PLACES TO VISIT IN VIETNAM - KHAU VAI MARKET

PLACES TO VISIT IN VIETNAM - KHAU VAI MARKET

Khau Vai Market is also known as Phong Luu Market or Khau Vai Love Markets. Khau Vai Market is at Meo Vac District in Ha Giang Province. Appeared about 100 years ago, this market opens only once pear year which often takes places in April. At first, just a few people sell stuffs in the market as the main purpose of going to Khau Vai Market is to meet friends after one year or many years without seeing one another. Most of people going to Khau Vai Market are those who love each other but cannot marry for some reasons. On the market day, they all go to Khau Vai Market to meet each other again, recall all memories and let each other knows about their lives. Many couples go to Khau Vai Market together but both husband and wife will look for their ex-boy friend or girl friends. They all respect each other and consider this part of their spiritual life.
Once upon a time, a Nung (Nung hill tribe) man named Ba and a Giay (Giay hill tribe) girl named Ut. They loved each other and tended to get married. Ba was smart, good looking and was good at singing, dance but was born into a poor family. Ut was pretty and she was the daughter of the chef in the village. As Ba’s family was poor, not the same tribe therefore Ut’s family would not like the two many each other. The couple ran away from their villages to live with each other on Khau Vai Mountain. People from Ut’s family went to look for the couple. Ba’s family did the same and both families get into the flight. From the top of Khau Vai Mountain, the saw two families killing each other, both did not want this happened and decided to sacrifice their love to save their families. Ut and Ba swear that they would be husband and wife in their next lives. The date they left each other was 27th March (lunar calendar). When the couple left each other, they promised would see each other on 27th March every year. Though cannot marry each other but they meet each other on 27th March every year at Khau Vai to let each other knows about their lives in a year. They talked, they sang, they danced through the night and get back to their daily life the next day. On the last day of their lives, they met each other again, sat under the tree, hug each other and got into their eternal life. The date they died was also on 27th March and today, Khau Vai Market is opened on 27th March every year.