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| Reproducing the scene of clearing the ranch in the new rice welcoming festival. Photo taken from the dossier in 2024 |
The precious heritage that needs conserving
The new rice welcoming festival is the biggest and most important festival of the Co Tu people in Vietnam. The festival fully reflects the humane spiritual cultural values, people's thoughts and feelings, and their aspiration for the harmony among people and between people and nature and gods. The submission of the dossier to become national heritage is to affirm the values of this festival and to waken the pride of the Co Tu people in their heritage, contributing to its conservation with the participation of the entire community.
According to Dr. Le Anh Tuan, vice-head of the Central Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism, this registration is very meaningful in the current context when the traditional culture of the Co Tupeople in Nam Dong, including many beliefs and festivals, is disappearing for many reasons, both subjective and objective. This festival needs conserving and promoting to become a resource, contributing to the socio-economic development of the Co Tu people.
According to experts, preparing the dossier requires a step-by-step process. First of all, the statistics about the festival must be done in areas where many Co Tu people reside. Accordingly, investigations, surveys and reports about the current status of the heritage are conducted. The next step is preparing the CV for the festival and the map about the distribution of the festivals in Nam Dong area. The list of artisans who can participate in organizing and restoring the festival to suit the present-day circumstance is then made.
Determined to fully revive the festival
According to Dr. Le Anh Tuan, the socio-economic changes lead to the change of the current festival compared to the original on many aspects. Notable is the change in the significance of the festival. Currently, rice is no longer grown on ranches. The belief in the rice god has faded because people are no longer dependent much on gods and nature. The application of technology, new rice varieties and irrigation help control productivity and yields . Many villages and people are thus no longer eager to organize new rice welcoming festivals.
"For a long time, the festival hasn’t been organized on a community scale, but on family scale in some villages and districts such as Thuong Long, Thuong Quang, Thuong Nhat. The district-level festivals were restored just in the past 10 years, but they were hosted by some villages. During our survey process, some young people even did not know the festival because they had not seen any in their villages,” said Tuan.
In that circumstance, the people who prepare the dossier have to base on various data and the current status to reproduce and highlight the values of the new rice festival with photos and video clips. In terms of content, the dossier includes the procedure of the festival from cultivation to harvest though many of them have disappeared.
This task is very urgent in the current context when the traditional culture of the Co Tu people in Nam Dong is changing profusely in the influence of reality. This precious traditional cultural heritage needs to be preserved and promoted to become a resource, contributing to the socio-economic development of the Co Tu people.
According to a representative from the Bureau of Culture and Sports, the dossier is being completed and will be submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for consideration. Hopefully, the festival will be recognized, which will become jurisdiction for its conservation in the coming time. The recognition will waken the pride of Co Tu people in the role and position of their new rice welcoming festival.