The full month ceremony is one of the rituals in the family of Tay people in Kim Ngoc commune, Bac Quang district, Ha Giang province. This is a reporting ceremony with ancestors recognized as children, grandchildren in the clan, lineage and family.
Ritual full month of the Tay
According to the Tày people's opinion, when the child is full month, people celebrate a celebration. This ceremony, Tay people in Chiem Hoa, Cho Don, Ba Be ... called "hotpot stuffed" (wedding dog small), in Bao Lac called "dish dè" (full month); or some places in Ha Giang, you call it "hot pot, oóc bồng" (month out) - also means full month. The Tày people in Kim Ngoc call the festival full of months "the bottom of the river" (full day of the month). The "striped bottom" of the Tày people in Kim Ngoc was also held very loudly to congratulate the family on one more member.
Sacrifices in the offering: The offerings in the full month are agricultural products of the family. These offerings were made to thank the gods and ancestors for protecting and helping the baby born healthy. During the month-long ceremony, placed next to the main offering, there are also trays of families on both sides of the family bringing the sacrifices to the child officially recognized as a member of the family.
The main tray has five-colored sticky rice with five colors: blue, red, purple, yellow, black symbolizing yin and yang, heaven and earth, and five elements, it is also a product of agriculture. Placed above the raspberry is a good castrated chicken.
Chicken is an indispensable animal in sacrifice because it is an animal that brings blessings to humans, it also shows the diligence and love that envelop each other. A good fat chicken also shows a happy and full life. Therefore, during this month-long ceremony, the Tày people often use chickens to pray for the future of the child to have such qualities.
In the main tray there is white wine, incense. Through incense, people can relate to the gods and ancestors, so people must pay homage, be grateful to their ancestors, and pray that they will bring strength healthy and all the good things come to everyone in the family and for a fulfilling life. In addition to the main tray there are other trays such as: rotating pig trays. Roast pork is a special dish that only the ethnic minorities in the Northeast have, the way to make roast pork is as follows: clean the pig and put the honey leaf inside the abdomen and spread the honey outside. Then turn on the embers until the outside is burnt yellow blistering is okay.
In sacrificial offerings, there are banh chung, thick cakes made from sticky rice. These two cakes are indispensable in family rituals. All gifts, fruit cakes and fruits are the products of the Tày people here.
Ritual Ceremony: After making the offerings, usually before the ceremony is performed to present to the ancestor, the priest will see the good time for the ceremony, and at the exact time the priest has seen, begin to perform the ceremony.
When the organization had five sacrifices, one was the celebrant in the middle, the two sides were the two chief priests (the child's father or mother) and the servants (grandfather or grandfather), the celebrant (the priest) held the compression. Huong prayed and read the Sacrifice in the ethnic language. “Today is a good day, a day when my children and grandchildren have been in the family for more than a month, my family has made some rice bowls to invite you to come here to celebrate my children. Now is the time for the grandchildren to invite grandparents and grandchildren to come and attend the grandchildren's day. ”
The role of a monk during the full month ceremony
For the Tay people's full month ceremony, the priest also plays a very important role. The priest is responsible for presenting the ancestors, telling the ancestor that today is the full day of the descendants of the family and inviting the ancestors and grandparents to attend and recognize the family as having a new member. In addition, during the full month of the ceremony, the priest also performs the task of making a charm (rope atrophy) for everyone in the family to pray for health. And after the month-long ceremony is complete, the family is responsible for bringing the priest home and accompanied by gifts for thanksgiving such as a song chicken, sticky rice, deer, rice….
The custom of naming the festival full of months
An indispensable custom in the Tay people's full month ceremony is the custom of naming children. If the child is a boy, the grandfather will be the first to raise the opinion, if the child is a girl then the grandmother is the one who initiated the problem. Usually people give the child two names "first name" (ie name first name when childhood) and "name name" (official name).
The Tày people in Kim Ngoc, the parents named their children, then asked the worshiper to worship the ancestors and sow the hexagrams of white silver coins, to see if the chosen name has a "agree" or not? Of the three white silver posts that were sown to the plate, two heads were deemed correct, if not, the parents had to choose another name. The common feature of the Tày people is that, when naming their children, parents avoid naming identical to grandparents, ancestors, uncles, and relatives of paternal and maternal relatives for at least three generations.
Taboos in the full month ceremony
According to the concept of the Tay when the child was born until the month, at the door of the residence, the family often hangs a green leaf or sticks on the stairs to notify the stranger to not enter the house. In many places, families plug chicken feathers into leaves to signal to the villagers (one chicken is a boy and two feathers are a girl).
For the Tày people in Kim Ngoc commune, when a family member is staying, they place a red banana flower "end of winter" (wild banana flower) in front of the house to inform the family of a new born child and until the child after the ceremony is completed, the flowers will be removed. For family members, they must also abide by certain restrictions such as not coming to other people's houses for fear of following and harming children and bringing unclean to people's homes, especially priests, Do not bring new wood, strange objects into the maternity room, do not go to places where people breed like fish raising, silkworm incubation, incubating chickens, ducks ... The Tày people in Kim Ngoc commune have a saying: sesame streaked "(father abstained less than 9 days, mother abstained 30 days). During those nine days, the father was not allowed to use guns, knives, stakes or nails because of the notion that these activities would startle the child and cause insomnia.
By the day of the ceremony, the mother can carry her child around the house as usual, except for the places of solemnity that are not allowed to approach or sit in such as ancestral altars, compartments, places of fathers and husbands. .
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