Kho Gia Gia Festival

Kho Gia Gia Festival, the most important traditional festival of the Ha Nhi people, is held on a community scale from June 4 to June 6 of the lunar calendar in localities with Ha Nhi communities in the province. The Dry Old Old Festival is the largest and oldest harvest festival of the black Ha Nhi people in Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province. The festival takes place in the 6th lunar month every year to pray for good harvests, prosperity for people, and a prosperous and happy life. “Dry old old” in Ha Nhi language means “bumper harvest”. According to custom, the Festival is held from Dragon day (dragon day) to Monkey day (monkey day) of the 6th lunar month every year with the hope that the earth god, forest god, water god, and love god protect healthy people, bless a prosperous and happy life, develop livestock, and have a good harvest. The harvest festival of the Ha Nhi ethnic people includes a unique ceremony and a festival with folk games imbued with the culture of the highland ethnic people. The festival venue is an empty lot in the only worshiping forest, where everyone old, young, girls, and boys can come and have fun during the festival. Right from the early morning of the first day of the festival, people went to work collecting thatched grass and bamboo to roof the house where the festival's activities took place. When the festival was gathered, the Ha Nhi men worked together to repair and re-roof the house with the meaning that each new year will bring good things to the village. The second day of the festival is the buffalo slaughtering ceremony. According to the beliefs of the Ha Nhi people, the buffalo slaughtered on this day was carefully selected one month before the festival. The selected buffalo must be a young male buffalo, healthy and carefully cared for until the day of the ceremony. When the buffalo is slaughtered, all parts of the meat will be divided equally among the entire village. Each family participating in the ceremony will set up a tray of offerings including buffalo meat, wine and family products such as pork, chicken, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, squash, cucumbers... and process it from home to the forest to contribute to the village, expressing deep respect and gratitude to the gods who have protected the lives and blessed the villagers. On the third day of the festival, early in the morning, Ha Nhi men will organize to collect wood and rope from the forest to make two important games: ferris wheel and rope swing. Wooden trees and swing ropes must be carefully selected and strong. In the evening, the shaman and representatives of families in the village prepare a tray to bring to the altar to worship the gods together. The ceremony location is the ferris wheel and rope swing. The purpose of this ritual is to pray for good weather, good harvests, and a prosperous life for the villagers. At the same time, it is also to express gratitude to the gods and pray for them to protect everyone who attends the festival and participates in the games safely. After the ceremony, ethnic people here will abstain from cutting trees, cutting grass, or chopping for 3 days. It can be said that the most fun part of the Dry Old Festival is the festival, performing arts and competing in traditional ethnic sports such as stick pushing, ferris wheel, sack jumping, tug of war... The festival is one of the biggest traditional Tet days of the year for the Ha Nhi people. Families whose children get married, get married, or live far away all arrange to go home for Tet and visit their parents on this occasion. In recent years, the festival has often had the participation of tourists from all over. Ha Nhi boys and girls not only come to participate in the festival but also come to make friends, find lovers and life partners. The Dry Old Man Festival was included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on December 19, 2014, under the category of Traditional Festival. In recent years, the Dry Old Man Festival has been organized by Bat Xat district on a large scale, methodically and solemnly but still retains the unique identity of the nation and attracts a lot of attention from tourists.