DUAL VILLAGE ASSOCIATION

Previously, in Kep village, each year there were rituals on January 4; January 6; February 20; June 1, August 20; 1/10; December 15 and December 23. These events are organized in large or small sizes depending on each event, but the January 6th event is considered a spring festival. Other rules are called village affairs. According to this schedule, the above conventions take place as follows: - January 4th is the village's groundbreaking day. According to this rule, Kep village has a custom that from December 30 to January 4 of the new year, no one is allowed to do anything to disturb the village. During that time, on the afternoon of December 30 last year, people went to the communal house to celebrate the end of the year. On New Year's Eve, there is a New Year's Eve worshiping ceremony to ask for good fortune at the communal house. On the morning of January 4, there is a spring roll ceremony at the communal house. - The 6th day of the first lunar month is the festival to worship the god of early spring. The village opened the communal house and village gate, built a festival ground, and arranged palanquins for the gathering. The 1/6 festival in Kep village has fun games such as: Swinging, wrestling, praying for foreigners, human chess, tam cuc dom, licking the basin, cockfighting... The swing in Kep village is a swing with prizes. Every year, the village puts up an elm tree during Tet. This elm is like all the elms in other villages. However, when entering the festival, the village sets up a hanging platform for the contestants to compete for prizes. The prize truss is 8 bamboo trees buried higher than the swing tree. On each side there are 4 trees, in the middle of the 4 trees there is a shoulder pole, on which the tree is tied to hang a prize. The tree hangs prizes above the swing wings. Prizes can be money, artifacts, or fireworks. If it's firecrackers, whoever wins must be able to burn the firecrackers to win the prize. Because there is a prize, the swinger must be healthy and courageous to swing the swing beyond 900 degrees. At that time, the swinger reaches for the prize or holds up a straw and lights firecrackers. This happens very quickly so it is very difficult to achieve the intention. This is a real competition, so young people from neighboring communes attend in large numbers. Wrestling in Kep village is held right in the communal house yard. Because the village is not a wrestling village, it is only organized for fun, so no one who wants to wrestle can participate. If they win, the village will give them a prize. In the game of climbing Cau Kieu, the village places a rack in the middle of the communal pond, then places a long bamboo pole on that rack. The other end of the bamboo tree is placed on the shore. Outside the pond, there are prizes hanging out. Anyone who goes to the middle of the pond and gets the prize wins. If anyone accidentally falls into the pond and gets completely wet, they can wade to shore. The village also built a human flag yard next to the communal house yard. The chess pieces are all unmarried girls. The village has a set of chess pieces in the style of generals, scholars, and pawns in the three-button set. If one party is male, it is a young, unmarried man. When playing, the person holding the piece is given a bunting flag. When moving, he waves the flag to show the piece where to go. Outside the yard there is a Chinese chess board to monitor and walk like in the yard. To promote the human chess game, outside there were people continuously beating drums and gongs to urge. In the yard, there was a man holding a drum and drumming loudly in the army leader's ear, urging him to leave. Therefore, although the game is a tense battle of wits, it is also very exciting. Next to the festival yard, there are 4 huts built to play tam cuc dom. When playing, someone deals the cards and announces the cards with a very good rhyming poem. Players just listen to the advertisement and guess what cards the opponent has to choose. This is also a form of fun at Kep village festival. During the village festival, the village fertilizes the fruit to make a feast. This deck is also called the three-tier deck. This three-tiered meal has vegetarian dishes, salty dishes and fruit dishes. The village's vegetarian feast includes banh xeo, ginger cake, and green rice cake. For the savory feast, the dishes are: pork sausage, pork sausage, cinnamon rolls, chicken, pork, spring rolls, squid balls, bamboo shoots, vermicelli... Fruits include: Oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, grapefruit, persimmons, bananas. …put it on the altar for the village to feast on. After the feast is over, the village gives it to the people so they can eat the moist, fragrant feast that is for the village to use. This fund is taken from the fund of public fields, back fields... to take care of village affairs. Everyone from the upper house to the Ky Hao, Ly Dich, lower house, and Giai Dinh all enjoy it, but the seats in the communal house are divided into different ranks. The above people are given priority for chicken head, pig cheeks, and liver dishes. One meal for every four people. The funeral director and the men just kept making arrangements. On the evening of the January 6th festival, in communal houses and village pagodas, there are troupes of Nha To, Cheo, and Tuong performing for the people. The communal house in Kep village is the communal house of the first canton commune, so the communes in the canton's meeting are very crowded. Every year, if there is a drought, the village organizes an island bridge at the Sau village temple. To organize the island bridge, the village holds a ceremony to open Can temple and pray for rain for three days. On the second day, the procession is carried out to Sau. During the procession, let someone act as a thunder man or a lightning man. The thunder man and lightning man hold a torch made of bamboo or reed and wave it up and down to pretend to be thunder. At the same time, let the gongs and drums beat, resounding in the sky. Let the person carrying the water jar follow, occasionally scooping water with a coconut shell, holding it in his mouth and spraying it into the sky to pretend it's raining. In the past, Kep village was a village that only cultivated one crop, so the lower field was held on June 1 and the upper field ceremony (farming ceremony) was held in front of the village communal house. This ceremony includes a sacrifice to the field. In rituals, there are always three things: - A water potato plant. - A myrtle tree. - A stone. And the prayers always have structure: pray for the rice to be as green as potatoes, as wrong as myrtle, and sink like rocks. After this vow, the village allows young unmarried girls to go to the field in front of the plowed communal house to compete in planting. Whoever transplants quickly, straightly, beautifully, flexibly, and skillfully is the best. The 10th lunar month ceremony is also called the New Rice Ceremony. This festival includes rice cakes, sticky rice, and chicken for the communal house. The whole village ate together. Although there was no entertainment, the atmosphere in the village was very happy. Today's Kep village festival opens on the 20th day of the 2nd lunar month with the participation of Trong and Ngoai villages.

According to http://www.bacgiang.gov.vn/