Although Nguyen Thi Van has an important meeting this morning, she’s blown it off in favour of visiting a privately-owned shrine in a suburb of Hanoi. She’s the company director, so there’s no need for elaborate excuses. Besides, she believes attending the religious ceremony known as Hau Dong is good for business. She regularly goes twice a week to different shrines, as it “helps her contact the spiritual world.”

It also “helps her feel really comfortable before going back to work”. Inside tables are laden with the typical offerings you find in Vietnamese shrines, temples and pagodas: fruit, cakes and paper-money. There is also the ubiquitous odour of incense hanging in the air. The atmosphere is hot and muggy, even though it is wintertime now, perhaps due to the palpable intensity.

A throng of people huddle together on a large mat in the middle of the shrine. A man, wearing a traditional dress, rocks his body to the sounds of Hat Chau Van, a ritualistic form of music that is associated with religious ceremonies. After a three hour wait, Van gets her turn. In a green dress and a headscarf, she holds two candles and begins her dance as a man sings and musicians play.

The atmosphere is undoubtedly mystical and quite intoxicating. But what do people coming here actually believe in? Thao Giang, a renowned musicologist, explains that most people who come to such rituals are traders, people who believe participating in the ceremony will help their profits increase.

“After the ritual, paper-money is distributed to all of the attendants, which will bring good luck in business,” he says. Hat Chau Van, also known as Hat Van, and Hat Bong in the south, first appeared in the Red River delta back in the 15th century during the Le dynasty. It directly stems from Tu Phu, the cult of the four mother goddesses, who resided over Heaven, the Sea, the Forest and Earth During its development, Hat Chau Van has always incorporated the regional folk music throughout the country.

The music is commonly localized and differs from place to place. The rhythm, music and lyrics of Hat Chau Van is believed to have the power to hypnotize people, who have become estranged from the spirit world. But, strictly speaking, there are two forms. The first form is known as Chau Van Tho; it is performed during more standard worshipping ceremonies. The second form, Chau Van Len Dong, is more akin to a spiritual séance.

For Chau Van Tho you will hear lyrics that speak of the origins, history and legends of a temple in Vietnam. A story can last a whole day. The accompanying musical instruments include flutes, two-stringed violins, 16-chord zithers, drums and castanets. “The singers must be men,” says Giang. “They can wear casual clothes even performing at an altar.”

At a temple in Bac Ninh province people might hold a Chau Van Tho ceremony to worship the goddess Co Doi, as she was once a trader, who provided cooking for local troops to fight against invaders. In a temple in Nghe An province, people come to worship Hoang Muoi, who was the son of the sea deity and the protector of the province’s spirituality. He often turned into a human to help the locals ; it is believed he possessed many of Nghe An’s historical heroes in times of need. Chau Van Len Dong is essentially a form of cantillation that reduces people into a trance-like state.

It claims to respond to occult powers and express the will and orders of super-natural beings. It may contain many variations depending on the number of verses sung, often coming to a climax or slowing down to a meditative tempo. “Those who sing this type of Chau Van have to follow the Tu Phu religious beliefs and have to know how to sing and dance,” says Giang.

Traditionally, one part of a ritual could last three hours. A whole ritual could include 72 episodes and last several days and nights. These days, however, the ritual has been whittled down to include just 12 different sections. “The episodes are representative of 12 deities. It is said that the human body is just an entity for the deities’ soul to inhabit,” Giang says. For Chau Van Len Dong, those performing must be well-dressed in accordance with the deity they are extolling.

“For example, the red dress is for the Mother of Heaven, the white dress is for the Mother of the Sea, the dark green is for the Mother of the Forest and the yellow dress is for the Mother of Earth,” says Van. “Why did you have to cover your head with the headscarf?” I ask. “To help the deity’s soul incarnate my body.

When the soul leaves my body, I take the headscarf off,” she answers Although Chau Van Len Dong might sound like an extremely intense spectacle, Giang believes that: “Vietnamese are very religious but not fanatical.” She adds that: “Chau Van singing is just a religious and cultural activity.”

(Source: Time-out)