You want to meet again your past lover? Ok. Let’s go to Khau Vai love market. Folks can’t stand the idea of their partners speaking to their exes, let alone socializing with them. But things are very different in a little neighborhood of Vietnam. Situated in Meo Vac. It’s one of the most famous market in North Vietnam.
How Khau Vai Love market is unique?
A yearly love economy of sorts is held in the hillside village of Khau Vai north of Hanoi, near the border with China. Khau Vai love market can take place every year, on the 26th and the 27th of the next month of the lunar calendar. During both of these days, hundreds of ex fans from hill tribes such as Tay, Nung, San Chi, Lo Lo, Dao, Giay and Hmong are shrouded. They trek from different mountainous districts nearby to be capable to spend two weeks with the ones they couldn’t spend their lives with.
This concept could sound extremely odd to us, and there may be every chance of a cat fight breaking out whether this distinctive love festival was held in the entire world. However the people of Khau Vai possess a strong reason behind the celebrating their love market. It’s been a part of their heritage for hundreds of years. Travel to Ha Giang on this time will be very exiting.
The Legend of Khau Vai Love Market
The story is quite sad – a cultural Giay woman from Ha Giang had fallen for a Nung boy out of Cao Bang. But she said to have been so beautiful that her tribe didn’t want her to marry a guy from another community. What followed was a warfare between the two tribes. As the fans witnessed the tragedy that surrounded their lives, they chose to part ways from the greater interest. However their love didn’t die there. A key pact was made between the fans to meet each other once a year in Khau Vai love market – on the 27th day of the next Lunar month.
The tradition is being carried on today. On the designated times festival, local artists wrapped out in colorful garments reenact this story of romance that is forbidden. Some may dismiss the fans rendezvous that occur in Khau Vai as brief flings, but in reality things are different.
The villagers view Khau Vai love market as a time to really go down memory lane, cherishing more happy moments of their past. Lau Pao, for example, gets to meet his old fire and speak to her once annually.
In the past, we had been fans, but we could not get married because we were much apart. We pour out our hearts about the time whenever we were in love. We meet to tell the story of how it was whenever we had been in love back then. Pao’s spouse has no issues with this, as she’s away meeting her ex lover in the exact same time.
That is a situation for people of those hills. But, with time the tradition has taken on a more contemporary sense. The young plan dates through text messages and take pictures on their phones. The village is more accessible due to new roads.
Images Source: Internet