Dao People’s Song Mun Festival in Hai Ha district

Song Mun Festival, featuring the "Peace and Good Fortune Praying" ritual, is a social tradition that embodies the unique spiritual and cultural beauty of the Thanh Y Dao people. The festival expresses their wishes for favorable weather, bountiful harvests, prosperity, good health, and happiness.

According to the Thanh Y Dao people in Quang Đức Commune, "Song Mun" is a festival for peace and good fortune prayers. This is a long-standing traditional ritual that has been passed down through generations.

The "Peace and Good Fortune Praying" ritual is held three times a year: the early spring ceremony on the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month to welcome the new year, the mid-year ceremony on the 12th–13th of the 7th lunar month, and the year-end ceremony on the 20th–21st of the 12th lunar month.

These rituals take place in villages and hamlets of the Thanh Y Dao community, preserving their rich spiritual and cultural heritage.

In preparation for the ritual, households in the village contribute offerings together, and the village elder represents the entire community in carrying out the ceremony. The village elder must be a respected man who has undergone the Cấp Sắc (spiritual initiation) ritual and is honored by the villagers.

The typical offerings for the peace and good fortune prayer include chicken, pork, three-colored sticky rice, "bánh gù" (a traditional rice cake), and white rice wine. All of these are homegrown agricultural products made by the villagers themselves, symbolizing sincerity and devotion in their prayers.

The festival has evolved from being a small-scale village event into a larger cultural festival that highlights the rich ethnic heritage of the community since 2024. Many beautiful customs and traditions of the Dao people have been revived and preserved through this event.

This transformation helps diversify tourism offerings, attracting more visitors to the region while also contributing to the cultural development and strengthening the unique identity of Quang Ninh’s people.

The 2025 Song Mun Spring Festival features a variety of exciting activities, including a highland market fair, folk music club performance, Dao Thanh Y women’s traditional hairdressing competition, an ethnic cuisine contest, an ethnic costume exhibition, a pandan leaf cake-wrapping contest, a leaf flute playing competition, folk singing exchanges and bamboo dancing, etc.

The festival includes traditional ethnic sports competitions like stick pushing, ethnic minority women's tug-of-war, and other fun folk games.