Khau Vai love market has been around for over 100 years. This is the most unique market in Ha Giang. The market is not a place for trading agricultural products or necessities, but a place for folk cultural and religious activities; it only meets once a year. It has become a tradition that the market meets on the 27th of March (Lunar calendar) every year.
Nowadays, due to the combination of cultural activities and promotion of local culture, the market usually lasts about 3 days, the main market session still takes place on March 27 and the activities ensure respect and promotion of traditional values.
The story of the love market
The story of the love market originates from the legend of Ba and Ut. Ba was a Nung man from Khau Vai. He was handsome, sang well, and played the flute well, but his family was poor. Ut was beautiful and the daughter of a Giay chief. They fell in love, but Ut's family did not approve because he was poor and of a different ethnicity and did not share the same customs and practices; a Nung man could not marry a Giay woman.
The boy and girl ran away from home and went to live in the Khau Vai mountain cave. The girl's family and relatives brought flintlock guns and crossbows to the boy's house to scold the youngest brother for breaking the rules and taking the girl to the forest. The boy's family also brought sticks, guns, and knives to scold the girl's family. From the mountain cave, they watched the battle between the two families. Feeling sorry for their father, their mother, and the villagers, the two villages suddenly became hostile to each other because of their love, so the boy and girl parted ways and returned to their village, vowing to become husband and wife in the next life. The day they parted was March 27, and the people in the area used that day as a market day.
When the couple broke up, they made a blood oath: even though they couldn't get married, every year on March 27th they would go to Khau Vai to sing to each other, telling each other the secrets they had kept in their hearts during the year they were apart. They confided and sang all night and then the next night, then returned to their daily lives. On the last day of their lives, they came together again. They found the base of a tree in the forest and sat next to the stone they had sworn to, hugging each other tightly as they entered eternity. They passed away on March 27th - the day they decided to break up every year. The villagers built two shrines, "Ba shrine" and "Ong shrine", right at the place where they died to commemorate their love.
