Pounding Com Festival, a unique cultural feature of the Tay

People choose the best variety of rice for the Com Pounding Festival (photo: Van Ty/VNA)

The village is filled with the scent of grilled young sticky rice, the sound of people pounding rice in mortars, and cheerful voices and laughter.

When the sticky rice fields turn a little bit yellow in the ninth lunar month, the Tay hold the Com Pounding Festival to welcome the new rice and prepare for the Lunar New Year. The festival, which gives people an opportunity to get together, has a spiritual significance.

Ma Duc Muon of Trung Ha commune said, “On the 15th or 16th day, people cut the green sticky rice to make com to offer to the Heaven God. We pray for his protection, for abundant crops, and for good luck. We need to hold this festival to feel economically secure.”

While pounding the young sticky rice, people cheer to the beat of the pestles.

A pestle and mortar is the traditional tool used to husk the rice grains. When the culinary culture sublimates into spiritual culture, the pestle and mortar becomes a musical instrument.

The pestle, about 1.5 meters long, is made from an oak trunk. The wooden mortar is made from a tree hollowed out like a dugout canoe.

The rice used to make com is carefully selected. The young sticky rice grains must have a light yellow color. The young rice is boiled or roasted and allowed to cool before being pounded in a mortar to remove the husk.

Quan Thi Hien, a Tay woman in Trung Ha commune, said, “We make cốm from a special type of local-grown sticky rice called nếp cái hoa vàng. We also make cốm cakes.”

Pounding young sticky rice is re-enacted in six songs with different rhythms to express spirituality and fertility. The songs praise love, morality, personal will, and emotions, connect the community, and rekindle pride in cultural traditions, Hien said.

“I grew up in a Tay village, in the rice fields, and was raised on rice. I’m proud of our unique festival, through which we preserve our culture and promote the cultural values handed down from our ancestors,” said Hien.

To preserve the delicious flavor and soft texture of the green rice grains, the rice is carefully wrapped in banana leaves or dong leaves. A delicious dessert is made of freshly pounded green rice and ripe bananas. The soft, aromatic green rice grains and the sweet ripened bananas make an appealing combination.

Green sticky rice is also cooked with duck broth to make a greasy, thick porridge. The pounded green rice grains can be popped to make a crispy rice popcorn. Tay women also steam young rice to keep it soft all day.

At the Com Pounding Festival, the Tay offer the best rice grains, the first bowl of green rice porridge, and the first bowl of steamed rice to the house ghost, the land genie, and the ancestors.

Seo Van Su of Trung Ha commune said, “Trung Ha is a pure agricultural commune. The Com Pounding Festival, one of the time-honored cultural activities of the Tay people, aims to preserve ethnic cultural identity and promote local agricultural products.”

The Com Pounding Festival of the Tay in Tuyen Quang has been added to the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritages by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.