Fertility Worship in the Folk Festivals of the Vietnamese in the Red River Delta

Abstract

Fertility rituals, which have at their center the proliferation of plants and animals, the god of agriculture and the observation of taboos in cultivation, are among the oldest rituals of humankind; they are independent of other religious beliefs and practices, and closely associated with agricultural production. The early Vietnamese people in the North had a System of ancient beliefs, including fertility worship. Favorable natural conditions in terms of climate, land as well as the social conditions of village life among the people in the Red River Delta supported the development of wet rice cultivation, and with it, the development of fertility worship for proliferation, good weather and bumper crops. This type of worship is most evident in the folk festivals originating from agricultural festivities. Within such festivals, fertility is always a Central the me, as fertility rituals for crops and livestock are found in nearly all of them.