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Although the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival is officially held on the 9th of the 8th lunar month in Hai Phong,Vietnam, preparations start several months before. Fighting buffaloes must be carefully selected, well fed, and trained. The selection of the official fighting buffaloes starts in May when qualification matches take place in small villages. Only 6 buffaloes will participate in the final fight.
The festival begins with a procession to the communal house where offerings from several little villages are presented to the gods; such gifts include a buffalo, a pig, and a basket of sticky rice. The procession, in which the buffaloes are covered with red cloth, also includes 12 young Vietnamese men, also dressed in red, who take the buffaloes to the fighting circle.
After the young men perform the "Opening the match" dance, a pair of buffaloes are led into the fighting circle. The two buffaloes fight until the defeated gives up and run away. The winner then goes on to fight another buffalo until a final winner is determined.
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