The Ban Flower Festival in Chiềng Khoa commune, Vân Hồ district.

While peach blossoms are associated with the highlands of the Hmong people, bauhinia flowers are typically linked to the charming stilt houses of the Thai ethnic group in their villages. "Ban" in the Thai language means "sweet," serving as both a noun and an adjective. Every March, the bauhinia blossoms blanket the hillsides, streams, winding roads, courtyards, and verandas of stilt houses – everywhere you look, you see them. Thus, bauhinia flowers have been intimately connected to the daily lives of the Thai people for generations.

The bauhinia flower is closely associated with the cultural life and beliefs of the Thai people. It is an indispensable offering in traditional spring festivals, the Xên bản xên mường festival at the beginning of the year, rain-praying rituals, the Xên Lẩu nó festival, and the offering of bamboo shoots... Bauhinia branches are used to decorate the festival, adding solemnity and beauty to the cultural space, and are also items that the Thai people use to express their hopes and wishes for a prosperous and lucky new year.

In culinary life, the bauhinia flower is an ingredient used to create dishes with rich mountain and forest flavors. Ms. Lo Thi Thuong, from Co village, Chieng An ward, City, shared: "Bauhinia flowers have a sweet and delicate taste, perfect for salads with bitter bamboo shoots and wild vegetables with a slightly astringent taste, helping to harmonize the flavors of the dish. Bauhinia flowers are also used in stir-fries, soups, and as a seasoning. Preparing bauhinia flowers requires skill, careful heat control, and quick cooking so that the petals don't break apart, preserving their color, crispness, and natural sweetness for the authentic taste."

The bauhinia flowers bloom profusely in early March. The Thai people use the bauhinia season to calculate their annual agricultural calendar, clearing land when the flowers bloom and sowing seeds when the flowers wither. They also use the blooming bauhinia to predict the year's harvest. Every year, when bauhinia flowers bloom profusely along the stream banks, hills, and forests, it signals a year of favorable weather and a bountiful harvest. Therefore, in their subconscious, the people always look forward to the seasons when bauhinia flowers bloom profusely, covering the forests in white when spring arrives, with the hope of a year of prosperity, abundance, and happiness.

As a long-time researcher of Thai ethnic literature and folklore, People's Artist Lo Van La, from To Hieu ward, City, said: The bauhinia flower appears frequently in Thai folk songs, proverbs, and especially in the ancient stories of the ethnic group. The bauhinia flower has entered folk literature as a familiar image; almost everyone who is a child of the Thai ethnic group knows or is familiar with it to some extent.

The legend of the Bauhinia flower is associated with the ancient story "Khom and Ban" of the Thai ethnic group, telling of a forbidden love between two young people, and the yearning for happiness and freedom that led them to sacrifice their lives to keep their vows. The Bauhinia flower is the embodiment of the beautiful and pure Ban, symbolizing the aspiration for faithful and unwavering love, and a complete and happy life. The Bauhinia flower also found its way into love songs between young men and women: "We love each other regardless of the season the Bauhinia blooms / We don't see the day the Bauhinia withers / We don't count months, we don't count years / Forever like the first season we loved each other," "We love each other when the Bauhinia is still in bud / We love each other when the Bauhinia blooms on the branch / The Bauhinia will wither, we hope it returns to the branch / The Bauhinia will fall, we hope it falls back to the root"...

A Thai ethnic girl beside a bauhinia flower.

The bauhinia flower has also found its way into folk songs and proverbs, distilled by generations from real life connected to the mountains, forests, and bauhinia seasons. These include agricultural practices such as: "Only burn the bauhinia fruit after it has split open / Only plant the sprouted bauhinia fruit in the field." Or, it expresses aspirations from everyday life: "A mother struggles to raise her young children / Raising her youngest child, hoping they will grow up to be good people / May they be healthy and beautiful forever, like the bauhinia tree"... a desire for the tree's vigorous vitality, overcoming the arid conditions of the mountains and rocky valleys to take root and thrive like the bauhinia tree.

In Vietnamese folklore, the bauhinia flower is the most beautiful image, representing the aspiration for a free life, a passionate yet pure love, and boundless innocence and nobility. The bauhinia flower also features in modern poetry and songs, where each author imbues their heart with feelings and longing for the Northwest region. As Professor To Ngoc Thanh said: “Many places in our country have bauhinia flowers, but nowhere are they as abundant and pure white as in the Northwest. Therefore, the bauhinia flower has naturally become a symbol of this vast and remote land.”

Thanh Dao

The Bauhinia flower in the life and culture of the Thai ethnic group (baosonla.org.vn)