Bird Festival in Viet Nam

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel@undp.org>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 8:08 PM

Subject: Fwd: bird festival in viet Nam

Dear UNDP Viet Nam Country Office

Could you please help me with some some in depth information about bird festivals? I have been working a long time on a novel of Viet Nam, and it involves birds and a festival of birds in Viet Nam. I read the Viet language well, so the information could be in the Viet language, if that makes a difference.

When traveling through the Red River Delta several years ago, I heard of a bird festival. And on a website, I found references that many villages, for example in districts of Tien Son, Yen Phong (Ha Bac), Dong Anh, Thanh Tri, Tu Liem, Soc Son (Ha Noi), and Me Linh (Vinh Phuc) hold an annual bird festival in summer.

Could you send me any information, including the following, and anything else you think interesting about birds and a bird festival?

1. Spirit of birds

2. Relation of the people and village to birds

3. What happens in the festival

4. How and why such a festival originated.

5. Anything else interesting.

From hhtai@fas.harvard.edu Wed Aug 18 11:52:33 2004

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 21:43:40 -0400

From: Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: bird festival in viet Nam

Le Hong Ly at the Institute for Folklore Studies has written an unpublished paper about a bird festival in a village in the Red River Delta. He can be contacted at lhly@netnam.org.vn

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

From m.digregorio@fordfound.org Wed Aug 18 11:52:41 2004

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 23:59:15 -0700

From: Michael DiGregorio <m.digregorio@fordfound.org>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: RE: bird festival in viet Nam

The bird festivals are, in fact, in the spring and fall. They are called "le tha chim bay." The ones I know are organized within the area of 19 th century Kinh Bac - from Dong Anh, Gia Lam and parts of Hung Yen, to Bac Giang. I attended two, one in Co Loa (which is now part of Hanoi) another in Lang Me (Cho Me) which is now part of Bac Ninh. I should say that there have been a couple of big, state sponsored festivals in Hanoi as well.

The bird releasing festival usually takes place on the side of a pond in front of a local communal house or temple. Eight passenger pigeons are held under a bamboo covered plate. The cover looks like a bamboo "long ban", used to keep insects and pests out of food as it sits on the table. On the opposite side of the pond, three judges will be seated, along with a drummer. The drummer hits a steady beat on a large temple drum. The judges will have in front of them a list of contestants, the order chosen by lot. The participants are a mixed group of enthusiasts - some relatively poor, others well off. At the events I saw, they met in the temple or communal house for betel nut and tea before the contest began.

As the drum beats, birds are realeased at regularly intervals. Since these are regional contests, there can be several hundred contestants in a day. The birds fly up over the pond. The judges look into the pond to gauge their flight. The flocks are judged by how tight a formation they fly in, how well they spiral upward, and how high they fly - measured by the judges finger tips as they look into the pond.

When all goes well, there can be three to four flocks in the air at once, all spiraling above the pond. This is really impressive.

Once they get their barings, the birds fly back home to their roof top cotes. Since so many birds go up in a day, they sky become full of these eight bird groups. And since several people from a single village will compete, pigeon will also be seen flying over the villages looking for their homes.

Mike

From dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au Wed Aug 18 11:52:58 2004

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:40:02 +1000

From: David Marr <dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: RE: bird festival in viet Nam

Mike the ethnographer at work! It's amazing, but I've been passionately interested in Vietnam for 43 years now and never heard of the bird festivals. Ah well, it demonstrates that there is no end to fascinating people, places and things in Vietnam.

David Marr

From dnfox@u.washington.edu Wed Aug 18 11:54:04 2004

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 13:44:32 -0700 (PDT)

From: dnfox@u.washington.edu

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: RE: bird festival in viet Nam

Michael's description more or less matches my experience in village near Yen Phong, Ha Bac (Bac Ninh?--which is it these days?). I'd only add that the event was timed as part of the le for the village spirit. I have a friend who grew up in this village, and raised pigeons himself as a boy. Perhaps he might like to add something...or perhaps he would be too busy (he is now a university administrator in Hanoi). His address: Truyen_doduy@yahoo.com. In any case, the people in the village might be interested to hear of our interest and conversation, so I am forwarding this to him as well.

Diane