Vieing for Ball

A round wooden ball, sometimes a coconut or grapefruit must undergo the ritual of presenting to god before being taken into game.
In the courtyard of the village communal house, two groups of youth wearing loincloths compete enthusiastically to vie for the ball to throw it at either a hole in the east or in the west amidst the boisterous sound of drums and cry of the audience. The winner is the side with higher number of times of throwing the ball at the other side’s hole.
In some places the hole is dug in the middle of the courtyard of the communal house. Some other localities require that the ball be thrown at a bottomless basket hung in a tree. Still some others set the rule that whichever side that can throw the ball at its own hole becomes the winner.
- Chanting While Sawing Wood (keo cua lua xe)
- Blind Man’s Buff
- Vietnamese Rugby or Vat Cu
- The Art of Traditional Wrestling
- The Pull of Natural Forces (keo co)
- Bamboo Swings (Danh Du)
- Battle of the Chickens (choi ga)
- Human Chess
- Releasing pigeons (tha chim)
- Throwing a sacred ball through the ring (nem con)
- The Game of the Dragon-Snake (rong ran)
- Cat and Mouse Game (meo duoi chuot)
- The game of squares (O an quan)
- Kites that make music (dieu sao)
- Bamboo Jacks (choi chuyen)









