Guided Composition (Narrative)

A FESTIVAL IN MY VILLAGE

I was born in Ha Nam , a province in the North of Vietnam . I am always proud of my hometown with hard-working and kind farmers. I feel most proud of my village because of the many traditional festivals that takes place every year. One of the most important festivals in my village is ” Village Festival ” . “Village Festival” takes place every twoyears to remind people in the village of the god of the village who built the village . People often call the god of the village as ” Thanh Hoang Lang” . This festival takes place on full-moon day of February . There are three parts in the” Village Festival”.

The first part of the festival that children are the most eager is lifting the palaqueen and lion dances . On the day of Village Festival, children often get up early , wearing beautiful clothes . Then they go to the communal house of the village to wait for the palaqueen . About 7 o’clock , all of people in the village gather in two sides of the road to see the palaqueen pass . It is believed that children who go under the palaqueen on this day will have good health and will study very well. At 8 o’clock in the morning, the palaqueen starts being raised from the village to the village . The palaqueen is raised by eight people . Always the old people in the traditional costume go in front of the palaqueen and they both go and spread things like coins, pink candles. My grandma told me that people who pick the pink candles are very lucky . They often put the candles in front of their children ‘s bed . It is thought that the light of the pink candle will make their children more intelligent and healthier. Therefore they try to get the pink candles. Lion dances are also followed by the palaqueen. The procession lasts for more than an hour.

After the procession , people in the village : the old, the young and children move to the river in the village quickly to see the next part of the Village Festival called ” traditional games”. Traditional games is the most interesting part in the Village Festival,so villagers always wait for this activity . There are a lot of traditional games that takes place in this part such as boat race , tug of war and wrestling… One of the most interesting games in Village Festival is the racing boat . There are five teams which present the fives villages. It is a very proud thing for any village to win the competition .Therefore , every village chooses the strongest man to join the boat race competition.In this game , competitors sit on an imperial boat , a boat has the form of a dragon decorated with the different colours. The captains who stand at the head of the boat order their team to sail the boat quickly . As soon as the sound of the drum starts , all team begin sailing as fast as they can. Along two sides of the river viewers are shouting for encouragement for their home team .The louder the sound of yelling and shouting of fans is , the more quickly the competitors sail.People who watch at two sides of the river run after the boat to encourage for their team . The team which sails to the finish the most quickly will be the winner of the game . It is a big pride of the village for the team who gets the first prize . Besides the boat race , the traditional games like tug of war , rice- cooking and wrestling are also seen by most people in the village. The activities of the traditional games finish at about 1p.m in the afternoon .

The last part of Village Festival is celebrated in the communal house yard after the traditional games.

When the traditional games finish , villagers gather in front of the communal house yard to eat a traditional meal and to see which teams get prizes in traditional games. From early in the morning, woman in the village prepare necessary materials to cook the meal. Often women in the village who are good at cooking will be chosen to cook for Village festival . About 12 p.m all the food is shown carefully and spectacularly on the tables in the communal house yard . On Village festival day the communal house becomes more crowded.This is a special occasion for people in the village to meet and talk together about their work as well as the harvest . Firstly, the results of the traditional games in the morning are announced by the leader of the village . Most people are awaiting to hear which teams win the first prize . It is the pride for the village that wins the first prize . The winners in the traditional games last year will award the prize for the winners this year.Then people sit on their seats eating the meal. They both eat and talk happily. After the meal ,people gather to hear the women in the village sing folk songs The Village festival lasts untill early in the evening .

Despite the impact of the industrialization , the Village Festival is still celebrated as the cultural and traditional beauty of my village . It reminds the young generation of the tradition and originality.