Culture and Customs of the Sán Chay Ethnic Group:
Religion and Beliefs: The Sán Chay households have many altars. In addition to ancestor worship, they also worship heaven and earth, the land deity, midwives, the agricultural god, the livestock god, etc. The Sán Chay altars are quite simple, often just a bamboo tube for incense sticks. However, every year before the Lunar New Year, the altars are cleaned and decorated with a piece of red paper.
Housing: The traditional houses of the Sán Chay are usually stilt houses and half-stilt, half-earth houses (the latter are now very few). The living space in a stilt house is divided into different areas. The front half of the house, from left to right, includes the daughter’s room with stairs going down to the underside, the central part with the cooking stove and sleeping area for the elderly in winter, and finally, the daughter-in-law’s room on the right. The back half of the house, on the left side raised about 30cm above the common floor level, contains the ancestor altar, the sleeping area for the elderly in summer, and the reception area for male guests; on the lower right side is the reception area, dining area, and sleeping area for young male family members. The space under the stilt house is for the rice pounding mortar and previously for keeping livestock and poultry.
Clothing: Women wear indigo skirts and long shirts decorated with patterns under the armpits and back. Daily, they use an indigo belt, but on festive and ceremonial days, they wear more beautifully decorated indigo outfits with white fabric patches interspersed with indigo ones on the chest, red and white patterns on the back, and red and light blue belts. They wear a square indigo-black scarf on their heads. Men wear long or short indigo shirts and brown or white trousers.
Cuisine: The primary food sources are glutinous and plain rice; alongside maize, sweet potatoes, and cassava. These foods are prepared in various ways, such as cooking, grilling, steaming, grinding into flour for cakes, and making noodles.
Art: The Sán Chay’s folk music is highlighted by lyrical love songs called "sình ca," featuring two types: night singing in the village and singing on the road or in the market. The Sán Chay also have various dances, including drum dance, shrimp catching dance, bird dance, fish stabbing dance, and lantern dance. Their musical instruments include gongs, cymbals, drums, bells, and flutes, with the unique clay death drum and bamboo mouth organ being particularly notable.
Education: According to the 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities, the literacy rate for those aged 15 and older is 89.7%; the overall school attendance rate for primary education is 101.1%; for lower secondary education is 96.6%; and for upper secondary education is 70.5%. The rate of those aged 15 and older who can read and write their ethnic language is 7.1%. Notably, 99.68% of Sán Chay children over 5 years old attend school.