Incorporating the Phu Day Festival into the National Cultural Heritage

To continue managing, preserving, and promoting the best value of the Phu Day relic complex and the Mother Goddess worship belief, Nam Dinh province is preparing a dossier to propose to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to include the Phu Day festival in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Phu Day Festival. (Photo: Trong Duc/VNA)

Phu Day is a complex of traditional Vietnamese religious architecture, rich in artistic and aesthetic value, located in Kim Thai commune, Vu Ban district, Nam Dinh province. Among the 21 architectural structures of the Phu Day complex, there are three closely related to the goddess Lieu Hanh: Tien Huong Palace (the main palace), Van Cat Palace, and the tomb of Lady Lieu. In addition, a unique intangible cultural heritage, the practice of spirit mediumship and Chau Van singing, is always present here.

The Phu Day Festival is a celebration honoring Saint Mother Lieu Hanh – a "Mother of the World," the principal deity of the Mother Goddess worship and one of the Four Immortals of the Vietnamese people. Lieu Hanh has been worshipped in many places such as Phu Day, Phu Tay Ho, Phu Song, and many other temples and shrines, but the Phu Day Festival is the largest and most elaborate.

Nam Dinh province currently has 287 relics associated with the worship of the Four Palaces Mother Goddess, the worship of Saint Tran, and related to the "Chau Van ritual"; among them, the Phu Day relic complex is both the center of the worship of Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh and the place where typical Chau Van rituals of Nam Dinh are regularly performed.

Phu Day was granted the status of a National Historical and Cultural Relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information (formerly) in 1975. In December 2012, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a Decision recognizing the Chau Van ritual of the Vietnamese people in Nam Dinh and Ha Nam provinces as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thu, Director of the Nam Dinh Provincial Museum, in order to continue researching and clarifying the value of the Phu Day relic complex and the Mother Goddess worship belief, this year, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nam Dinh province has assigned the Provincial Museum to inventory and prepare a dossier to propose to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to include the Phu Day Festival in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

According to Mr. Thu, this is an important legal and scientific basis as a prerequisite for preparing a dossier to propose that the State recognize the Phu Day complex as a special national historical and cultural relic, and to subsequently propose that the Ministry allow Nam Dinh to represent localities with heritage sites in preparing a dossier on the Chau Van ritual of the Vietnamese people to submit to UNESCO for recognition as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The process of inventorying and documenting Phu Day Temple took three months, with the consensus and commitment of the community and local authorities. It is expected that the dossier will be completed and submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism this August.

According to VNA - M.D.