Old features of Quynh village

(Baonghean) - Quynh Doi (Quynh Luu) is an ancient cultural village, famous for its tradition of studiousness and mandarin examinations. This place still retains the mark of a pure countryside with a sacred temple, ancient village communal house covered with moss, ancient houses that have existed for hundreds of years hidden under cool green bamboo groves...

On this way to Quynh Doi, the incense scent of the craft village lingered throughout the village. That incense scent brought us to the Ho family relic (village 4) - the place to worship Ho Kha - the person who had the merit of founding the village, together with the people contributing to building and protecting the homeland and the country, was granted the title of Than Hoang Ho by the King, the title was solemnly hung by his descendants in the middle of the relic. On an area of ​​over 6,000m2, the relic is becoming an attractive destination not only for tourists in the province, in the country but also for foreign tourists. The relic is not only attractive because of the ancient and majestic architecture of the old church, but also a place to educate the tradition of studiousness of the descendants of the Ho family in particular, of the Quynh Doi land of learning in general with rows of steles of famous Confucian scholars and patriots of Nghe An: Ho Xuan Huong, Ho Phi Tich, Ho Sy Duong, Ho Tung Mau... The relic is surrounded by lotus ponds, water lilies, rows of trees that are green all year round such as frangipani, phi lau, xa nuong, van tue, barringtonia...

The campus of the Ho Sy Duong family temple relic, Quynh Doi commune (Quynh Luu)

In the story about the tradition of studiousness of the Ho family, Mr. Ho Ngoc Toan - Head of the family executive committee excitedly said: In recent years, we have done a good job of socialization to preserve and promote the value of the family temple relic, with an average of about 100 million VND each year for restoration, embellishment, repair and purchase of necessary artifacts. To mobilize contributions from successful children living far away from home, we established a Liaison Committee, reviewed the list, if anyone lives nearby, they will come to the house to discuss, if anyone lives far away, they will write letters and call. In addition, every year on the occasion of the ancestor worship (11th and 12th of the first lunar month), we directly call on our descendants with all their hearts to contribute their efforts and money to build the family temple more and more spacious - not only a place to worship ancestors, but also a place for descendants to return to on great holidays, New Year's Day, village festivals in early spring...

Along with the Ho family temple relic, the communal house relic - the meeting place of patriotic scholars in the Can Vuong movement - has also been restored and embellished by the people's contributions. The communal house was built in the style of four pillars, bell roof, roofed with Nam Ta tiles, and the rafters were carved with patterns. In front of the yard, there are two stone steles telling about the history of the construction and restoration of the communal house. Previously, the communal house was the administrative and cultural center of the village - the place where all the communal activities of the whole village took place. Mr. Ho Duc Thang - a cultural officer of Quynh Doi commune said: Along with preserving the communal house relic, since 2012, the Ky Phuc Festival - a traditional festival of Quynh village has been restored and held right at this communal house after more than 60 years of loss.

This is an activity that contributes to preserving and promoting intangible cultural values, meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people in the commune and visitors from all over the country, aiming to build Quynh Doi into a cultural tourist destination of the village. The unique feature of the Ky Phuc Festival is to wish everyone, for the people to be lucky and happy in the new year, more deeply is the unity and solidarity of the community. During the days of the traditional festival of the village, the people in the commune as well as the children of the homeland who are studying, working, and working all over the country and visitors from all over the country come together to express their gratitude and remember the contributions of the generations of fathers and grandfathers who founded the village. In addition to the Ky Phuc Festival held at the village communal house, every year on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Quynh village also organizes a spring writing festival. Thereby contributing to educating traditions, arousing the spirit of emulation and learning.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy - Permanent Vice President of the Quynh Doi Commune Association for the Promotion of Education said: “The custom of writing the first letter of the year was often performed by teachers, Confucian scholars, scholars, and Confucian scholars in Quynh Doi village at the moment after New Year's Eve in front of the family altar to pray for a prosperous year in terms of education and examinations. Currently, this traditional writing ceremony has been changed in form and chosen on the second day of the first lunar month every year to open the festival, attracting hundreds of descendants in the village to attend. Every time Tet comes, children in the commune eagerly wait for the writing ceremony to listen to the elders talk about the tradition of examinations in their homeland, and together write lines of poetry and prose to praise the innovation in the current period. Some people write a poem, draw a picture, a flower, and others write their own feelings on the theme of spring, homeland, and country. This is the traditional beauty that many generations of Quynh village children still preserve and promote”.

In response to the people's need for spiritual cultural enjoyment associated with new rural construction, in recent times, in addition to preserving and maintaining the cultural values ​​left by their ancestors, the commune has also paid attention to consolidating, building and perfecting cultural and information institutions worth tens of billions of VND. Up to now, 8/8 villages have cultural houses attached to playgrounds and training grounds. Each cultural house has a legal bookcase. The wedding movement following the new cultural lifestyle has been responded to and well implemented by many families, cadres, party members and people. In funerals, some backward customs such as not hiring a band, not scattering votive paper... have been reduced, demonstrating the civilized features in spiritual and cultural activities. The quality of the movement to build cultural families and cultural villages has been increasingly improved. The rate of cultural family and cultural village titles annually reaches 82-90%, sports families reach 28%; 8/8 villages continuously maintain the title of cultural village.

Mr. Ho Quang Tuan - Vice Chairman of Quynh Doi Commune People's Committee affirmed: Currently, the commune has 12 relics (including 7 national relics, 2 provincial relics), is one of the communes with the densest system of national relics in the province, typically the Ho Dai Toan relic, Nguyen Trieu Co relic, Hoang Khanh relic, Communal house relic, temple and tomb relics of Ho Sy Duong, Ho Tung Mau, Ho Xuan Huong, Ho Phi Tich ... and the system of other family church relics in the village are preserved and promoted by descendants in the family. In building new rural areas, Quynh Doi determined to develop from culture, taking culture as a breakthrough, as a foundation for socio-economic development, in which the connection between traditional culture and modern culture creates a unique identity of the first cultural village recognized by the Provincial People's Committee. Therefore, in the coming time, the commune chooses to develop culture associated with tourism as a spearhead in building new rural areas. That is also the advantage of Quynh Sometimes the locality is always a familiar address for tourists when coming to Quynh beach tourism.

Article and photos:Thanh Thuy - Thu Huong