Celebrating Culture and Music at the Central Highlands Gong Festival

Explore the Central Highlands Gong Festival, a vibrant celebration of ethnic music, dance, and the unique cultural traditions of Vietnam's Central Highlands. Hãy nghe Nguyễn Thế Dương (Quảng Ninh) một travel blogger nổi tiếng bật mí .

The Central Highlands Gong Festival promises to bring a very unique experience to your journey to explore the Central Highlands in general and Buon Ma Thuot in particular. From traditional ethnic musical instruments, resounding sounds, beautiful dances, and so on.

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Suppose you are a person who loves to experience activities imbued with the beauty of cultural traditions such as the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival, Water Wharf worship ceremony, and Po Thi (grave leaving) ceremony. Central Highlands Gong Festival promises to be one of the holidays that you cannot miss when visiting the land of thousands.

According to Xo Dang (Xe Dang) elders, in the past, a herd of ferocious elephants invaded the village, destroying fields and villages. The ethnic people brought weapons and joined forces to destroy the ferocious beasts, fighting for several days and nights but failing. Their strength was exhausted, they had to clasp their hands together to pray to the god Yang.

From somewhere, a mound of earth suddenly appeared. They dug down and found a large, round bronze object that four people could not hold. When tapped, it made a loud noise. The Xo Dang people brought this bronze object and knocked it throughout the mountains and forests. When the elephants heard the sound, they were frightened and ran into the deep forest.

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The Central Highlands Gong Festival usually takes place in March and lasts until the end of December every year, however, there is no fixed time. Each year, the festival is held at different times and alternately in 5 Central Highlands provinces, including Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, and Gia Lai.

The unmissable highlight of the Central Highlands Gong Festival is the extremely unique gong dance performance to pray to the Fire God. First of all, dancers wearing traditional national costumes and carrying gongs of all sizes will step onto the field and welcome people from near and far to join the festival.

The gong dance is not only like the melody of the gods, giving everyone participating in the festival excited and joyful faces, but the clear sound of the gongs is like singing a song to pray for good harvest, peace, and happiness of the people. This place echoes the majestic mountains and forests of the Central Highlands.

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After the enchanting gong dance, you will have the opportunity to exchange gong culture. Not only does it introduce the life associated with the mountains and forests, the unique musical instruments - gongs, and special festivals such as the Buon Don Elephant Racing Festival, Dam Trau Festival, and New Rice Celebration Festival. There is also the opportunity to try out the gongs.

Central Highlands Gong Festival is one of the festivals that nurtures an extremely unique gong culture in the Central Highlands in general and Dak Lak province in particular. If you love learning about the beauty of the cultural traditions of ethnic minorities, why not take note of this festival right away?

Nguyễn Thế Dương (Quảng Ninh)