Khau Vai Love Market in Ha Giang: What to sell? What to visit?

If you've been to Ha Giang and don't know Khau Vai Love Market, you probably haven't been to Ha Giang. But, what does Khau Vai Love Market have? What does Khau Vai Love Market sell? What makes Khau Vai love market so attractive? Is it possible that as the name suggests, it is for "love trading"? Let's explore Khau Vai Love Market with Ama Journey.

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What is Khau Vai Love Market?

Khau Vai Love Market, also known as Phong Luu Market, has a history of nearly 100 years. Khau Vai Love Market originated from a sad but beautiful love story. Khau Vai Love Market is the most famous "adultery" market in Ha Giang.

This is an opportunity for people to find each other, after a year (or many years) apart, mainly people who had difficult relationships, really loved each other, but for some reasons did not marry, and now each person has their own destiny. On this day, they will arrange to come here to confide in each other, inform each other about their personal lives, and revisit old feelings.

When does Khau Vai Love Market take place?

According to some documents, the market has existed since 1919. Currently, even the oldest people in the commune do not know when the market started, only know that the market has been there since forever.

Colorful Khau Vai Love Market in Ha Giang

The market is located in Khau Vai Commune, Meo Vac District, Ha Giang and only opens once a year on the 27th day of the third lunar month.

What does Khau Vai Love Market have?

This is a place for couples to come together after one or more years of separation. The market opens for them to come together, revisit beautiful memories of the past, share with each other about current life, worries or joys of life.

There are also couples who go to the market together, but when they arrive, each person goes to find their past without any jealousy. They respect each other, and respect each other's past. For them, it is a job with a sacred and noble meaning, a duty and also their responsibility towards their other half of the marriage.

The story and origin of Khau Vai Love Market

The story of the love market originates from the legend of Mr. Ba and Miss Ut. As the story goes, once upon a time, in the Khau Vai area, there was a poor Nung farmer family with three sons, all of whom were healthy, handsome and good at farming and hunting.

The third son had a very good voice and was talented at playing the flute. Although his family was poor, he was very kind. When he saw someone in trouble, he was willing to help. Therefore, the villagers lovingly called him by an affectionate name "Mr. Ba". Moreover, the sound of his flute and his singing voice made everyone fall in love, especially young girls.

The family of the patriarch of the nearby Giay village had a beautiful youngest daughter. She liked to go to the stream to reflect on herself. She had a beautiful voice like a nightingale. The older she got, the more brilliantly beautiful she was like a peahen.

There were many young men from rich families in the area who wanted to ask her to be his wife, but she was not satisfied because her heart only sobbed because of the sound of Mr. Ba's flute. Interestingly, her singing had been intertwined with Ba's flute before she knew it. The only thing that she knew was when she heard the sound of Ba's flute, her legs wanted to go down the stairs and run to him. For Mr. Ba, every time he heard Miss Ut's singing, his heart felt fluttering.

The two loved each other, but Miss Ut's family did not agree because he was poor and because of his different ethnicity, which meant they did not have the same ghost, and did not have the same customs and traditions. In other words, Nung men could not marry Giay women.

He and she ran away from home and took each other to Khau Vai mountain cave to live. The girl's family and clan carried pistols and crossbows to the boy's house and scolded Mr. Ba for breaking the tradition of taking the girl to the forest. The boy's family also brought sticks, guns, and knives to curse at the girl's family.

From the mountain cave, they looked down at the scene of blood flowing and stabbing each other between the two villages. Loving their father, loving their mother, loving the villagers, the two villages suddenly became hostile to each other just because of their love, so the boy and girl parted ways and returned to the village, vowing to become husband and wife in the next life. The day they broke up was March 27, and people in the area took that day as market day.

When the couple broke up, they swore a blood oath: Even though they could not marry each other, every year, on March 27, they would go to Khau Vai to sing to each other, telling each other the secrets they had cherished in their hearts for a whole year apart. They confided, sang all night long and then returned to their usual lives.

Khau Vai Love Market becomes a place for old lovers to find each other

On the last day of their lives, they came together again. They came to the foot of a tree in the forest and sat next to the old vow stone, holding each other tightly and going into eternity. They left on March 27 - the day that year they decided to break up. The villagers built two shrines, "Mister shrine" and "Madame shrine," right at the place where they died to commemorate Khau Vai's love affair.

That's why the annual Khau Vai Love Market has become a place for people to come together after a year (or maybe many years) apart, mainly people with sad love relationships. They make plans to come here on this particular day in order to rekindle old emotions, share details about their personal lives, and confide in one another.

Khau Vai Love Market today

Khau Vai Love Market is an activity organized to preserve and promote the traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities in Ha Giang Province, recreating the cultural identities of the people in the Dong Van Karst Plateau global geopark, contributing to building and developing social, family, and love standards of morality, imbued with the noble and traditional humanity of the people.

Dancing at Khau Vai Love Market

Coming to the Ha Giang Karst Plateau on the occasion of the Khau Vai Love Market will certainly bring new and comprehensive experiences about the landscape and lifestyle of the Mong ethnic people in Ha Giang.

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