Every year, during the final days of the first lunar month, the Mong ethnic people in Na Hau commune, Van Yen district, in Yen Bai province hold a forest worship ceremony. Not only unique and spiritually significant for blessing and preserving material and spiritual values within the Mong community, it also plays a practical role in protecting the pristine forests in the Na Hau mountains.
The worship ceremony is a longstanding and beautiful tradition, a cultural and folkloric activity deeply tied to the polytheistic philosophy of agricultural residents.
The purpose of the spring forest deity worship is to seek favorable weather, thriving trees, abundant harvests, healthy offspring, and a prosperous, peaceful life.
Every hamlet in Na Hau has a sacred, protected forest with inviolable rules, strategically located to gather the abundant spiritual energy from heaven and earth for worshiping forest deities.
Following the ritual, all hamlets impose a 3-day forest prohibition, to express their gratitude towards the forest deity. During these three days, certain practices are strictly forbidden, such as entering the forest to cut trees, bringing green leaves home, digging or uprooting plants, and hunting.
Traditional cultural artistic activities and fairs showcasing and selling traditional products unique to the Mong ethnic group are also held during the three-day prohibition.
The forest worship tradition is also considered a year-end review of forest protection efforts in the hamlet or village.
Therefore, the festival is not only spiritually significant, contributing to the preservation of cultural and material values within ethnic communities, but also actively supports forest resource management, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation.- (VNA/VLLF)
