A Da Festival: Pacoh people's wish for peace and prosperity

Preserved and handed down through generations as a spiritual treasure, the A Da or New Rice Celebration Festival is an occasion for the Pacoh to express gratitude and pray for a bumper harvest and prosperity.

The traditional festival has recently been restored by the Department of Culture and Information of Huong Hoa District in collaboration with the People’s Committee of Lia Commune, helping preserve the festival and opening up a new direction for local community-based tourism in the near future.

Offerings during the A Da Festival include pigs, chickens, fish and agricultural products. Photo: D.V

The weather is chilly in Ky Noi Hamlet, Lia Commune, on the last days of the year. As the rice on the upland farms had just been harvested and stored in a corner of stilt houses, the village prepared for the annual new rice ceremony.

This year is special, as Huong Hoa District chose Ky Noi to host the restoration of the A Da Festival, so the atmosphere is even more solemn and lively. The villagers also prepared necessary offerings and rituals more thoroughly than usual.

After a period of elaborate preparation, the festival took place in a large open space at the local community house. From early morning, most of the villagers - old and young, male and female - gathered in colorful costumes and immersed themselves in the traditional festivals of their ethnic group.

All villagers opened their houses and offered guests the best food and drinks. The Pacoh attach great importance to harvest offering ceremonies since they believe in mysterious deities, especially the rice goddess who bestow happiness and prosperity upon their people. The A Da Festival is also an occasion for clans to reunite and demonstrates the traditional customs of the Pacoh.

Even those who work elsewhere must return for the A Da Festival, where the villagers all get together to drink rice wine, chat, sing and dance. The offerings in the offering ceremony usually include a rice barn, a Cay neu or Vietnamese New Year tree, rice baskets, ruou can(rice wine jars with cane tubes for drinking), rice varieties, and crop seeds from the fields.

The New Rice Celebration Festival was restored in Ky Noi Hamlet, Lia Commune, Huong Hoa District. Photo: D.V

From ancient times until now, rice has been an indispensable part of the Pacoh’s life. During the “New Rice Celebration” festival, local people always wished for prosperity in their homeland, where mountainous areas made them face difficult farming conditions.

Before conducting the A Da ceremony, young men and women in the village go to the fields to thresh rice and bring the grains back to fill the barn. With austroasiatic carrying baskets on their back, they must be very careful. In case a trail is disrupted by a stream, they have to spread straws one by one across the water so that the ’spirit of rice' can reach the barn more smoothly.

On the next day, the rice grains are carefully taken from the A choi and pounded to make offerings to the deities. Right from the early morning, every member of each of the Pacoh families gets busy with their own job: the sons head to gardens to catch pigs, chickens, and ducks for meat, while the daughters pound rice, light fires, cook rice, make cakes, and prepare to offer trays.

This is also the first meal with new rice after the harvest. The village elders often choose the time after a rice harvest to hold the festival, offering the first bowl of new steamed rice for heaven and earth as thanks for favorable weather conditions.

Suppose a harvest fails because of natural disasters, in this case, the village also prepares a new rice ceremony to report the situation to the deities and pray for a more prosperous crop to compensate for the losses.

The prayers are coupled with offerings to the deities at the beginning of the season in the hope that the crops will neither be affected by diseases nor damaged by wild animals, thereby producing the highest yield. This magic also eases the wet rice farmers' worries and nurtures hope for the future, even in the face of poor harvests.

During the A Da Festival, the village elders run the entire event. After the offering trays are prepared, they and reputable people in the village perform the offering ceremony. They pray and invite deities of rice, heaven and earth, rivers and streams, and trees to the ceremony to accept gratitude for a year of favorable weather conditions. Along with dishes such as pigs, chickens, fish, squirrels and agricultural products, indispensable items offered include scarves, shirts, skirts and jewelry daily used by Pacoh women - in the belief that the rice deity is female.

Also, during the festival, a Cay neu made with a large bamboo branch and religious decorations is erected in the center of the village and only removed after the festival ends.

The Pacoh believe that the village elders skilled at casting spells can communicate with the deities, heaven and earth through this tree, which conveys the village’s prayers to the gods.

The A Da Festival embodies the spiritual attachment that unites generations of the Pacoh community. The sounds of gongs, flutes, Khen pan-pipes and other instruments played by the boys combine with the girls' singing, further accentuating the brilliance and traditional charm of the festival.

Hieu Giang - Jenna Duong