Visiting Chu Hamlet in Hung Dao Commune, Binh Gia District, Lang Son Province where over 90% of the residents are Tay ethnic, visitors will have a chance to enjoy a legendary atmosphere full of spiritual significance of Long Tong (going to the field) Festival that is imprinted with typical identities of the northern mountainous area.
The festival originates from a legend about a young couple who came to Chu Hamlet to reclaim the land. They set up fields and gardens and grew cotton and wove fabrics. Through the years they became more and more well-off and lived a peaceful and happy life with their children and grand children. Seeing that, many people from other places flocked to their place to settle. When the couple died, the villagers venerated them as the Patron Saints and built a communal house to worship them. Every year, on the 4th day of Lunar April they organise a ritual and set up an altar to offer gifts to the God of Agriculture and pray for good harvests.
After the official ritual procedures, the sorcerer sprays a handful of rice grains on the ground and some water to the sky while praying for a prosperous, peaceful and happy life. This is the most important process of the festival, reflecting clearly the agricultural ritual of the people who grow the wet rice.
Following the worshipping rite come the festive performances, including a dance to greet the spirits, monkey and lion dances, martial arts, etc. At noon, the sorcerer sounds nine drumbeats for three consecutive times to invite the on-lookers to watch the play "A scholar, a peasant, a worker and a trader" (also called "choosing a son-in-law") performed by the people in Chu Hamlet.
There are also many folk games and performances for the Spring festivals of the people in Lang Son Province, such as the cloth ball-throwing, tug-of-war, walking-on-stilts competition, crossbow-shooting, humming-top playing, marble-playing and martial arts practice.
Young men and women sing love-duets, congratulatory and spring-welcome songs with different tunes. In the evening the villagers invite the visitors to their houses to enjoy their feasts and drink wine throughout the night. In particular, they invite the lion-dance troupes to perform a worshipping dance in front of their ancestral altar.
The Tay people believe that on New Year Holidays the lion's visit to their family will bring good luck and a prosperous year, in which all people do a good business, have good health and enjoy a happy life.
