Society

Sacred and unique Thanh Liet Temple Festival

Plum Blossom • March 4, 2025 17:17

Thanh Liet Temple Festival (Hung Nguyen District) with many sacred activities and unique culture; was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2018. The 2025 festival will be held on March 4 and 5 (ie February 5 and 6, At Ty year).

Mai Hoa • March 4, 2025

Thanh Liet Temple Festival (Hung Nguyen District) with many sacred activities and unique culture; was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2018. The 2025 festival will be held on March 4 and 5 (ie February 5 and 6, At Ty year).

Thanh Liet Temple (Hung Nguyen district) is located on the outer bank of the Lam left dike; in front of the temple is a river junction - the confluence of two rivers, Lam River (Nghe An) and La River (Ha Tinh), behind is Lam Thanh mountain; this is a place of beautiful mountains and rivers, a sacred land and talented people, close to the capital of Nghe An town during the Le dynasty.

According to legend, Thanh Liet Temple was built at the end of the Later Le Dynasty. This is a sacred temple in the system of relics along the two banks of Lam River on the land of Hung Nguyen, rich in revolutionary tradition and crystallizing many cultural values, converging the sacred spirit of heaven and earth, including Long Giang Temple, Yen Hieu Temple, Nghia Son Temple...

Thanh Liet Temple, besides meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people of the river region, is also a place to worship the gods who fought against the enemy to save the country such as Sat Hai Dai Vuong Hoang Ta Thon, Nguyen Bieu and the gods of fortune such as Mau Lieu Hanh, Long Vuong, Ha Ba, Thuy Tinh Phu Nhan, Ngu Vi Hoang Vuong, Dao Hoa princess, Son Lieu Doc Cuoc, Ban Tho Tich Phuc Thuy Huu, ... are the gods who protect and help people do business in peace and prosperity on the river.

The worship at Thanh Liet Temple is carried out by residents who work in fishing, river transport, and clam farming on Lam River every day and on important occasions of the year, to pray for favorable weather, good crops, and clams to thrive. Therefore, despite hundreds of years, the temple still exists over time and has received attention from the local government and people for restoration and embellishment. In 2024 alone, Hung Nguyen district mobilized socialized resources with a total of more than 15 billion VND to restore and embellish items of Thanh Liet Temple relic.

The temple currently has the main structures: Nghi Mon Gate, Bai Duong, Ha Dien, Trung Dien, Thuong Dien, Ta Vu, Huu Vu. In these structures, many ancient architectural structures are still preserved with decorative carvings of the four sacred animals and four seasons, with skillful and delicate carvings. The temple also preserves many valuable ancient artifacts and sacrificial objects, such as dragon boats, palanquins, dragon thrones, tablets, wooden shoes, wooden swords, procession signs, 42 royal decrees from the Le to Nguyen dynasties...

Thanh Liet Temple Festival was formed since the temple was established and continues to this day; held in early Spring, on the first days of the second lunar month with many solemn, unique, sacred and special rituals of the ceremony and exciting activities of the festival. Thanh Liet Temple Festival was listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018.

Thanh Liet Temple Festival 2025 is held on March 4 and 5 (February 5 and 6, At Ty year). The festival has many solemn traditional ritual activities, including bathing ceremony, announcement ceremony, boating ceremony and dragon boat palanquin display, procession ceremony, great sacrifice ceremony, thanksgiving ceremony. The most unique and special is the mussel procession with activities of carrying palanquin, dragon boat and sacrificial objects from Thanh Liet Temple onto boats and moving on Lam River, associated with the worshiping ceremony on the river, at the confluence of Lam River and La River.

The worship ceremony on Lam River is to pray for favorable weather, fishery development, and favorable fishing. The festival includes sports activities such as men's and women's volleyball tournaments, tug of war, along with activities to experience the cultural space of relics, and the culture of daily life and production of local people on the river.

Ms. Hoang Thi Hoai Thanh - Head of the Department of Culture, Science and Information of Hung Nguyen district, emphasized: Maintaining and organizing the Thanh Liet Temple Festival every year is to propagate and educate patriotism, love of homeland, national pride and the morality of "When drinking water, remember its source" among all classes of people; at the same time, contributing to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values ​​imbued with national cultural identity in general, and of the residents of the Xuan Lam river region in particular.

Through the activities at the festival, it is also aimed at creating a healthy and useful cultural living space, creating opportunities for people to connect, expand their relationships, cooperate, learn from each other, strengthen the spirit of solidarity and cohesion among the people, towards the common goal of building a developed homeland and country, with every family being prosperous and happy. Along with that, it is to promote the image of Hung Nguyen homeland with rich cultural and revolutionary traditions and many relics and famous landscapes, promoting investment attraction and developing local tourism.

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Maintaining and organizing the Thanh Liet Temple Festival contributes to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values ​​imbued with national cultural identity in general, and of the residents of the Xuan Lam river region in particular."

Ms. Hoang Thi Hoai Thanh - Head of Department of Culture, Science and Information of Hung Nguyen district

To spread the unique historical and cultural values ​​of the nation in general and Thanh Liet Temple Festival in particular, the district has developed a plan to upgrade the scale of the festival organization to preserve and promote the unique cultural values ​​and identity of the festival; associated with actively coordinating with relevant levels to plan and put Thanh Liet Temple into the tourist cluster along Lam River and the tourist map and research sightseeing route of Nghe An province.

The Head of the Department of Culture, Science and Information of Hung Nguyen district added: Within the framework of the Thanh Liet Temple Festival in 2025, Hung Nguyen district organized a ceremony to receive the Provincial Historical Relic Ranking Certificate for "Co Xin Ferry", in Xuan Lam commune. This continues to demonstrate and affirm that Hung Nguyen countryside is rich in historical, revolutionary and cultural traditions that need to be honored and preserved.