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Experience about the wedding customs of the Pa Di people in Muong Khuon
The Pa Di wedding ceremony has many unique and distinctive features in Muong Khuong, Lao Cai province. Let’s find out about the wedding customs of the Pa Di people.
The Pa Di wedding goes through many steps, including the engagement, the wedding ceremony, and the re-appearance ceremony.
The engagement ceremony takes place on a good day of month. The groom’s family comes to the bride’s family to hold the engagement ceremony, they choose two people to carry the gifts. The number of people going to the engagement ceremony must be an even number (from 8 to 12 people). The gifts are placed solemnly on the table along the ancestral altar of the bride’s family. The bride’s family depute a man to represent the family to cut the chicken’s throat and hold three bowls of blood and 3 cups of wine on the table. After that, the representative burned 3 incense sticks to invite the ancestors to receive the gifts and witness the engagement ceremony of the granddaughter.
Ancestral altar worship ceremony (source: internet)
The traditional wedding ceremony of the Pa Di people is imbued with the national cultural identity, with music performed by the brass band and round instrument from the time of picking up the bride until the end of the wedding ceremony. The groom’s family prepares a pink horse (with red cloth tied to the bridle) for the bride to ride to her husband’s house. When crossing streams, the groom’s family must carry the bride on their backs to avoid getting wet, and the bride always wears a mirror on her chest to ward off evil and avoid bad things on the road in the future.
When welcoming the bride into the house, the groom’s parents perform a ritual to guide the groom and the bride to bow to the ancestral altar. After the ancestral worship ceremony, the bride is led into the bridal chamber and the adults (whose age is chosen) will perform the ritual of spreading blankets and mats for the bride and groom with the wish that they will have a full life and have children to continue the family line. A group of children are also brought into the room, the bride takes sticky rice to share with the children. The children compete to eat, creating a bustling, joyful atmosphere. The Pa Di people believe that this ritual will help the newlyweds have many children and a happy family. The Pa Di wedding feast usually has 8-10 dishes, including traditional dishes and indispensable specialties such as meatballs, soybean soup, boiled chicken and chili sauce…
Nguyen Thuy
About the Author Sapa Tourism Office
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