FESTIVALS IN HUE CITY IN VIETNAM
CAU NGU FESTIVAL
Date: the 12th day of the 1st lunar month
Location: in Thai Duong village, Huong Hai commune, Huong Dien district.
Commemoration: the village tutelary genie Truong Quy Cong, alias Truong Thieu
Major festivals – Activities: the offering and praying to Buddha, worshipping ceremony, “net-casting” and “acetes-catching” games, skiffs rowing.
This traditional festival of lower Thai Duong Village in Huong Hai Commune of Huong Dien District is organized annually on the 12th day of the 1st month in memory of the village tutelary genie Truong Quy Cong. His alias is Truong Thieu, and he was a native of the North who came to the village to settle, teach the locals how to fish, and trade junks.
On the eve of the festival, the entire village begins making offerings. Both parts of the village, the upper and lower parts,worship to Truong Quy Cong.
Late at night, the “fish worshipping ceremony ” occurs, where people pray for peace and the future abundance of fish. Every three years, games representing sea fishing activities are organized such as the “fish catching” game and “net-casting” game. After these games, people tend to go watch the rowing skiffs.
The “net-casting” performance is a form of entertainment which is characterized by rituals to commemorate the merits of the village tutelary genie.
GIA LAC SPRING FAIR
Date: the 12th day of the 1st lunar month.
Location: in Nam Pho village, 3km from the centre of Hue.
Major festivals – Activities: the goods for sale at market , many games and amusement as ” bai choi”, “bai thai’, “bai ghe”,…
Gia Lac market was founded under Minh Mang reign (1820-1840) by Dinh Vien Cong Nguyen Phuoc Binh – Emperor Gia Long’s fourth son. At first, it was confined inside his royal family for exchange of goods and entertainment. Later on, attracted by its activities, people in the neighborhood also joined in the trade, enlivening it with popular amusements. Therefore, Gia Lac soon became a form of Spring fair on occasions of Tet holidays.
The market is located on a crossroad close to Nam Pho village, forking in two directions, one toward Duong No, the other toward Ngoc Anh, 3 km from the center of Hue in the direction of Vi Da. It lies 300 metres off the Perfume river. Across from it, on the other bank is the present-day Dinh market.
The goods for sale at Gia Lac market are of a great diversity, varying with the years: from household utensils, food and drinks to children’s toy – a kind of flea market…Foodstuffs are of all kinds, in particular barbecued beef, an indispensable tidbit in the Tet holiday at Gia Lac market.
The market is also a place of entertainment in the three Tet days where take place such games and amusement as “bai choi”, “bai thai”, “bai ghe”…The market goers are dressed up in their best bib and tucker. The atmosphere is exhilaratingly cheerful without any scenes of noisy haggling or quarrelling. The fair lasts for three Tet days, a fairly concentrated expression of Hue culture.
ROW SKIFFS RACING FESTIVAL
Date: at the beginning of Spring every year.
Location: on the Perfume river.
Major festivals – Activities: the ritual ceremony of praying for rain, for fishing and rowing skiffs racing.
Skiff rowing is a popular festival organized at the beginning of Spring, the origin of which was dated from the 15th century. This custom of row skiff racing has its origin in the praying for rain from the primitive time of inhabitants mainly living on agriculture.
It’s part of the ritual ceremony of praying for rain, for fishing with the wish of getting and abundant crop. The custom of yearly skiff racing on the Perfume river organized by the imperial court on the occasion of every coming spring, has also all the ritual worship before ordering the race to begin. The chief of ceremony is a high-ranking Mandarin.
The altar platform is set up right in the middle part (the navel) around which all the rowing skiffs should turn first, then carry on for the race. Usually the whole race includes ten phases: the first one called “trao cung” reserved for rituals, the eight following ones with money prizes and the final one called “trao pha”.
As a rule each phase comprises three rounds with six turnabouts, with the exception on the “trao cung” which consists only in one round for getting four tickets at four stages.
As compliments to the four walks of life, the tickets are named in this order: scholar, peasant, worker and trader. All those tickets, after the race are put on the altar as objects for worship to the village tutelary genie.
After the ceremony three rolls of drum signal the start. In the race for tickets, the paddle can not be replaced. Once all the rounds are accomplished and the target reached, the regulations require that the chief rower bring the paddle to the observer mandarin’s table.
This competition in physical strength has become a very attractive, resolute contention manifesting the talent, the skillfulness and the experiences of the Thua Thien-Hue people well versed in their job up to now.
HON CHEN FESTIVAL
Date: the 3rd and the 7th lunar month.
Location: at the Hon Chen temple, 10km of Hue.
Major festivals – Activities: procession in honour of Sain Mother Thien-Yana
The Hon Chen Temple Festival is organized twice every year, in the 3rd and the 7th lunar months.
The festival takes place at the Hon Chen temple, 10 km west of Hue. It starts with a procession referred to as the God Welcoming ceremony; it is said to bring all the worshipped Gods from the village’s temples and shrines to the communal house where various rituals are performed, including the procession in honour of Saint Mother Thien Y A Na.
The procession takes place at night with a long line of boats bound together into bigger rafts, on the Perfume River shining with myriad of lights.
The Hon Chen Temple Festival includes a performance filled with imperial characters. Actors dressed in clothes with splendid turbans and tunics look like princes and princesses of the Nguyen dynasty. These shows take place in the natural settings of mountains, hills, and rivers. This Antique Museum of Nature also shows flags, fans, hammocks, umbrellas, weapons, and offerings that visitors would be unable to see.
SINH VILLAGE FESTIVAL
Date: the 10th day of the 1st lunar month.
Location: in Sinh village, Huong Tra district.
Commemoration: the founder of wrestling art.
Major festivals – Activities: the wrestling competition.
The Sinh village is situated just along the southern bank of the Perfume river in the district of Huong Tra. The Sinh village is renowned for its wrestling competition on the 10th day of the 1st month of every lunar year, the different wrestling clubs called “Lo” in Vietnamese, come here to compete for championship.
Every year after Tet holiday, the villagers of the Sinh village come to the temple devoted to the worship of the ancestor (founder) of wrestling art “chop trees to have wood, saw wood to make the scaffolds” at a place just at the left of the Lai An market. The wrestling festival day at Sinh village attract much more people and are much more fun than the 3 Tet days. Beside the youths of the village there are thousands of boys and girls coming here from the various districts, and from the Capital Hue. The wrestling ring platform is an earthen floor of more the one meter high; each side is about 4 “arms spreads” long built just in front of the communal house where the founder of this martial art is honoured.
Two persons directed the competition. One is a young referee standing on the platform, the second is an older prestigious person in the village with a black turban and a long robe as in the ancient times, he accompanies where phases of the competition with the sound of the drum before him and seats just in front of the verandah of the founder’s temple. The wrestlers before jumping on the platform must come before the old person to listen to instructions which are regulations of the competition. A competition lasts one day, the morning is for preliminary rounds, those who can win successively 3 matches can come to the final. A person must win at least in 8 matches to take the championship. Those who make bad tricks on their adversaries were rigorously protested by the people (and the managers of the competition). It is why the competition may last an entire day with rare cases of quarreling and disorderly fighting.
The wrestling competitions of Sinh village is a beautiful tradition of the spirit of respect for martial arts of the inhabitant of Hue in the past 6 centuries.
November 15, 2005
Posted in: Vietnam