Hoang Muoi Temple Festival: A highlight of spiritual and cultural tourism

(Baonghean) - Comrade Ho Van Hiep - Vice Chairman of Hung Nguyen District People's Committee answered an interview with Nghe An Newspaper about the Hoang Muoi Temple festival.

PV:Every year, in the 9th and 10th lunar months, people and tourists from all over the country flock to the Hoang Muoi Temple in Hung Thinh Commune, Hung Nguyen District. Could you tell us more about the relic?

Comrade Ho Van Hiep:In the hearts of the people, Mr. Hoang Muoi is a "wise saint" among the royal mandarins of the Mother Goddess religion, admired by many people and worshiped in many localities in the country. However, the places worshiping the Four Palaces according to the Mother Goddess religion also worship Mr. Hoang Muoi, but only as a secondary worship. The main temple is in Hung Thinh commune (Hung Nguyen), the temple is also called Xuan Am temple (after the place name of Xuan Am village) or Mo Hac Linh Tu (after the terrain, mountains, and rivers of feng shui theory).

View of Duc Ong Hoang Muoi Temple. Photo: Tran Hai

The temple of Mr. Hoang Muoi is located in a beautiful landscape, with charming mountains and rivers. In front of the temple (to the South) is the Lam Giang river like a wide green silk strip, bustling with boats going up and down; around the temple is the winding Con Moc river, embracing, on both sides of the river are immense, green rice fields. Behind, on the other side of the Con Moc river are Ky Lan mountain, Dung Quyet mountain and Phuong Hoang Trung Do with historical vestiges, vast and lush pine and eucalyptus forests.

In addition to its beautiful scenery, the temple has long been famous for its sacredness because in addition to worshiping Quan Hoang Muoi, it also worships Song Dong Ngoc Nu; Quoc Cong Thai Bao Phuc Quan Cong; Phu Quoc Thuong Tuong Quan Nguyen Duy Lac.

Hoang Muoi Temple was built during the Later Le Dynasty. Over time and natural disasters, the temple has deteriorated. In 1995, the temple was renovated and restored on the basis of the old house frame including the lower hall, upper hall, left and right halls, Cua Trung platform, Co Chin temple and Hoang Muoi's tomb. Every year, at the temple, there is a royal edict procession festival on March 14 and Hoang Muoi's death anniversary on October 10 of the lunar calendar. Hoang Muoi Temple Festival has gone beyond the scope of a village, a region, attracting many tourists from the South and the North to attend.

PV:What are the purpose and significance of the Hoang Muoi Temple Festival and the main activities held in this year's festival, comrade?

Comrade Ho Van Hiep:The festival of Ong Hoang Muoi Temple is an occasion to honor traditional cultural values, educate love for homeland, country and the morality of "When drinking water, remember its source". At the same time, this is an opportunity for visitors from all over to make a pilgrimage to Hung Nguyen - a land with cultural, historical, patriotic and revolutionary traditions, the place that has produced and nurtured many talented people, scholars, many steadfast and heroic examples whose lives and careers have brought glory to their homeland and country.

This year, the Hoang Muoi Temple Festival takes place from the 8th to the 10th of the 10th lunar month, but before that, throughout the 9th and early 10th lunar month, on average, thousands of visitors come to worship every day. The largest number of visitors are still from the northern provinces such as Hanoi, Cao Bang, Lang Son, Ninh Binh,...

The district determined that the festival must be organized solemnly, safely, economically, ensuring both spiritual elements and preserving ancient traditions. Therefore, this year's festival, in addition to traditional rituals such as the opening ceremony, proclamation, procession, great sacrifice and thanksgiving ceremony, also enhances the mass cultural exchange activities between Nghe Tinh folk singing clubs; competitions in sports and folk games such as men's volleyball, boat racing, tug of war, cockfighting, physical games, camping, releasing flower lanterns on Con Moc river, etc.

All these activities are held right at the temple area, meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of people inside and outside the province and tourists from all over.

Tourists from all over the country are flocking to prepare for the 2016 Duc Ong Hoang Muoi Festival.

PV:To make the festival more widespread and become a cultural and spiritual tourism highlight of Hung Nguyen district, what solutions has the district implemented, sir?

Comrade Ho Van Hiep:It can be affirmed that along with the festivals in the province, the annual Hoang Muoi Temple Festival has become a spiritual festival of great significance in the hearts of the people and tourists from all over the world. With the admiration of the people for Hoang Muoi and the unique landscape and environment, the Hoang Muoi Temple relic together with the Quang Trung King Temple, Quyet Mountain, and Phuong Hoang Trung Do are attractive destinations in the Lam River tourism tour of Nghe An province.

On the side of Hung Nguyen district, recently, the Provincial People's Committee has advised to approve the project "Preservation, restoration and expansion of the historical and cultural relic of Ong Hoang Muoi Temple". The project is planned with a total construction area of ​​13.68 hectares, including 4 areas: spiritual area, service area, festival area and landscape green area.

The project is implemented in 2 phases (2014 - 2017 and 2018 - 2020). The total investment is over 60 billion VND, of which phase 1 is over 38 billion VND, the main funding is from donations and socialization. Up to this point, the project has completed half of its journey.

Hau Dong, a folk belief at Duc Ong Hoang Muoi temple.

In addition, the district has promoted propaganda and promotion work along with other relic systems in the area such as the General Secretary Le Hong Phong Memorial Site, the Soviet Nghe Tinh Relic Site, the Nguyen Truong To Memorial Site, the King Le Temple... to promote the value of the entire relic system in the district.

In the coming years, Hung Nguyen will continue to complete the planning, focus on investing in building infrastructure for tourism development; strengthen state management, build attractive tourism products to attract tourists. Focus on promoting the value of the system of historical and cultural relics, exploiting spiritual cultural tourism. Strengthen propaganda and promotion activities to attract more and more tourists to Hung Nguyen to develop the tourism industry, tourism economy and contribute to increasing the speed of socio-economic development of the district.

PV:Thank you comrade!

Thanh Thuy(Perform)