KVT – Holiday Festival @ Thuong Cat

KVT – Holiday Festival @ Thuong Cat

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KVT 2015

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KVT celebrates the National Holidays with Human Chess and Dragon Boats

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I’m a sucker for the promises suggested by celebratory bunting, decorations and multi-colored flags so, last week when I was returning from a motor bike trip into the mountains and saw the Red River dyke road a-fluttering….

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and tributary lanes a-coursing crimson…..

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and mouths of alleys be-decked with votive offerings….

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……It was necessary to make a detour into the village of Thuong Cat and investigate

Thuong Cat is a very attractive and fairly large village about 20km west of Hanoi and, like a lot of villages in the vicinity, has a festival every few years or so to celebrate their continuing place in the world thanks to the prayers and offerings and sacrifices that have been made to their intercessional deities who were bringers of peace and prosperity to the area about 2000 years ago.

A few weeks ago I made observations about a festival in adjoining Dai Cat Village where the effigy of Quach Tang was ceremonially paraded through the village byways

Historically these village festivals were held every year after Tet, before the flurry of planting the next rice crop got under way and the rigorous details of survival faced for another year. The deity was paraded and prayed to and then the villagers got down to the nitty gritty of having a grand old time with games, frivolity and a bit of gambling and over imbibing of rice wine…mainly the males that is!.

This year’s festival ran parallel with the national holiday, probably to cater for family re-unions

I got to the newly restored village Dinh a day after the main parade in time to see all the accoutrements of the deity before they were stored for safe keeping.

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The village dedicates itself to three generals -the famous Quach Tang and his two feisty sisters, Bach Luong and Tinh Loung, who had assisted the Trung sisters (Hai Ba Trung) and had wrested a brief period of independence for the Red River Delta dwellers from invading Chinese overlords.

During their subjugation of the Red River Delta the Chinese had slaughtered or imprisoned a majority of male warriors and it was left to influential and very vengeful women to mount a campaign of guerilla warfare and terrorism. The Trung sisters mobilized a formidable army led by some very brave and cunning males and females that terrorized the Chinese so effectively for some years that eventually a huge Sino force was dispatched to quell the southern upstarts…and finally defeat them in a battle that featured elephants charging into the Hat river about 10 kilometers up the track from Thuong Cat

The women warriors of the Hai Ba Trung must have been amazing. My especial favorite is a female general who, so the story goes, gave birth on the river bank as the battle was progressing and seeing the Trung sisters killed in battle climbed onto her war elephant, babe in one arm, and with swirling sword she hurtled into the blood foaming stream and hacked off a few Chinese heads before becoming one of the final casualties

Whether Bach Luong and Tinh Luong would approve their modern effigies -all pink and pretty-is debatable, but at least it’s a little heartening to see women (even if dead ones) being equally honored with and by males in a very patriarchal society.

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Just before I arrived there’d been tug of war competitions between various village factions and in the local cultural house live chess was still being played

Two combatants, one green and one red……

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were contemplating moves….

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while two poets extemporized satirical, even bawdy, verses that they sang in tune to the drama unfolding

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The Dinh and other important cultural places are built on the edge of a large village pond

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It was this pond that was the arena for the major spectator sport of the festival…dragon boat races held over 3 afternoons

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Four boats representing four factions in the community were used for 3 races each afternoon

The first group were mature male crews who, once upon a time, were the handsome young heroes of the festival and who were still determined to prove their rowing prowess

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Each boat of 22 oarsmen, a drummer, a helmsman and a poler in the bows (plus an official referee at the rear) readied themselves

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and then they were off…. on a race twice around the pond

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Ducklings beware!

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It was a case of strategy and brawn to see which boat could battle its way around the first marker and get a lead into the straight and try to keep it

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The yellow faction reigned supreme!

Then it was the turn of the warrior women as they had to negotiate and battle and bump a strenuous three laps of the pond

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Finally it was the race of the day for which many young and muscled males had returned from far off places to compete.

Although the purple boat won easily over the three laps due to early stratagems, the other three had to maneuver and strain to fill minor places, trying and keep their backers happy and get ahead in points before the final race the next afternoon….

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….when it was all going to be repeated and overall winners rewarded and feted at raucous parties.

For the hundreds of young spectators the fun going to continue into the night with games of skill, singing and dancing

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Next week, so I hear, Dam flower village a bit further up the road, will have their festival with their own brand of dragon boat races in a much smaller pond.

Kiem Van Tim is a keen observer of life in general and the Hanoi cultural scene in particular and offers some of these observations to the Grapevine. KVT insists that these observations and opinion pieces are not critical reviews. Please see our Comment Guidelines / Moderation Policy and add your thoughts in the comment field below.

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