White Hmong cow worship ceremony
Do Quang Tuan Hoang
This is actually a 120th birthday celebration. For the Hmong people in Ha Giang, no matter how important the work is, whether happy or sad, people must slaughter a cow. The final worship ceremony The worship ceremony takes place on November 11, 2023 (September 28 of the lunar calendar) in Suoi Chin Van village, Lung Phin commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province.
Mr. Ly Mi Po, 44 years old, White Hmong, offered a ceremony for his father Ly Nhia Sung, born in 1949, died in 2009, aged 60. 14 years later, the family held a ceremony. The offering was a cow weighing 80kg. The ceremony began at 9:30 am, and ended at 1:03 pm. Relatives ate rice and drank wine right at the ceremony location (going from home, through a three-way intersection, choosing a flat piece of land near the house for convenience in organizing the ceremony and doing the logistics, not requiring anything complicated). Then they went home to cook dinner, and in the evening, relatives ate at home and invited guests. The meal ended at 11 pm.
Content of the prayer: Today, on the day…, month…, year…, my son Ly Mi Po offers a cow to Mr. Ly Nhia Sung. I invite him to come and receive the cow and bless his descendants with good health and prosperity. His descendants celebrate his return to reunite with his ancestors in a place with “six months of summer, six months of winter” (the weather of the homeland in the minds of the Hmong people).
This is the final ceremony, completing the life cycle of the Hmong people, after which the living no longer have to offer anything to the dead. The Hmong people have a saying to wish each other “live to 120 years old.” And for any important work, both happy and sad, people must slaughter a cow. If someone lives to be 120 years old, they are invited to sit and witness the ceremony, and the dead person invites their soul to receive the ceremony. Except for those who do not have sons, all sons perform this custom for their father/mother.
This ceremony usually takes place at least one cycle (12 years) after the death of the parent. However, depending on the economic conditions of the child's family, the ceremony can take place many years later. Depending on the economic conditions of the family, the offering can be one, two, or three chickens, pigs, or cows. But usually it is one.
In the ceremony, people offer a chicken, a pig, and then a cow. But the chicken and the pig are only offered alive, with some feathers plucked symbolically and then released back into the pen, not slaughtered like the cow. Because two previous offerings were made: a chicken (one year in advance) and a pig (one to several months in advance). The order of offerings must always be from small animals to large animals. In the chicken offering, the shaman prays while holding the chicken and turns it clockwise from front to back. Each circle represents an offering to one of the family's ancestors.
The cow offering ceremony (nhùx đá) is held when the deceased's sons have the means to raise a cow or have the money to buy a cow, then they perform a ceremony for their deceased parent. The offering is a large or small cow, depending on their preference. This ceremony can also be held when the deceased parent returns to claim the cow for a child (through illness in the family, or a dream, or because the shaman predicts the outcome). If the deceased has many sons, the sons pool money to perform the ceremony together.
The Hmong worship their ancestors for three generations, without an altar or a portrait, all are worshiped together on an incense stick stuck on the ground, if you go into the middle room of the house you will see it on the right side. The altar is gold coins, chicken blood, chicken feathers stuck on the wall and the incense stick on the left is to pray for a year of good business, people and animals to thrive. Every year, on the 30th of Tet, the Hmong will kill a chicken to make an offering and replace the altar with a new one. In general, the Hmong funeral is not sad or mournful. They laugh and talk happily because they are happy for the deceased to return to their ancestors. They only cry once at a fresh funeral.
The unique feature of the Hmong funeral is expressed through the sound of the panpipe and drum. The shaman reads prayers in the Hmong language, the words are slow and gentle, expressing love and affection for the deceased, but not sorrowful or mournful, but like a whisper, sending the deceased back to their ancestors, reminding the living to remember their ancestors, to love, care for and protect each other.
Suoi Chin Van village, Lung Phin commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province has 101 households and 456 people of White Hmong and Blue Hmong people.
