Highlights of the Spring Festival
(Baonghean) -In addition to the sacred and solemn ceremony, one of the indispensable activities imbued with regional cultural identity is the folk games - the highlight of the festival - attracting a large number of people to participate. In recent years, localities in the province have paid more attention to bringing folk games into the festival, contributing to preserving the good traditional values from ancient times.
The festival with folk games always attracts the attention of a large number of people going to the festival. Spring visitors are always immersed in a joyful atmosphere, filled with laughter around the area where folk games are held, such as: cockfighting, chess, human chess (Cuong Temple Festival); throwing con, pushing sticks, crossbow shooting (Hang Bua Festival, Chin Gian Temple); wrestling, tug of war, chess, making sticky rice and chicken (King Mai Temple Festival); fanning rice paper, chess, boat racing (Con Temple Festival, Qua Son Temple Festival); walking on stilts, swinging, wrestling (Bach Ma Temple Festival)...
Wrestling festival in Nam Xuan - Nam Dan
Mr. Dang Duy Hung - Director of Yen Thanh Cultural and Sports Center said: Every year in Yen Thanh district, there are many large and small festivals. However, there are two main festivals that attract a large number of people from all over to attend, which are Duc Hoang Temple Festival held from January 30 to February 2 of the lunar calendar and Ru Gam Temple Festival (February 14 - 16 of the lunar calendar). Determining this as an opportunity for Yen Thanh to promote and advertise the potential of spiritual and cultural tourism, the organization work is very invested, paying attention from the script stage to the content of the ceremony which must be rehearsed very carefully. Coming to Duc Hoang Temple Festival, besides the ceremony held with the contents: opening ceremony, announcement ceremony, procession ceremony, worshiping ceremony, thanksgiving ceremony and flower lantern ceremony (farewell ceremony), visitors will enjoy traditional folk art forms such as: Ke Gam opera, ca tru... immersing in the vibrant atmosphere of folk games of boat rowing, tug of war, stick pushing, human chess, cockfighting, traditional wrestling, swinging, cooking rice, catching fish... especially chasing ducks underwater. This is a folk game of chasing ducks underwater with the meaning of commemorating Hoang Ta Thon - a talented general in river swimming, who used the tactic of drilling enemy boats, causing the Yuan army to be defeated on Bach Dang River in the year of Mau Ty 1288.
For Do Luong district, Qua Son Temple Festival is ranked 2nd in "First Flag, Second Fruit, Third Bach Ma"... Besides the solemn ceremony, Qua Son Temple Festival also organizes many folk games such as cockfighting, swinging, card chess, human chess, wrestling. Especially attracting tourists from all over the world is the boat racing against the Lam River. It is known that the traditional boat racing festival at Qua Son Temple has existed for a long time but over time it has been lost. Recently, the festival organizing committee of the district has restored the traditional annual dragon boat racing. To prepare for the boat racing, in 2012, Boi Son Commune People's Committee invested in building 6 new racing boats with a value of 377 million VND. From the success of this race, Do Luong district will restore and organize a larger-scale race with the participation of communes along Lam River in the coming time. Along with restoring the traditional race, the Management Board of Qua Son Temple relic also renovated and repaired the Bat Cong palanquin and Long Dinh palanquin to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people every time Tet comes and spring comes.
The restoration of traditional festivals, including folk games... has recently received great attention from localities in the province. In addition, the vibrant movements of organizing cultural and sports festivals have also contributed significantly to the preservation of folk games. It is thought that the work of preserving and promoting traditional cultural values in general, and folk games in particular, should be identified as an important task of all levels, all sectors and the whole society. Because folk games play an extremely important role in daily life, contributing to educating people about collective spirit, discipline, will to win, training physical strength, flexibility, cleverness and endurance of people, helping people to develop comprehensively in intelligence, morality, body and beauty. Through games, it is possible to improve physical strength and will to strive of people; educate community awareness, identity and national cultural traditions for generations.
Article and photos: Thanh Thuy
