Several videos showing people in Yen Bai practicing a ritual in which a buffalo was hanged to death amid a cheering crowd have caused an online uproar in Vietnam, but local authorities have asserted that they had demanded an end to the rite in the northern Vietnamese province.

The buffalo hanging ritual is part of a festival routinely held by villagers in Dong Cuong Commune, Van Yen District in Yen Bai in celebration of the Lunar New Year, or Tet, holiday.

In one of the videos seen by Tuoi Tre News, some men approached a buffalo, trying to tie a rope around its head before hanging the cattle over a tree branch.

The crowd excitedly cheered when the animal was pulled toward the trunk and reacted helplessly before breathing its last breath.

The footage surfaced on the Internet when Vietnam celebrated Tet in late January, causing widespread ire over the cruel manner of the ritual.

Many have said the barbaric rite should no longer be held in modern times as it is a vivid display of violence and animal abuse.

However, Pham Thi Thanh Tra, chairwoman of the Yen Bai administration, has said those viral videos had actually been filmed years ago, as the provincial authorities already requested that villagers stop holding such activities.

“We have requested that people in Dong Cuong Commune stop the ritual of hanging buffalo to death,” Tra said, adding however that this may “take some time” because most of the villagers come from ethnic minorities.

According to local tradition, the buffalo hanging rite is held to pay homage to heroes of ethnic groups, who contributed to the Tran Dynasty’s defeating the Mongol invasions in feudal Vietnam in the 13^th century.

Keeping or scraping it?

Nguyen Tam Thanh, an animal welfare official with Animals Asia, a foundation working to promote compassion and respect for all animals, said such rites as buffalo hanging or swine slaughtering should be condemned “not only in Vietnam but also around the world.”

Thanh added these events share the nature of being cruel and violent to animals, “which are no longer appropriate to be held as part of any festival in our civilized society.”

“These traditional practices must be altered to fit in our modern times,” he said.

However, Assoc. Prof. Bui Quang Thang, from the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies, said despite their vicious nature, the buffalo hanging and swine slaughtering “stem from the undeniable spiritual belief of the Vietnamese people, so they should not be scrapped.”

“For these cases, in my humble opinion, we should let the community decide whether to keep the rites,” he said.

“If they wish to continue practicing these rituals, we should let them do so.”

In order to avoid negative public criticism, Thang suggested “enacting measures to keep the hanging or slaughtering part out of the public eye” as well as “banning the media from reporting on those violent scenes.”

In 2015, the culture ministry issued a circular, asking localities to change the way they hold their traditional festivals so that the events contain less barbaric scenes.

“Our view is that localities have the right to hold festivities to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but any rites that are no longer suitable should be omitted,” said Trinh Thi Thuy, head of the agency in charge of local-level cultural practices under the culture ministry.

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