THE FESTIVAL OF PRAYING FOR RAIN

When reminding Binh Thuan province, people often look back on Mui Ne in Phan Thiet city. Like other provinces, there are a lot of characteristic festivals such as Dinh Thay Thim, Nghinh Ong. One of valuable ones is Cham’s festival of praying for rain. It is held every five years at the begining of January and lasts during two days. The festival is divided into three steps that are preparing, celebrating and ending.

Before the festival, villagers prepare carefully. The frist thing is to ask the priest, thay Xe, thay Co Ke, who play the important role in ceremony for the suitable day to celebrate. Next, cleaning the yard of village and preparing something neccessary for the festival such as food, drink. Moreover, it is essential to choose people who dance or carry the Palongk’ Sach’s palankeen. To increase more solemnity, temple plags are pitched from Palongk’ Sach temple to village.

There are many activities during the ceremony. It starts at 4:00 p.m. Everyone has presence. In front of palankeen, the magician disposes a tray with special food of Cham such as banh tet, banh gung, canh ca and so on. When thay Xe reads the incantation, Cham’s women, who wear the traditional clothes, clasp hands and make a kownow. In the evening, villagers make the incense- offering ceremony with keen sincerity. In the following morning,everyone gets up early, especially beautiful women in dancing team. The sound of Paranung drum beat and Saranai horn resound, which signs Palongk’ Sach return the temple. Behind twelve young men standing in two lines, there are four other men who carry the palankeen. Dancing team and villagers follow them. The drum beat is more repeated. When the palanquin is set in front of temple, Thay Xe checks the sacrifice including 12 eggs in big bowl, 30 ones in 6 smaller bowl and incence. Before carring the palankeen into the temple, all women kowtow and wish “ Quoc thai dan an, mua thuan gio hoa, dong ruong tot tuoi”. Then, all men also do the same that.

At the end of the festival, villagers hold party. At that time, everyone gathers to eat and drink.Next, some young men put the dry woods together, and the firewood bursts into flames. After that, the beautiful women perform Cham’s traditional dances aroud it while the young men blow on the horn and children run and scream, which makes the atmosphere become more aminated. Villagers give the best wishes in New Year. The festival ends after the declaration of villager patriarch. All of them rerurn their home and take a rest.

In conclution, to have a successful ceremony, the festival must follow the fixed order; Cham often hold it with the cautious preparation, the solemn celebration and the joyful end. Cham’s festival of praying for rain has great moral value, so it is very meaningful to conserve and uphold.