1.1 KY YEN FESTIVAL
Ky Yen festial often lasts 2 days and 1 night with the main ceremonies such as the ceremony to invite Gods ceremony, ceremony of Shennong – the God of agriculture, communal house, Tuc yet ceremony, Chanh te ceremony, ceremony to greet Tien hien, Hau hien, and the passed away Members; and the ceremony to send off Gods.This festival’s purpose is to invite and greet Gods in the communal house in order to pray for the peace of country and citizens, wealthiness and auspiciousness.
The communal houses which consist altars of the ancestors Tien hien, Hau hien who gathered people and established villages or put their own money to build the first public welfare facilities in order to set good examples for their offsprings. To sum up, Ky Yen festival is considered a celebrating ceremony of villages.
The ceremonies are quite similar with one time of thurifying incense, three times of thurifying wine, and one time thurifying tea. After each ceremony, there is always a praying speech instead of ordinary prayers, and the speech’s content is mainly about high worship for the Gods and prayers for villagers. While the speech is being read, a band of instruments is essential which include a wooden bell, a gong, a drum, and an ordinary bell.
In fact, in Ky Yen festiaval, the “ceremony” part takes up a more important role than the “festival” part. The main characters to celebrate are a variety of Gods not only the Gods worshipped in communal houses.
Ky Yen festival is a good event for villagers to gather and chat about their happy families and hang out together. Previously, there used to be a custom that every three years villagers hold an event for classical theatre and trurify Gods in order to cheer people up. These customs are all meant to promote communal spirit. In Ky Yen festival, singing is in a formal ceremony style than an ordinary style. Singing content needs to tell about moral lessons with happy endings.
Ky Yen festival is also a good event for craftmen to perform their cleverness in decorating flowers and fruits. This is also a good opportunity for farmers to introduce their new fruit products or new seeds of glutinous rice which have been nurtured by female villagers’ skillful hands. However, party in Ky Yen festival is mainly about gathering and expressing generosity; drinking wine and hard partying are absolutely unacceptable.