This special event is held annually, from the late evening of the third Lunar month's 26th day and lasts until the end of next day in Khau Vai Commune, Meo Vac District in the northern most province of Vietnam, Ha Giang.This special event is held annually, from the late evening of the third Lunar month's 26th day and lasts until the end of next day in Khau Vai Commune, Meo Vac District in the northern most province of Vietnam, Ha Giang.

Khau Vai love market, also known as Phong Luu (prosperous) market, has a history of nearly 100 years. According to some documents, the market was started from the 1919s. The market is located in Khau Vai commune, Meo Vac district, Ha Giang province, Vietnam and meets once a year.

Khau Vai love market in Ha Giang is held once a year on March 27th in lunar calendar. At this time, in all the roads, the sloping slopes, we can encounter many groups of men and women, young and old, even children that are busy preparing to join the love market of Khau Vai. Everyone wants to be beautiful and radiant in the market, so everyone is wearing new clothes and skirts.

Unlike any other markets, Khau Vai Love Market is extraordinary and remarkable because the people coming here do not sell or buy any goods. Instead, it is the dating place for ex-lovers who fell in love but could not have a marriage.

Khau Vai Love Market Festival is legendarily originated from a sad love story: A couple from different tribes deeply fell in love with each other; however, their marriage was forbidden by the girl’s tribe while the boy’s tribe wanted her to be one bride of theirs. A violent conflict later on was occurred between two tribes and caused blood shedding for both of them.

To stop the nonsense and fierce battles, the couple decided to fall apart with broken hearts. Still, they promised to see each other once a year on lunar March 26th in Khau Vai. Since then, on every lunar March 26th, Khau Vai Love Market Festival emerges as an occasion for couples of different ages who used to love but could not get married to come and meet each other again. About a century has passed by; still, the festival remains and makes its main claims for a humanity meaning.

On the event, spouses can go to the market together but individually seek their own partners for sharing their innermost feelings. If the wife or the husband cannot go to the market, she or he will not angry or be jealous because the meeting at the market is just only a temporary feeling and cannot influent their normal life. The market also attracts those who excitedly want to find a partner for the first time. This northern love market with unforgettable emotions of its participants has been become a symbol of love and romance.

Khau Vai Love Market Festival is a unique tradition of the northern areas with special and interesting activities. The first day is for the villagers’ ceremony of receiving the great calendar to forecast of rainfall and foresee the crop of that year. This official ceremony is carried out inside the sanctuary where all participants pray for a good yield. Then, young males and females can walk out the pagoda yard and join in fun activities. The second day is devoted for the ceremony of boiling rice and heaping up a sandy mountain for search of happiness and luck. The last ceremony is to wash the Buddha’s statue and Buddhist monks.
This famous festival attracts many local ethnic groups living near and far like Nung, Giay, Mung. Attending the event, tourists have invaluable chances to witness northern mountainous minority’s culture and tradition, including foods and drinks, folk dances performances and games. Also, they can feel experience the power and beauty of love as well as the romance and strong emotions of ex-lovers which is the key factor creating and maintaining this unique market.

Time: 26th and 27th day of the 3rd lunar month
Purpose: for ex-lovers to meet again and recall old memories

Activities:
Rituals: great calendar receiving, praying, Buddha’s statue cleaning
Entertaining activities: enjoying local foods and drinks, dancing, playing traditional games

Khau Vai has become the market session for all ethnic minority people of Mong, Dao, Giay, Tay, Nung… from young to old people to meet, talk or say love. Young people go to the market to find their love, wife/husband through khen sound, their sing. People got married to meet their old friend. Everyone is eagerly to wait for the market days which each year only once.

Khau Vai is a unique market – where people express their love with each other and is also specific cultural feature of mountainous ethnic minority groups in Ha Giang. If having opportunities to come this market, visitors will have unforgettable impression.

How to go to Khau Vai Love Market ?

About 200m from Ha Giang city, the road to Khau Vai is quite long, boys and girls, the old and the young continuously join the crowds to go to Khau Vai love market. The day before Khau Vai market festival is the time when roads leading to Ha Giang are crowded with motorcycles and cars from the plain area flocking to the market area. Ethnic people in Ha Giang are excited, looking forward to the main day of Khau Vai love market to have the opportunity to meet old or new lover. And people of the delta who love to travel and explore are curious about the unique things in the love market, that is also the reason why they want to go to the market to see if there are something interesting.

he road to Khau Vai love market is winding with rocky mountains, there are even dangerous points, but they do not make people downhearted; in contrast, they still go and go just looking forward to the market to find a love which is still unfinished . There are people in remote villages, they have to spend many days to get to the market Khau Vai and, because the market is met only once every year, they have to try to satisfy their expectations.

Enjoy Cultures of Khau Vai love market :

Khau Vai love market, also known as the “adultery” market, is the traditional night market of Mong people. The reason why people are likened to the market of adultery is that this is the first meeting of people with unfinished love and do not marry each other for some reason. They come here to exchange the love, after one night, in the next morning when the market dissolves, love dissolves, they return to live with their husband and wife without jealousy or reproach… Today, the market is not only for those who have unfinished love, but is also the place where young people meet each other and love each other, then become wife and husband.

Khau Vai love market is crowded, bustling and never lacks the sound of “khèn” the traditional musical instrument made of bamboo tubes and played by ethnic men) and traditional dances of local people. It is the vibrant sound of the day and then when the night falls, when there are only the fire burning and corn wine bottles, the market really begins. At this time, people find each other again after a long year full of missing.

There are a lot of couples of husband and wife coming to the market together. At the market, the wife finds her lover and the husband find his own lover, they respect each other and think that it is the private minutes, the spiritual life of the mate. Without jealousy, they join Khau Vai love market and then return to daily life and continue to live happily together after that.