17/01/2015
The Roong Pooc Festival of the Giay
Every year on the Dragon Date in the lunar calender in Ta Van Commune (Sa Pa district - Lao Cai), the Giay celebrate the Roong Pooc Festival to pray for bumper crops, peace, wealth and good weather.
Joining the festival are all the young and the old of the Giay in the village. They are really sociable to welcome other brother ethnic minorities to come and share their cheerfulness. After the ceremony (ritual) is the festival with many folk games; especially the plowing competition of the boys.
Roong Pooc Festival (down to the field) is the harmony between nature and humans, which makes each individual in the community to respect the value of history (remember the labour of the founders), to admire nature (to have spiritual respect for the supernatural, to love plants, and treasure soil and water resources), to adore man (to exchange, empathize, and to live in solidarity). The festival also attracts many domestic and foreign tourists, which is the human resources to further economic development, and tourism development in that mythical land Muong Hoa - Sapa.