Vac Village Festival: Remembering our roots
In 1999, the Lang Vac Festival was held for the first time at the Lang Vac National Archaeological Site and has now become an annual traditional festival. This is a festival that shows the filial piety of Lac Viet descendants remembering their ancestors who have contributed to the discovery, construction and protection of the country.
Ancient legend
Legend has it that long ago, Thai Hoa was a deep, green, fertile valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides, the winding ground creating many streams and creeks. There were three large streams meeting at the foot of Dai Van mountain (today's Nghia Hoa commune). Suddenly one year there was an unprecedented heavy rain, water flooded houses and doors, the three large streams changed course and joined together to form a large river. The river got deeper every day, the water flowed gently, and there were countless shrimps, fish, turtles...
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Urgently complete festival preparations. |
Since then, the village has become more prosperous, with more jobs such as pottery making and bronze casting. The villagers were grateful to the Ca River so they held a thanksgiving ceremony and asked the river god to name the river Hieu. The village elders gathered to hold a thanksgiving ceremony for heaven and earth, the gods had blessed the villagers with a prosperous business. One night, the gods appeared in a dream to the village chief to gather the villagers at the village pond, he would give the treasures of heaven and earth for the village to hold a festival.
In the morning, when the villagers had gathered, suddenly a large bronze cauldron appeared in the middle of the pond, in the large cauldron there were 10 small cauldrons and a lot of bowls, plates, basins... The villagers enthusiastically opened the festival, which lasted for three days and three nights. Those days were beautiful, the sun filled the valley, sparkling on the Hieu River.
After three days of partying, the villagers held a thanksgiving ceremony and returned the treasure to the gods. The boys and girls carried the cauldron back to the pond, and while bowing, the bronze cauldron slowly drifted to the middle of the pond and sank. From then on, to remember the gods and to thank heaven and earth, the village named the pond Vac pond, and then the village was also called Vac village. Every year, on the appointed day, the villagers hold a festival to remember the river god and mountain god who brought a prosperous life to the village.
Today's festival
In early 1972, while digging for the construction of Dai Van dam in Vac village, people accidentally discovered a number of bronze artifacts, such as bronze jars, bronze drums and some other bronze and stone objects. Since then, there have been 5 excavations at Vac village relic and 1,228 valuable artifacts have been discovered. Among them, 665 bronze artifacts belong to the extremely rich Dong Son culture.
Since 1999, after being recognized and granted a National Archaeological Site Certificate, the Vac Village Festival has been organized by all levels and sectors, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the country to come and perform the ceremony. During the festival, in addition to spiritual rituals, there are also exciting cultural activities such as camping competitions, volleyball matches, singing competitions, tug of war, crossbow shooting, wrestling, stick pushing, etc. with the participation of many people from communes and wards.
In particular, the festival also has a gong cultural festival that creates an exciting and bustling atmosphere throughout the festival days. In addition, the festival also has a bronze drum procession and a procession of Lang Vac mascots from the legendary origin of Lang Vac to the place for worship.
To make Lang Vac Festival a spiritual and cultural destination of the Northwest region, in addition to Lang Vac Temple which was invested in 2006 as a place of worship and rituals, this year Thai Hoa Town has invested over 4 billion VND to build and renovate Lang Vac Temple area.
Up to this point, the construction and renovation work has been basically completed. In the villages, the atmosphere of practicing arts, sports, and folk games is taking place in a lively manner.
According to Mr. To Thanh Son - Head of Thai Hoa Town's Cultural Department, this year's Vac Village Festival will be held solemnly and meaningfully, worthy of the cultural and historical values of the Vac Village Relic Site, truly a cultural activity imbued with the beliefs and spirituality of the ethnic groups in Western Nghe An.
Manh Hung
