Festival: A place to preserve traditional values

(Baonghean)- Every year, Nghe An has dozens of festivals, most concentrated from January to March of the lunar calendar. Each festival has its own unique cultural features and organizing and preserving festivals is to preserve traditions, preserve identity and conserve cultural heritages...

“First Con, second Qua, third Bach Ma, fourth Chieu Trung”, refers to four sacred temples in Nghe An, each temple associated with a traditional festival. The festivals are held annually, both as an opportunity for local people to remember and express gratitude for the merits of the gods to the community and the nation. At the same time, it is an opportunity for each person to return to their roots, demonstrating the strength of the village and commune community. Festivals are also a need for creativity and enjoyment of material and spiritual cultural values ​​of all classes of people. Thereby, raising awareness in protecting, appreciating and preserving historical and cultural relics and landscapes.

Boat racing at Con Temple Festival

The Con Temple Festival used to be one of the two longest festivals in Nghe An, lasting from December 21 of the previous year to January 21 of the following year. Nowadays, the festival only takes place for 3 main days (from January 19 to 21 of the lunar calendar) every year, but the festival always attracts thousands of local people and tourists to participate. Because this is a festival with the strong colors of rivers and water associated with fishermen in the sea. Moreover, people come to the Con Temple Festival to go to the temple at the beginning of the year, a meaningful religious activity.

Since 1993, many traditional festivals of Nghe An have been restored and quickly received the consensus and support of the majority of people. Most recently, there is the Muong Ham Festival, the Choong Temple Festival in Quy Hop, the Nine-Room Temple Festival in Que Phong, the Van Cua Rao Temple Festival in Tuong Duong, the Vac Village Festival in Nghia Dan... The festival to welcome the first thunder of the year of the O Du people in Tuong Duong district has just been restored after many years of research. Reorganizing festivals not only meets the spiritual and religious needs of the people but also creates an ideal environment for ethnic groups in the area, villages and hamlets near and far to enthusiastically participate in cultural exchanges, arts, sports... Thanks to the festival, many games and traditional customs that were once lost have now been restored such as: Wrestling games at Mai Hac De Temple Festival, cockfighting at the New Year's thunder welcoming ceremony (Cham Phtrong) of the O Du people, boat racing, human chess, releasing flower lanterns, wrestling, cockfighting, chess, merry-go-round, swing, football, volleyball...

In general, festivals in the province are closely linked to historical relics. Therefore, festivals are not only an opportunity to organize community-based entertainment activities, commemorating those who "founded the land and established the village". Organizing festivals at relics has created a better public awareness in protecting, appreciating, and preserving historical and cultural relics and landscapes. Through festivals, the call for socialization and restoration of relics and cultural heritages has also received more attention and investment. For example, at Con Temple, for many years now, the funding for organizing festivals and repairing and upgrading has mainly come from donations from visitors from all over. The Qua Son Temple Festival, Hoang Muoi Temple Festival, Cuong Temple, and the Temple of Tan Quoc Cong Nguyen Canh Hoan have also been restored and successfully organized mainly thanks to socialized resources. Besides, when the festival has been accepted, agreed upon and promoted more and more widely, the restoration and renovation of relics associated with the festival is also necessary and urgent.

In fact, many relics in our province have received more attention after the restoration of festivals. Among them, many relics have received large-scale investment such as the project to restore and embellish Cuong temple relic in Dien An commune (Dien Chau) with a budget of 25 billion VND; Project to restore and embellish Vo Liet communal house relic in Vo Liet commune (Thanh Chuong): 12 billion VND; Project to restore and embellish Con temple relic in Quynh Phuong commune (Hoang Mai town): 26 billion VND, etc.

People attend the festival at Ba Chua Che Temple in Hanh Lam Commune (Thanh Chuong).

Along with traditional festivals, the revolutionary historical festival "Drinking water, remember its source" to pay tribute to heroic martyrs, the Sen Village Festival is associated with the anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday; village festivals, family festivals, the ceremony to receive the Certificate of recognition of historical and cultural relics, cultural titles, especially the folk festivals of ethnic minorities that have been restored and organized by the people in many villages in the province have contributed to enriching the festival culture in Nghe An. Festival activities are mainly of the people, the people contribute their efforts, money, intelligence and creativity to organize, participate and enjoy cultural values.

My Ha