Tens of thousands of locals in the northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang as well as tourists flocked to Chiem Hoa district on February 4 to join the Long Tong (going to the field) festival, a unique and most typical agricultural festival of the Tay, a big ethnic minority group in the locality.
A ritual praying for a new bumper crop at Long Tong festival (Photo: VNA)
Tuyen Quang (VNA) – Tens of thousands oflocals in the northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang as well as touristsflocked to Chiem Hoa district on February 4 to join the Long Tong (going to thefield) festival, a unique and most typical agricultural festival of the Tay, abig ethnic minority group in the locality.
Celebrated annually between the 1st and 15th days of thelunar new year, the festival is a religious ritual dedicated to the god ofagriculture to win his blessing for verdant crops and prosperity for villagersthroughout the year.
Held in a large harvested field in the middle of thevillage, Long Tong requires major preparations before the lunar new year. Familiesin the village are assigned different duties, the most important of which ispreparing the offering tray. The offerings include a boiled capon, a boiled pighead, some grilled fish, two plates of sticky rice dyed red and yellow, and twocons.
Con is a small ball made from pieces of colourful clothssewn together and stuffed with puffed rice and cotton seeds. Con is alsodecorated with gaudy cloth tassels.
Long Tong consists of three main parts: offering ritualwhich includes a water procession, ploughing ceremony and folk game playing.
Tay ethnic community in Tuyen Quang comprises about 160,000people, accounting for 24 percent of the province’s population.
The Long Tong forms part of nearly 8,000 festivals heldacross the country in a year. Of the total, 88.36 percent are traditionalfestivals, while 6 percent are religious festivals and 4 percent are historicalfestivals.-VNA
A ceremony was held in the mountainous northern province of Tuyen Quang, on August 27 to receive certificates recognising the “Cap sac” (coming-of-age) ritual and the “Pao dung” singing of the Dao ethnic group as national intangible cultural heritage.
Ethnic groups in the northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang on February 26 held the Long Tong (going to the field) festival – an annual ritual of the Tay ethnic people that became part of the national intangible cultural heritage in 2013.
President Truong Tan Sang joined the annual festival “Colours of spring from every corner of the country” in the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism, on February 18,
Long Tong (going to the field) is the most typical agricultural festival of the Tay, a big ethnic minority group living in the northern mountain region with a population of over 1.6 million.
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A ritual praying for a new bumper crop at Long Tong festival (Photo: VNA) 
