According to annual tradition, on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, families in Ha Tinh show off their talent in making offerings, including flying chickens and kneeling chickens with many unique displays to offer to their ancestors. The chicken offering on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month is an indispensable offering on the family's offerings. Besides the chickens decorated with flowers in their mouths, many places in Ha Tinh make extremely impressive "chicken offerings".
Offerings on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month to ancestors is a very solemn ritual. Chicken is the main ingredient on the offering tray, requiring a lot of effort and often made by the descendants in the family. Along with chicken, sticky rice, banh day, banh chung, fruits, etc. are also displayed to create unique offerings.
Every year, on the full moon of the first and seventh lunar months, Ha Tinh people create unique and strange standing and kneeling chickens.
Attending the Tran Doan, Nguyen Trong, and Tran Van families in Binh An commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province, many people were delighted by the eye-catching decorated trays of food and the elaborately shaped chicken offerings.
To make chickens with many different styles such as flying or kneeling, the maker must be extremely careful and elaborate in choosing the chicken, slaughtering it and shaping its posture so that when it is served on the altar, it has a magnificent appearance.
Everyone was amazed by the uniqueness of the high-stacked offerings and the elaborate and unusual chicken offerings.
With 25 years of experience making chicken offerings in the family, Mr. Tran Quoc Dung (1972) in Binh An commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province explains the different ways of making chickens: "Flying chickens (standing chickens) often appear more on the full moon of the first lunar month than on the full moon of the seventh lunar month, because the first standing chicken of the year often flies away to seek fortune. On the full moon of the seventh lunar month in the Central region, there are often storms, so the kneeling chicken is preferred more. In addition, the chicken's shape also depends on each person's preference, making a kneeling chicken is easier than making a standing chicken."
Mr. Tran Quoc Dung has more than 25 years of experience making standing and kneeling chickens.
"The whole year has the full moon of the seventh month, all have the full moon of the first month", a proverb passed down from our ancestors to the present day.
Before being displayed on the altar, chickens must be selected with a large enough weight, beautiful appearance and skillfully posed. To complete a standing or kneeling chicken takes about 3 or 4 hours, which not everyone can do.
According to those who have experience making chicken offerings in Binh An commune, chickens chosen for the feast must be selected very carefully. Chickens are purchased from all over the province, even ordered from Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Hai Phong... a month in advance, chickens weighing about 4-6kg are considered good looking.
Kneeling chicken
To make the chicken stand on the trays, people can use long nails to pierce the chicken's legs so that it can stand firmly.
Choosing to buy a chicken is not easy, you have to be an expert to look at a live chicken to know if it is beautiful or not. The cutting of the blood and plucking of feathers must be done very carefully so as not to damage the chicken's skin. After cleaning, the chicken is made to fly, kneel, stand... with the help of steel wire and bamboo strips. The boiling of the chicken and the arrangement of the feast are also very elaborate.
If making chickens and creating their positions requires great effort and technique, then decorating and arranging the offerings requires skill. Under the meticulous hands of the maker, chickens are decorated in many different ways such as chickens standing on turtles, chickens perched on banana trees, chickens holding flowers, etc. Along with chickens, banh chung, banh day, fruits, areca nuts, etc. are also used to decorate the multi-layered offerings, which are solemn, rich, and highly artistic.
With skillful hands, not only are the offering chickens shaped into new positions, but the descendants of the family also come up with very unique ways of displaying them, such as chickens holding flowers, chickens standing on turtles, chickens perched on peach or apricot branches, etc., making many people admire.
The Tran Doan, Nguyen Trong, and Tran Van families are among the families in Binh An commune that have the custom of preparing "flying chicken" offerings on important occasions such as Tet, the full moon of January, the full moon of July, and the inauguration of the family temple... In addition to showing the dedication, ingenuity, and respect of descendants to their ancestors, the custom of displaying offerings and stacking offerings is a typical cultural feature of the people of Ha Tinh, an occasion for descendants to reunite and gather after a year of working far away.
“Chickens used for feasts must be carefully selected. Choosing a chicken is not easy, you have to be an expert to look at a live chicken and know if it looks good or not when posed. The process of cutting the blood and plucking the feathers must be done very carefully so as not to affect the skin and pigmentation of the chicken,” said Mr. Tran Quoc Dung.
To create the chicken standing on the tray, in addition to the usual chicken making tools such as knives, razor blades... you must also equip yourself with long nails, bamboo splints and ropes to fix the desired chicken position before boiling. In addition to being skillful, the person making the chicken also needs experience to avoid tearing the chicken skin, paying special attention to the cutting of the blood so that the boiled chicken does not turn dark, black, and lose its aesthetic.
Along with chicken, banh chung, banh day, fruits, areca nuts and betel… are also used to decorate the solemn, rich and highly artistic multi-layered trays.
If making and shaping the chicken requires a lot of effort and technique, then decorating and arranging the offerings is equally difficult. The most skillful and careful people will be chosen to arrange the offerings, arrange the items, and decorate the ancestral hall.
Chicken offerings to ancestors on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month have long been a cultural feature for many families and clans in Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province. Over the years, the movement of creating flying chickens, kneeling chickens, or standing chickens holding flowers… has been focused on by the people here.
