{"id":728,"date":"2026-10-13T08:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tetkhucute.disanphivatthe.vn\/?p=728"},"modified":"2026-10-14T00:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T00:54:13","slug":"worship-ceremony-at-the-house-of-the-clan-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/en\/2026\/10\/13\/worship-ceremony-at-the-house-of-the-clan-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Worship Ceremony at the House of the Clan Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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One day after the worship ceremony held at the clan heads\u2019 homes, the heads of the clans gather at the village head\u2019s house. At this time, the village head serves as the principal ritual officiant, known as M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c<\/strong>, while the clan heads, acting as So V\u00e9<\/strong>, join him in conducting the ceremony. Since the principal officiant is selected each year through a process of election and divination using chicken feet, the village head may change from year to year, and consequently, the location of the ceremony may also change.<\/p>\n

Whoever is chosen as the village head must build an additional structure adjoining the main house for ritual purposes. Members of the community come together to help construct this structure. Inside, a dry wooden beam is placed horizontally for hanging gongs and drums. In the past, the La Ch\u00ed community also used bronze drums in the ceremony, including one male drum and one female drum. After the ceremony, the drums were taken to a cave in the mountains for safekeeping. However, in 1976, a member of the community, believing that the bronze drums contained valuable \u201cblack copper,\u201d stole and sold them, damaging them in the process. Since then, the community has no longer possessed these sacred objects.<\/p>\n

During the ceremony, M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c and the So V\u00e9 are required to wear long garments and black conical cloth hats. A strip of cloth is attached to the top of each hat to symbolize a woman\u2019s hair. According to oral tradition, ancestral worship among the La Ch\u00ed was once performed by women in the family. One day, however, a woman heard folk songs calling from the distant mountainsides and went off to sing, forgetting that she was about to perform the ancestral worship ceremony. A man in the family therefore put on women\u2019s clothing and wore a hat with an additional strip of cloth to represent a woman\u2019s hair so that he could perform the ceremony. Since then, men have taken on this ritual responsibility and have continued to wear women\u2019s traditional attire while conducting ancestral worship.<\/p>\n

The La Ch\u00ed do not use votive paper money in this ceremony. An ancestral story explains this custom. Long ago, when the La Ch\u00ed and other ethnic groups were searching for land to cultivate, the other groups travelled more quickly and claimed the land they encountered by burning dry grass and leaving small piles of ash as boundary markers. The La Ch\u00ed travelled more slowly. Wherever they stopped, they arranged three stones to make a cooking hearth and used branches and large pieces of wood as fuel.<\/p>\n

Because the mountainous terrain was steep and the area was frequently affected by strong winds and heavy rain, the piles of ash left by the other groups were eventually blown or washed away. By contrast, the La Ch\u00ed\u2019s three-stone hearths, with their blackened scorch marks, remained. Although the other groups claimed that the land belonged to them, they could no longer find their markers and therefore had to concede the land to the La Ch\u00ed. According to the story, this is why, when someone from another ethnic group dies, votive paper money is scattered as a symbolic payment to the La Ch\u00ed for burial land. The La Ch\u00ed, having land of their own and needing neither to ask for nor purchase land from anyone else, therefore do not use votive paper money in their rituals.<\/p>\n

The village head, or M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c<\/strong>, is the first to perform the worship ritual, followed by the clan heads. If the selected village head has not yet memorized all the ritual prayers, an elder with extensive knowledge of local customs assists and prompts him. The assistant\u2019s attire differs from that of M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c: instead of wearing a hat, he wraps a cloth around his head; he wears a short rather than a long garment, together with loose-fitting trousers. The assistant may also help the So V\u00e9 during their ritual performances.<\/p>\n

M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c recites prayers inviting the ancestors of the La Ch\u00ed to return and celebrate Khu C\u00f9 T\u00ea with the villagers, to share the meat of buffaloes raised by the community, to eat sticky rice grown on the fertile land of B\u1ea3n D\u00edu, and to drink sweet ho\u1eb5ng liquor<\/strong>, symbolizing the villagers\u2019 sincerity and hospitality. M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c also moves the ritual object known as \u201c\u0110o\u1ecdc Kh\u00e2u\u201d<\/strong> back and forth while praying for healthy rice plants and abundant harvests.<\/p>\n

After the village head completes his ritual, the clan heads begin theirs. Using buffalo horns filled with ho\u1eb5ng liquor, they invite the ancestors of their respective clans to return and witness the devotion of their descendants. They pray for ancestral blessings so that their clans may grow in number and strength, their granaries and homes may be filled with maize and rice, and their stables may be full of buffaloes and horses. While reciting the ritual prayers, the clan heads drink liquor, take pieces of meat, and eat sticky rice, signifying that the ancestors have returned. They also share meat and liquor with one another as an expression of solidarity and mutual support among the clans.<\/p>\n

The worship ceremony concludes with the beating of gongs and drums. At first, the group consists of two gong players and two drummers, who stand upright without swaying or dancing and perform an introductory rhythm. The clan heads then rise, hold a pair of drumsticks, and bow respectfully to M\u1ed5 C\u00f3c and the other clan heads. The clan head playing the drum on the right moves his body to the rhythm, then circles clockwise to play the opposite side of the drum. The clan heads take turns performing in this manner. When the final So V\u00e9 finishes playing, the ritual ceremony comes to an end.<\/p>\n

The host then prepares food and drink, and everyone who has come to witness the ceremony is invited to drink liquor and share buffalo meat.<\/p>\n

Source: Adapted from the documentation on Khu C\u00f9 T\u00ea Traditional New Year, Tuy\u00ean Quang Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Provincial Museum.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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One day after the worship ceremony held at the clan heads\u2019 homes, the heads of the clans gather at the village head\u2019s house. At this time, the village head serves … Read More “Worship Ceremony at the House of the Clan Heads”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_integration_method":"rest-api","beyondwords_language_code":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_source":"","beyondwords_output":"","beyondwords_script_template_id":"","beyondwords_video_template_id":"","beyondwords_video_size":"","beyondwords_embed":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":""},"categories":[57,150,50,146,1,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chuan-bi-cho-tet-khu-cu-te","category-introduction-to-khu-cu-te-new-year","category-sac-mau-tet-khu-cu-te","category-the-final-day-of-the-khu-cu-te-ritual","category-uncategorized","category-worship-ceremony-at-the-house-of-the-clan-heads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tetkct.disanphivatthe.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}