Sacred Mai Bang Temple (Cua Lo Town)

(Baonghean) - Mai Bang Temple (Nghi Thuy Ward, Cua Lo Town) worships General Le Khoi, Che Thang's wife Nguyen Thi Bich Chau, Thuy Tinh Phu Nhan and 6 founders of the village. These people created life and protected the fishermen and farmers, and encouraged education to broaden people's knowledge.

Therefore, local people built temples to remember their merits and pray for the gods to protect and give people a prosperous and happy life. The characteristic of fishermen in coastal areas is that they often drift on the river, their livelihood at the forefront of the wind and waves always depends on nature.

Therefore, on every trip out to sea, local fishermen respectfully invite the gods at Mai Bang Temple, praying for them to bless their boats to sail safely into the bay and for their holds to be full of fish and shrimp.

Panoramic view of Mai Bang Temple - Nghi Thuy - Cua Lo Town

According to the elders in the village, Mai Bang Temple was built in 1780, at that time it was just a thatched roof house. During the Nguyen Dynasty, Mai Bang Temple was renovated on a large scale, including the upper hall, the middle hall and the lower hall, the layout of the temple was in the shape of the letter tam, the temple land area was about 2,500m2, the temple had many sacrificial objects, and was carefully guarded. In 2004, the people contributed their efforts to restore and renovate the lower hall. In 2007, the three-door gate and the upper hall were restored with financial support from Nghi Thuy Ward People's Committee combined with donations. Since then, cultural activities at the temple have been restored as before.

The temple has a large, airy campus, which is a good facility for traditional ceremonies. The temple still preserves the original central shrine and many valuable ancient sacrificial objects such as incense tables, altars, parallel sentences, large characters, thrones, tablets, incense burners, trays of offerings... which were meticulously carved by ancient artisans, with high-level techniques, creating beautiful, vivid pictures.

Through the worshiped characters and artifacts, parallel sentences, large characters, royal decrees, tablets, especially 13 extremely valuable original royal decrees, which are original documents to help future generations research the historical periods of Mai Bang village, it is proof of the long-standing existence of the temple, contributing to educating the tradition of patriotism for the younger generation.

On the first and fifteenth days of the month, and on the occasion of the traditional New Year, people in Mai Bang village come to the temple to burn incense and worship. In particular, every year Mai Bang temple holds two major festivals on February 12 (lunar calendar) and May 3 (lunar calendar). The first festival of the year on February 12 (lunar calendar), the founding day of the village, is also an occasion for praying for fish, the people in the village gather in large numbers, organizing solemn sacrificial activities.

Mai Bang Temple - where people often come to offer incense and pray for calm seas and boats full of fish and shrimp.

On the occasion of the festival on May 3 (Lunar calendar) commemorating the death anniversary of King Chieu Trung Le Khoi, people organize a procession and worship the gods. Through the festival days, Mai Bang people together review the traditions of their ancestors, educating the next generation about the spirit of solidarity and love for the homeland. Besides spiritual and cultural activities, at the temple, there are also traditional folk cultural activities combined with modern games, creating richness for the life of coastal fishermen.

Before deciding on a big event (going far away, children taking university or college entrance exams, getting married, or preparing to go to sea...), villagers come to the temple to burn incense and pray. On the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, on average, over a thousand people come to burn incense every day, not to mention the number of tourists from all over the world who come to visit and admire the temple's scenery.

In addition to spiritual cultural activities, the temple also organizes folk cultural activities such as tug of war, chess... combined with modern games, contributing to enriching the local cultural identity. This is also one of the intangible cultural activities that is maintained and developed, demonstrating the people's tradition of "remembering the source of drinking water".

Drum performance to welcome the Ceremony of receiving the Certificate of Historical Relic of Mai Bang Temple

In 2012, the People's Committee of Nghe An province decided to recognize Mai Bang temple as a provincial historical relic. In 2015, considering the locality's proposal, the expert team conducted a survey and found that the typical values ​​of the relic needed to be protected and further promoted. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism decided to rank the temple as a National Historical Relic.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa - cultural officer of Nghi Thuy ward affirmed: To promote the value of the National Historical Relic of Mai Bang Temple, and at the same time build the temple as an attractive destination for tourists when coming to Cua Lo town, in the coming time, the department will establish a temple management team; build a summary of the historical value of the relic so that tourists can learn when visiting; select, restore and maintain traditional activities and good local customs; coordinate with local schools to organize extracurricular activities for students at the relic, helping them understand more about the construction and development process of the place where they live, learn about people who have made great contributions to their homeland and country.

At the same time, students are assigned to clean and work at the temple on major holidays so that they can appreciate the values ​​left by their ancestors; organize for people and tourists from near and far to learn and visit the relics when coming to Cua Lo.

PV