Ong fish worship festival

Quang Ngai - Ong fish worship festival The Ca Ong (Whale) Sacrifice Festival is organized twice by Quang Ngai fishermen in the spring and fall every year, called "spring-autumn two periods". Spring semester is in January or February, fall semester is in July or August of the lunar calendar. Normally, on the occasion of the autumn festival, fishermen hold a larger ceremony than the spring festival, because this is an opportunity for them to repay their gratitude to the Fisherman for blessing them after a season at sea, with a large number of village members, thousands and neighboring fishermen participating. A typical Ca Ong worshiping festival on the coast of Quang Ngai (mainly described through the festival of Dong Yen tombs, Cu Lao tombs and Thach Bi tombs) includes the following rituals: Ong ceremony, Ong ceremony, main ceremony and performances. The ceremony (or simply the ceremony for short) is a dedication ceremony, conducted in the evening of the main sacrifice day, including steps from initial consecration, sub-consecration to final consecration. Usually a vegetarian offering ceremony, to pray for the salvation of those who have the risk of dying in rivers and seas, to invite the Nam Hai god and the water gods, tutelary gods, earth gods, previous sages, late sages, past and present, to attend the ceremony. The Ong Ceremony usually takes place around 3 - 4 a.m. on the main priest day, and is the procession to process the Nam Hai god and other gods to attend the festival. The boat to welcome the Ong usually has 3 boats decorated with colorful flags and flowers, with incense burners, tablets, and offerings... Those participating in the ceremony to welcome the Ong include the chief priest, attendants, priests, ritualists, family ritual students, pagoda monks, and ceremonial music band. In some places, there are also rowing teams and sword teams following them (like in Cu Lao - My Tan, Binh Chanh, and Dong Yen, Binh Duong, Binh Son). The Ong welcome boat group often goes out about 2-3km from shore and then performs rituals to invite Ong and deities. After performing the ritual, the boat procession carried his body back to the main hall for the main ceremony. The main ceremony is a ceremony that usually takes place around 5 - 6 am. The sacrificial offerings in the main sacrifice ceremony must usually be three sanhs, including 1-2 live pigs (shaved but not butchered) placed facing the main hall. Members of the worship committee are the same as members participating in the Ong ceremony. The main sacrifice ceremony also takes place in the following steps: first consecration, semi-consecration, and final consecration like the opening ceremony, but the main sacrifice ceremony also includes sword dancing and singing. Wearing swords and dancing to serve the gods following the sacrificial steps, and wearing dance baits after the sacrificial steps have ended, has both the meaning of serving the gods and serving the entertainment needs of the people in the village and thousands. Before 1945, on the occasion of the Ca Ong festival, in the village, thousands of people also organized other forms of entertainment such as boat racing, basket swinging, tug of war, opera singing, response singing, stilt racing, wrestling..., but today these performances are absent, only occasionally there are some performances such as boat racing, basket shaking, opera singing... In addition to popular forms during the two-term spring-autumn festivals, there are also rituals related to the worship of Ca Ong, which, although not frequent, are still very sacred for residents of the river area, such as the Ca Ong funeral and the Thuong Ngoc Cot ceremony. A dead whale is called by a fisherman a "fallen" person, or a "monk". When the whale's body washed up on the village's shore, it was necessary to arrange a funeral for him. They were very happy when he "brought" him to the shore of their village, because they thought it was a great blessing for the village, so the funeral for Ca Ong was conducted in a very sacred and solemn manner. The first person to see him will be the eldest son and mourn him for 3 years, just like his parents. After worshiping him at the mausoleum, the villagers held a sacrifice to him at the beach - where he was buried. The funeral of Ca Ong also takes place in the same steps as the funeral of a dead person. In some places, there are also troupes of troubadours and cheo mau singing to thank Ca Ong for saving the lives of unfortunate fishermen who were in trouble at sea due to wind and storms. In addition to the worship committee and the people of the village, there were also representatives of other fishermen who came to attend the funeral and pay their respects. After 3 years, from the time of Ca Ong's funeral, fishermen hold the Thuong Ngoc Cot ceremony. The Thuong Ngoc Bone Ceremony is the procession of his bones being brought into the shrine. They wash each part of Ca Ong's bones with water, wine, and five-spice water before putting them into the shrine. There are places where there are whale cemeteries like in Thach Bi, Le Thuy...

Currently, many places in the province still organize annual Fish Worshiping Festivals, but the most typical are Fish Worshiping Festivals of fishing villages: Cu Lao - My Tan, Dong Yen (Binh Son), Thach Bi (Sa Huynh, Duc Pho), Chanh Tomb, Thu Tomb, Tan Tomb... (Ly Son), Co Luy Nam Tomb (Nghia Phu, Tu Nghia)./.