The banyan treee at Xuan O Village, Bac Ninh Province, where the Yin Yang Market brings together the living and the dead

A defunct market where the living and the dead mingled in silence 2,000 years ago will be revived in the northern province of Bac Ninh next year.

It was held without any light and in complete silence, so that in the feeble light of the stars, it was hard to tell the living from the dead.

The Yin Yang Market, which was traditionally held at night on the 4th day of the first month on the Lunar Calendar at Xuan O Village, used to be one of the most crowded festivals of the northern region many, many years ago, said 74-year-old Nguyen Thanh Tuy, who has spent years studying the village’s history.

It has been frequently featured in literature, paintings and even films, yet no one, including the eldest at the O Village, as it was known in the past, has ever attended the market.

Now, residents, researchers and experts are making efforts to bring the very special and unique night market back.

The village has in fact received approval to restore the market in cooperation with Bac Ninh Province’s authorities and the Vietnam Institute of Culture and

Arts Study on the fourth and fifth of the first month on the Lunar Calendar, which falls on February 17-18 next year.

According to the festival’s website at www.choamduong.com, the event will include folk games like hopscotch and tug of war held during the day while a five-hour prayer ceremony will be held on the 4th night of the lunar new year.

Thao Giang, vice director of Vietnam Center of Arts and Music Development, said given the efforts to make some of the features authentic, there are bound to be some difficulties in organizing the market, including performances of quan ho folk songs around the village’s banyan tree.

He explained they won’t use recordings for the performances as at most traditional music performances, but play instruments live, which needs more careful preparation.

The organizers also plan to play rare quan ho songs, newspaper The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) has reported.

“There will be no beggars, no gambling and no services that charge visitors a lot of money,” a member of the organizing committee said. “Everything, including accommodations for visitors will be prepared with the help of volunteers.”

The number of visitors attending quan ho performances, however, will be limited to guarantee the festival’s quality, the paper quoted the organizers as saying.

The organizers are inviting those who want to participate or help as volunteers to contact them through the website which has an English version at http://english.choamduong.com/.

In 2007, the village made a VND48-million (US$2,686) documentary on the Yin Yang Market that was broadcast on local TV channels.

Martyrs’ spirits

Tuy, head of O Village’s history research group, said the market dates back to AD 40 when a battle between Hai Ba Trung (the Trung sisters)’s army and Chinese invaders took place at the village.

After the battle, families of the dead soldiers came to find and pray for their souls, and this eventually led to the foundation of Yin Yang Market, he said.

According to an article posted on Bac Ninh Province’s portal, at sunset on the 4th of the first lunar month, residents would bring black roosters that had been raised with care for long time to a large area near a sacred temple. The fowl were put on sale along with other objects used in religious rituals like incense and rice mixed with salt for sale.

Experts from Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Research said people at the Yin Yang Market didn’t use candles or kerosene lamps as they were afraid the light would mislead the roosters about daybreak make them crow, driving the spirits away.

People didn’t talk loudly either, so the souls of the dead would not be frightened.

All people did was buy and sell. In silence. No bargaining, of course. No counting of money.

It was a custom that a bucket of water was placed at the market’s entrance for people to check if the money they received was from a living person or a spirit. If the coins floated in the water, it was from the dead.

However, it is said that despite people being present near the bucket, some people still found the money turn into pebbles or broken bowl pieces. These people weren’t angry but happy that they had done something of benefit for the dead.

After the market ended, usually between 8-9 p.m., people went together to enjoy betel and tea at stalls along the street where quan ho performances would last overnight.

Source: Tuoi Tre, Agencies