The Doi Calendar of Muong people

Abstract

Muong people live mostly in Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces with a cultural life that is full of folk traditions: “Steamed rice, stilt houses, carried water, grilled pork, days pass by and months coming up”. “Days pass and months are coming up” indicates the calendar of Muong people, named Doi Calendar because it was created based on the compatibility between the movement of Doi star and the moon. This calendar has 360 days, 12 months, 3 weeks per month and 8 hours per day. In comparison with the lunar calendar, the first day of the year in the Doi calendar overlaps with the second day and the first month of the year overlaps with March in the lunar calendar. The Doi calendar consists of 8 concepts: Can Troong, Khoa Ngang, Kim Troong, Khoa Ro, Kim Xa, Xuom Xa, Can Xa, Xuom Troong. Each one implies both good and bad fortunes differently. The knowledge of the Doi calendar is embraced and expressed on 12 bamboo sticks that represent 12 months of the year. On each bamboo stick, there are 30 carved horizontal or skewed lines or symbols with different meanings. Since before 1957, this calendar had been used for the purposes of producing, farming, estimating hours and days of good and bad fortunes for building houses, traveling, and marriage.