Explore the relics associated with traditional festivals

(Baonghean) -Along with sea tourism, when coming to Cua Lo, visitors can explore spiritual and cultural tourist attractions by love bicycle or electric car. In the airy space of the sea breeze, visitors seem to calm their souls when coming to attractive places: Mai Bang Temple, Van Loc Temple, Lang Hieu Temple, Yen Luong Temple...

Procession at Van Loc Temple Festival Photo: Xuan Nhuong

Nghi Thuy (Cua Lo Town) still preserves unique customs, practices, beliefs and festivals. Currently, in the ward, there are two temples that are hundreds of years old, Mai Bang Temple and Yen Luong Temple - where the annual fishing festival takes place. According to Mr. Truong Van Ngo (83 years old) - Head of the Management Board of Yen Luong Temple - an ancient temple of approximately 400 years old, the temple was built in the Later Le Dynasty (1630), a religious architectural work worshiping gods who have contributed to the country. Legend has it that in the third year of Chinh Hoa (1682), the lives of Yen Luong people were not peaceful, fishermen encountered big waves and strong winds at sea; crop failures, famine, and constant illness. The village sent people to Con Temple (Quynh Phuong, Quynh Luu) to bring incense sticks to worship the Four Holy Ladies, four deities who often help people sail smoothly, bless fishermen to go to sea, enter the sea safely, and do business smoothly... Every year, Yen Luong Temple has two important festivals: Ky Yen Festival on the 15th day of the second lunar month and Luc Ngoat Festival on the middle days of the sixth lunar month. During these festivals, people organize many activities to express the beliefs and cultural identity of coastal fishermen, such as: procession to welcome the gods, worshiping the gods and festival activities: cockfighting, swinging... In particular, Luc Ngoat Festival has become a traditional festival of Yen Luong village fishermen. The festival takes place on 3 days (14, 15, 16) of the sixth lunar month with the ceremony of announcing to heaven and earth, the procession ceremony, the great sacrifice ceremony, and the fish praying ceremony.

For every fisherman here, the fishing festival is one of the most important festivals, a big festival of the whole village, during the festival days, all fishermen do not go to sea. Previously, the festival took place once a year, but now due to many factors, every 3 years, Yen Luong village will organize a grand festival. The festival takes place on the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month. During the festival, the villagers carry the seals of the Lord: Sat Hai Dai Vuong (God of the sea), Than co, Than cau (God of the sea) ... from Yen Luong temple to the boats at the mouth of the creek to perform the welcoming ceremony. The altar is decorated brightly and solemnly. Every house has an altar with offerings. Each boat is decorated with lanterns and flowers. The village chooses a ritual committee consisting of elderly, virtuous people who have prestige with fellow fishermen. The chief worshiper offers offerings (no seafood is allowed) and reads a eulogy expressing the villagers' gratitude to the sea and praying for a bountiful fishing season and safe return of boats from the open sea. As for the festival, there are folk games of the coastal region: sports competitions, boat racing, rowing. With such profound meaning, in recent years, the Nghi Thuy Party Committee and government have organized large-scale events to create a competitive atmosphere for labor production and to preserve and promote the traditional culture of the coastal region. This is also the wish of fishermen with the desire to firmly stick to the sea.

The culture of Nghi Thuy village is rich and diverse, clearly showing the coastal features and still preserving many good customs. Every year on the 15th day of the second lunar month, fishermen are present at the village temple to burn incense and pray for a lucky season at sea. Especially, fishermen before and after each trip to sea do not forget to burn incense in front of the Whale altar to receive His blessing. Currently, Nghi Thuy fishermen still preserve and maintain the two whale spines at Yen Luong temple. Mr. Truong Ngoc Hai - Vice Chairman of Nghi Thuy Farmers' Association said: The custom of worshipping Whale has existed for a long time among the people here, it has become a belief in the spiritual life of fishermen. After each trip to sea with a full hold of shrimp and fish, they bring it out to worship "Him". The Whale temple, which has gone through many historical changes, no longer exists. After Yen Luong temple was restored and embellished, the people brought "Him" back to worship at the temple.

Saying goodbye to Nghi Thuy, we went to Nghi Tan - where Van Loc temple is located. The temple is a place to worship Thai Uy Nguyen Su Hoi - the person who opened the village and founded it. Mr. Phung Ba Diem - Chairman of the Elderly Association of Nghi Tan Ward, member of the management board of Van Loc temple said: According to the traditional ceremony that has existed for hundreds of years, every 3 years, in the years of Ty, Mao, Ngo, Dau, the local people enthusiastically organize the procession of the palanquin, throne, and tablet of Nguyen Su Hoi. This is a big festival, attracting the participation of many local people and people in the region, bustling, crowded and solemn like the atmosphere of Tet Nguyen Dan. Usually, the festival starts from the afternoon of the 11th and ends on the evening of the 16th of January (lunar calendar), including 3 parts: the cleansing ceremony, the announcement ceremony and the procession. The procession is the most solemn, dignified and magnificent activity of the festival, attracting thousands of local people and people in the region to participate. What is special is that along the routes that the procession passes through, the clans (especially the founding clans) are assigned by the village to set up welcome gates in front of the clan's church and prepare an altar with full tablets, royal decrees, along with incense, wine, fruit, and wax candles to welcome and worship the palanquin and the spirit tablet of Nguyen Su Hoi.

The festival includes many exciting cultural and sports activities, such as: Tuong singing, Cai Luong, human chess competition, cockfighting, tug of war... On the Cam River in front of Van Loc Temple, there is a very bustling boat racing festival, attracting thousands of people from Van Loc, Trung Kien, Tri Thuy, Yen Luong, Mai Bang villages... living along the banks of the Cam River to watch. The organization of the boat racing festival of Van Loc village aims to recreate the heroic feats on the river of Nguyen Su Hoi's navy and to remember his contribution in teaching the villagers how to build boats to travel on rivers and seas. On these days, the Cam River is immense, the waves are crashing, mixed with the cheers of fishermen standing on fishing boats covered with flags, densely packed along the banks of the Cam River. Along with maintaining the traditional festival, Nghi Tan ward has been receiving attention and investment from the leaders of Cua Lo town and provincial departments to gradually upgrade the landscape, architecture of Nguyen Su Hoi temple and festival activities to make this place one of the highlights attracting tourists.

According to statistics, Cua Lo Town currently has 29 relics (of which 10 have been ranked). To further promote historical and cultural values, and at the same time meet the spiritual needs of the people and visitors from near and far, in 2013, Cua Lo approved the project "Preserving, restoring and promoting the values ​​of relics" in the area. Along with mobilizing socialization to restore and restore relics, Cua Lo has built intra-regional spiritual and cultural tours to serve tourists associated with relics such as Van Loc Temple - Mai Bang Temple - Yen Luong Temple - Lang Hieu Temple - Lo Son Pagoda - Dao Ngu Pagoda... In particular, this 2014 tourist season, the Cua Lo - Dao Ngu Pagoda tour will be exploited to serve tourists by canoe of Song Ngu Son Company. This is one of the items in the important chain of items of the Song Ngu Son project with a total value of hundreds of billions of VND.

Thus, along with sea tourism, resort tourism, spiritual cultural tourism with destinations of nearly 30 historical relics is also a strength that Cua Lo has been and is exploiting in the Summer of 2014 with the hope that: Tourists will be more satisfied when coming to Cua Lo.

Thanh Thuy