According to custom, before getting married, the boys must know how to weave and play gongs, the girls must be good at weaving mats and weaving. The girl must prepare 100 bundles of beautiful firewood to present to the groom's family at the wedding ceremony. The newlyweds usually stay with the wife's parents for about 3-4 years, then move to the husband's parents' house for 3-4 years, alternating like that until the parents of one side pass away before settling down in one place.
Mr. Brôl Ve - the village elder of Dak Rang, Dak Duc commune, Ngoc Hoi district said: According to the concept of the Trieng people, folk festivals are associated with the life cycle, and marriage is an important milestone. Since ancient times, the marriage customs of the Trieng people have been very civilized: one wife, one husband, voluntary. In the direct line, only from the 4th generation onwards can they become husband and wife.
In the past, boys around 10 years old started sleeping at night in the communal house, around 15 years old they filed their teeth and after a few years they would get married. Girls took the initiative in their marriage and their choices were respected by their parents. The matriarchal traces are still strong in the fact that girls take the initiative in marriage, when they have their eyes on a boy, they need a close girlfriend to act as a matchmaker to give gifts. The gift could be a piece of sugar cane, a melon, a corn or simply a flower. When the boy has received the gift, it means that he officially has feelings for the girl and they begin to experience many discreet but interesting behaviors. A typical example is the customary dream in the communal house.
Late at night, when sleep is near, the girl's close friend will go to the boy's communal house to look for the boy's feet and lightly scratch them. The boy receives the signal and follows the girl to lead the way to the girl's communal house. That night, they slept together, but not as husband and wife, although they shared the same blanket. This dream brought the young man a dream that could be good or bad. If it was good, it would be dreaming of the rising sun, good bamboo bushes, clear streams… and if it was bad, it would be seeing a fallen tree, a landslide, a muddy stream… the dream was a premonition of marriage. If he had a bad dream, the young man would find a way to tell the girl that they were destined but not destined; on the contrary, if he had a good dream, both sides could ask their parents and family for permission to nurture their love until both families could inform the village elders that the love had been accepted.
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| Being a Gie-Trieng girl, one must prepare firewood for engagement. |
The engagement ceremony, called Ta Vuy Treng in Trieng, will be held by the matchmaker at night, from the groom's house to the bride's house. The Trieng custom holds that the engagement ceremony must be kept secret for fear of spiders falling and cockroaches, which is a way of saying that bad-hearted people will speak out and affect the couple's happiness. Therefore, only relatives will attend the engagement ceremony. During the engagement ceremony, a chicken will be sacrificed, but the chicken's neck will be cut at the groom's house and given to the girl. The matchmaker will pray for permission from the gods and cross two wine jugs and give them to the couple to drink, then to the parents of both sides and relatives. Then they will congratulate, eat and drink happily, not forgetting to discuss the wedding ceremony. After that, the bride's family will leave first and prepare to welcome the groom's family and the matchmaker to hold the engagement ceremony at their house, the rituals will take place as at the groom's family. From here on, the groom and the bride are allowed to call each other's parents.
To prepare for the wedding, before sunrise, the young men in the village split up to go to the fields to set traps for birds and animals, go to the river to cast nets to catch fish and prepare dishes for the wedding day. The elderly, sitting by the communal house fire, make folk musical instruments from bamboo tubes and dried gourd shells to play on the wedding day, the sounds of those instruments will represent their hearts to bless the young couple. The women are also busy going into the forest to find bitter rattan, get bamboo shoots, pick wild vegetables to prepare indispensable dishes for the wedding day. While the young men go to the fields and rivers, the elderly make musical instruments, the women go to the forest, the girls are busy helping their friends chop bundles of betrothal firewood for the girl to give to her husband's family, the firewood is chopped regularly, split on the spot and then brought to the girl's house and piled up waiting for the day to be transferred to the groom's house. According to custom, before getting married, the boys must know how to weave and play gongs, the girls must be good at weaving mats and weaving (in areas with weaving). The girl must prepare 100 bundles of beautiful firewood to present to the groom's family at the wedding ceremony. The newlywed couple usually stays with the bride's parents for about 3-4 years, then moves to the groom's parents' house for 3-4 years, alternating like that until the parents of one side pass away before settling down.
The wedding is held during the day, starting with the transfer of the betrothal firewood from the bride's house to the groom's house. Next, under the direction of the matchmaker, the wedding ceremony is held with chickens, pigs, baskets, jars of wine and the clothes that the girl had previously woven as gifts for the groom's family. During the ceremony, the matchmaker puts his finger on the mouth of the jar of wine and prays that "we promise each other, love each other, have many children, live together until we close our eyes and pass away. If unfortunately, one of the two people dies first, one year later the living person can change their feelings and marry another person”.
Pigs and chickens are slaughtered and processed into dishes, along with bamboo rice, bird meat, rat meat, wild vegetables, both sides eat and drink happily and enthusiastically. When leaving, the groom's family gives the bride's family a hind leg of a pig, some rice, salt, chili and a jar of wine. The next day will be the wedding held at the bride's family, all the ceremonies will take place the same as at the groom's family, the bride's pig will be slaughtered by a representative of the groom's family. The gifts given to the groom's family when leaving are the same as at the groom's family. According to the Trieng people's customs, after the bride's wedding, the groom will stay at the bride's family for a while before moving back to his own house. During this time, they go to the fields together to take care of crops, collect firewood, set traps for wild animals... Also during this time, the groom's family will divide the wedding firewood among the bride's family and relatives. After a while, the couple moved to the husband's house. Before leaving, the girl's family would give her three gifts: a door pin, with the intention of preserving the couple's happiness; a basket of salt to put in the kitchen symbolizing a prosperous life and a dog. From then on, the couple would always be together, sharing the same path until their last breath.
Along with performing arts, culinary culture, the wedding ceremony of the Trieng ethnic group, Dak Rang village, Dak Duc commune (Ngoc Hoi district) is truly a healthy cultural feature, rich in identity that needs to be preserved and promoted.