La Chi people in Lao Cai live mainly in Nam Tang, Nam Khanh and Mao Pho villages - Nam Khanh commune, Bac Ha district; Hoa Chu Phung village of Nan San commune, Si Ma Cai district.
The economic life of La Chi people in Lao Cai is still mainly based on agricultural production, they convert hillsides and mountains into terraced fields to transplant wet rice. In the agricultural cultivation practices of La Chi people, they always carry a strong belief such as: praying for the season, a ceremony for making rice, worshiping for pests and diseases, in which the ceremony of calling rice spirit is one of the important rituals that bring the most typical cultural feature in the agricultural belief system of La Chi people in Lao Cai.
According to La Chi's farming practices, after the family finished the soil, before transplanting, the family had to make a ceremony to call the spirit of the rice back into the seeds, helping the crop to grow lush, the family had a crop. bumper season. The La Chi people believe that, after the harvest is a long idle period, the souls of the rice plants often do not wake up or "hang out", so the family must ask the worshiper When the soul of the rice was returned, the new rice crop flourished, the family had a bumper crop.
The day the family held the ceremony, the family had to invite a high-handed teacher in the village to come and help the family, in addition, they had to prepare offerings including: a pig, a packet of fish, a bottle of wine. deers (if there is no booze, the family can replace it with a bottle of soda), a ginger, four bundles of seedlings. The offerings are presented on a wooden tray by the host, placed in front of the ancestor altar so that the sorcerer can call the soul of rice to the family. After presenting the gifts, the host took two bamboo sticks to bend into an arc and placed them in front of the worship tray with the meaning symbolizing a bridge for the teacher to welcome the soul of the rice. After the offerings were made, the priest sat in the platter in a squatting position or crossed his legs, facing the ancestor altar, making a vow to report to the ancestors three-generation ancestors today. organize the ceremony, grandchildren invite the elderly to enjoy the holiday and bless the family with a bumper crop. During the ceremony, he offered a buffalo horn in one hand instead of a cup of wine (so the other peoples call the La Chi people a buffalo horn drink), the other hand to hang. Every time he called to someone, the priest took a pinch of fish, or a piece of meat, set aside next to a separate section with the meaning of the gift given to him, he had to set aside, and he also picked up a piece of the citadel. a separate pile next to the part of the priest to enjoy.
After offering the ancestors, the owner brought the pigs to cut the blood, cleaned the feathers, placed near the offering tray for the ancestor to give to the ancestors and the gods. After the living offering is the main offering, the owner takes a knife to cut a piece of pork belly and put it into small pieces, put it into a cooked pot, scoop it into a bowl or spread it on a banana leaf ship placed on the tray to worship. offering to the ancestors, the gods. He will call the names of the ancestors of the family one by one to receive the ceremony, invite to whom, then he will pick up a piece of meat and put it in the pile next, and pick up a piece to bring to the mouth to eat with the meaning as eating with ancestors.
Next, the spirit of calling rice, this is the most important part of worship, the priest will help the family find where the rice spirit is staying, may be in the barn or still sleeping, wandering around. somewhere, also when the soul is captured by ghosts, the priest will call back. When he found the rice spirit, the sorcerer called one by one to the growth order of the rice plant, first calling the germ at the beginning of each grain, then calling the seed, the husk, the young seedling, the rice, and burning the ear. , leaves ... until the rice becomes a grain. In this worshiping ceremony, the homeowner prepares a bowl of water placed before the altar, a ginger is tied to a string to find the soul of the rice. Ginger is worshiped by the La Chi people as a sacrifice of the La Chi people, which is the connection between the Yin and Yang people, so any ceremony of the La Chi people is indispensable.
After calling the soul of the rice and entering the seedlings near the tray, the host brought the seedlings to the field to transplant. The bundle of rice was assigned by the owner to his wife or daughter-in-law to transplant into a field with the meaning of mother rice, the first rice to start a new crop. The implant of this pineapple must absolutely be female with the notion that the mother rice plant must be transplanted by the woman in order for her family to have a bumper crop. After the first clump of rice, people came to help and rushed into the transplanting field, they both transplanted and have fun with the belief about a bumper crop.
Today, rice-worship ceremonies are still maintained by generations of La Chi people and consider this an indispensable practice in agricultural cultivation of families.
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