besides ceremony to express gratitude to parents, wedding ceremony, and grave-leaving ceremony, new rice ceremony is a unique community cultural activity bearing great spiritual values of Raglai people. The ceremony is an opportunity to maintain the friendship between villagers and show gratitude to the labor to grow rice and other agricultural products. Rice is one of the offerings Raglai people prepare for the ceremony. They use the rice of the newly harvested crop to cook. When the offerings are done, people in the family gather together, and the shaman performs ritual acts. After that, they will play “ma la” (a traditional musical instrument) to invite other people in the village to their house to share the festive atmosphere.
Reviving festivals
Reviving festivals in Ninh Hoa Town, Khanh Son District and Khanh Vinh District is a way to preserve and promote the typical traditional festivals of the localities in the province and serve tourism development, according to Le Van Hoa, deputy director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Culture and Sports. The revival will be carried out from 2022 to 2025 with activities such as making surveys and statistics; hiring experts to facilitate the preservation of the festivals; investing in facilities and creating software for research work; opening training classes on methods to preserve the festivals; and filming the festivals to introduce to many people.
The grave-leaving ceremony, a national intangible cultural heritage, of Raglai people in Khanh Son District, will be revived in 2022; new rice ceremony of Raglai people in Khanh Vinh District and Khanh Son District will be revived in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The wedding ceremony of T’rin people in Khanh Vinh District will be revived in 2024. In 2025, the revival of the water wharf ceremony of Ede people in Ninh Tay Commune (Ninh Hoa Town) will be carried out.
Throughout the process of revival, the provincial Department of Culture and Sports will coordinate with localities to provide professional assistance. The provincial Department of Tourism will coordinate with the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the provincial People's Committees of the districts and related units to make three programs for tourism development in Ninh Hoa Town, Khanh Son District and Khanh Vinh District.
Giang Dinh - Translated by H.N