Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival is a National Cultural Heritage
On the evening of September 12, the People's Committee of Hai Phong city held a ceremony to announce the decision to recognize the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
(Illustration photo: Thanh Tung/VNA)
This is one of the activities in a series of events to celebrate the National Tourism Year of the Red River Delta - Hai Phong 2013.
Speaking at the announcement ceremony, Vice Chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee Le Khac Nam affirmed that the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival originated nearly 1,000 years ago, around the reign of King Ly Thanh Tong. After many ups and downs in history, in 1990, the traditional Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival was revived.
Up to now, after 24 years of continuous organization, the festival has been continuously preserved, promoted, improved, and improved in scale, while still maintaining the folk elements and traditional cultural values. With the efforts in restoring, preserving and promoting the cultural heritage values of Hai Phong people as well as the unique traditional intangible cultural values of the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival, in 2000, this festival was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as one of the 15 major festivals in the country.
This honor contributes to affirming the value of the national festival, making an important contribution to building, preserving and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.
On this occasion, the Vietnam Folk Arts Association awarded the title of Folk Artist to artisans with many contributions and achievements in restoring and developing the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival; the Vietnam Record Organization awarded Certificates of honor for Vietnamese record values in Do Son district.
The ceremony is full of epic character with the opening part being a torch and lantern procession of 80,000 fishermen from around the area through selected young men.
After the ceremony, the highlight of the program is the elaborate 60-minute festival, recreating the true identity of a traditional folk festival from the beginning, when the first humans appeared on Do Son land. The festival is a prayer to the gods of Do Son people, hoping for favorable weather, favorable business./.
According to VNA - M.D