Tet Doan Ngo is a special holiday in Vietnamese tradition, taking place on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. This is a common holiday of some Asian countries with similar cultures such as: China, Japan, Korea, South Korea, Vietnam... Although there are many common features, Tet Doan Ngo in each country has its own customs and meanings. Let's take a look at some interesting stories surrounding the traditional Tet Doan Ngo.
The Legend of Qu Yuan and the Duanwu Festival in China
At the end of the Warring States period, there was a great minister of the Chu state named Qu Yuan. He was a loyal minister of the Chu state and also a famous cultural figure. It is said that he was the author of the famous poem Ly Tao in ancient Chinese culture, expressing sadness over the decline of the country and the disaster of losing the country.
Dragon Boat Racing Festival on the Dragon Boat Festival today in China
Because he could not advise King Huai on state affairs and was harmed by treacherous officials, he was so indignant that he threw himself into the Miluo River and committed suicide on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. To mourn the loyal man, every year on this day, the ancient Chinese people made cakes, wrapped them in five-colored thread, rowed boats to the middle of the river, put rice in bamboo tubes, and released them into the river with cakes and fruits to worship Qu Yuan.
Watercress is an herb used during holidays, or hung in front of the house, wrapped in banyan leaves, to ward off evil spirits.
To this day, the Chinese still maintain the custom of boat racing on the Dragon Boat Festival every year to commemorate Qu Yuan. In addition, they also wear scented bags. This is a type of bag made of fabric and colorful thread to sew into many different shapes such as balls, tigers... inside containing spices such as coriander seeds, realgar, basil and some other spices used to repel snakes, insects that harm children. The Chinese believe that wearing scented bags on the Dragon Boat Festival can prevent diseases and ward off evil spirits.
Vietnamese people's Tet to kill insects
Vietnamese people also call Tet Doan Ngo the Insect Killing Festival. This is one of the traditional rituals with rich cultural connotations associated with the experience of working people about the cycle of natural laws, weather, etc., which affects people's health, daily life as well as seasonal production activities during the year.
The Vietnamese Duanwu Festival originated from a folk legend. One day after the harvest, farmers were celebrating a good harvest, but that year, insects came in droves and ate all the fruits and food that had been harvested. People were worried and did not know how to deal with this pest problem. Suddenly, an old man from afar came and called himself Doi Truan. He instructed each household to set up a simple offering including: banh gio, fruits, then go out in front of their house to exercise. People followed suit and after a while, the insects fell down. The old man also advised: "Every year on this day, insects are very aggressive. Every year on this day, if you do as I told you, you will be able to control them."
The people were grateful and wanted to thank him, but the old man had disappeared. To commemorate this, the people named this day "Insect Extermination Festival", some called it "Doan Ngo Festival" because the offering was usually made at noon.
Therefore, in Vietnam, Doan Ngo Festival is the day to kill insects, to launch a campaign to catch insects, to destroy all kinds of insects that are harmful to crops and plants, including many types of insects that can be eaten.
Duanwu Festival customs between regions in Vietnam
Nowadays, in some Vietnamese villages, people still maintain the old customs and attach great importance to this festival. After Lunar New Year, perhaps "Insect Killing Festival" is the warmest reunion festival and has many customs associated with people's lives...
According to the tradition of each region, the offering tray for the Doan Ngo Festival includes fruits and different dishes. In Hanoi and some regions of the North, on this day, sticky rice wine, especially purple sticky rice wine, is an indispensable dish. The fruits chosen by families to offer are summer fruits, fresh and sour such as: plums, peaches, lychees, rambutans, mangoes, watermelons...
Folklore holds that the human digestive system often has harmful parasites and they are located deep in the stomach so they cannot always be eliminated. Only on the 5th of May (lunar calendar), these parasites are often more active, people can eat sour, astringent foods, fruits and especially rice wine to eliminate them.
On the offering trays of people in the Central region from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien Hue, duck meat is indispensable. The reason people choose duck meat instead of pork, beef, or chicken is because the ancient Vietnamese believed that duck meat is cool, eating it will cool down the body, making the body cool all year round. In Thua Thien Hue, millet sweet soup is a popular dish during the Doan Ngo Festival. The plump, round millet grains are ground to remove the shell, soaked and boiled until soft and thick, adding sugar and ginger juice will produce a pot of sweet soup with an attractive millet yellow color. From Da Nang to Quang Ngai, some families cook sticky rice and sweet soup for offerings, and families that grow trees let their children go into the garden to pick fruit to eat.
Chicken Tea in Hue
The Southern people's offering tray cannot lack sweet rice balls, sticky rice with gac fruit, etc. After the offering, the whole family will gather around the dinner table to eat these dishes. In addition to fruits and sticky rice wine, during the Doan Ngo Festival in the South Central Coast, the South and some places in the North, people often eat banh gio. Banh gio has many different names and shapes such as: banh ú, banh tro, banh am and has a few different variations depending on the region.
According to ancient beliefs, the 5th lunar month is the time of hot summer, which is prone to epidemics. Therefore, in the past, during the Duanwu Festival, people in some regions in the North also had the custom of dyeing their fingernails and toenails, picking fruit from trees, hanging mugwort to ward off evil spirits... Babies who could not walk yet were given a little lime to rub on their fontanels, chests and navels to prevent stomachaches and headaches.
However, most of these customs have been abolished, only the custom of bathing in leaf water and the custom of picking medicinal leaves remain. According to cultural experts, in localities along rivers and seas, the custom of bathing during the Duanwu Festival is still maintained. On this day, people will wait for noon to bathe in rivers and seas because it is believed to help cleanse diseases.
