Time to catch up with the ex; it's tradition
Source: Agencies |
May 28, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ONCE a year, with his wife's blessing, Lau Minh Pao gets to have a guilt-free tryst with his ex.
Their rendezvous have played out more like strolls down memory lane than salacious flings, but they are part of a treasured tradition in this mountainous corner of northern Vietnam that may challenge some more linear concepts of love.
"In the past, we were lovers, but we couldn't get married because we were far apart," said Pao as he waited for his date on a dark night in the village of Khau Vai in Ha Giang province.
Now when they meet, he said, "we pour our hearts out about the time when we were in love."
They are not alone. For two days each year, on the 26th and 27th of the third month of the lunar calendar, the tiny village of Khau Vai, strung along a saddle in the lush hills near China, is transformed into a "love market."
Hundreds of members of Giay, Nung, Tay, Dzao, San Chi, Lo Lo and Hmong hill tribes, among others, trek in from across the mountainous districts nearby to attend. Pao's wife was there, too, meeting her old flame.
Some travel for days, even from neighboring provinces.
This year, local artists in colorful clothing performed the story of the origin of the Khau Vai love market.
Legend has it an ethnic Giay girl from Ha Giang province fell in love with an ethnic Nung boy from the neigboring province of Cao Bang.
The girl was so beautiful her tribe did not want to let her marry a man from another tribe and a bloody conflict ensued between the two tribes.
Watching tragedy unfold before them, the two lovers sorrowfully decided to part ways to avoid further bloodshed and to restore peace.
But to keep their love alive they made a secret pact to meet once a year on the 27th day of the third lunar month in Khau Vai.
Their rendezvous have played out more like strolls down memory lane than salacious flings, but they are part of a treasured tradition in this mountainous corner of northern Vietnam that may challenge some more linear concepts of love.
"In the past, we were lovers, but we couldn't get married because we were far apart," said Pao as he waited for his date on a dark night in the village of Khau Vai in Ha Giang province.
Now when they meet, he said, "we pour our hearts out about the time when we were in love."
They are not alone. For two days each year, on the 26th and 27th of the third month of the lunar calendar, the tiny village of Khau Vai, strung along a saddle in the lush hills near China, is transformed into a "love market."
Hundreds of members of Giay, Nung, Tay, Dzao, San Chi, Lo Lo and Hmong hill tribes, among others, trek in from across the mountainous districts nearby to attend. Pao's wife was there, too, meeting her old flame.
Some travel for days, even from neighboring provinces.
This year, local artists in colorful clothing performed the story of the origin of the Khau Vai love market.
Legend has it an ethnic Giay girl from Ha Giang province fell in love with an ethnic Nung boy from the neigboring province of Cao Bang.
The girl was so beautiful her tribe did not want to let her marry a man from another tribe and a bloody conflict ensued between the two tribes.
Watching tragedy unfold before them, the two lovers sorrowfully decided to part ways to avoid further bloodshed and to restore peace.
But to keep their love alive they made a secret pact to meet once a year on the 27th day of the third lunar month in Khau Vai.
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