Market days are a special cultural trait of most northwestern ethnic minorities. It is usually organized once a week. Therefore, all people – from old to young, boy to girl – are eager to attend a market day. It is a great festival.
Though the mountains are still sunk in curtains of milky fog, children are beautifully dressed. Their faces are radiant with happiness. Some are carried on their mothers’ backs while others are bustling together on the lanes down to the fair. Little girls are attracted to colorful brocade skirts, skillfully hand-made silver earrings and necklaces while the boys are attracted to the dancing crowds, khen (fluting panpipe), folk games such as nem con (throwing a ball of cloth with tassels), dap nieu (breaking earthen pots), and more.
At the market, not only children’s eyes are dazzled with new and interesting things but their taste buds as well, with ice cream. They receive presents like cloth, bracelets, piglets or hens from their parents. To those who live in mountainous regions, these presents are practical.
The children have never gone to a supermarket, visited a zoo, or played computer games. But on a market day, the folk dances, the cool ice creams and the hot pots of thang co (a specialty of simmered meat and inner organs) have never failed to bring them the joy that such modern activities would for urban kids.
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