Restoring the Thuong Temple Festival

(Baonghean) - Thuong Temple, Quynh Nghia Commune (Quynh Luu) is located 15 km east of Cau Giat Town center. This place is known as a land with a long and ancient life. Quynh Nghia stretches like a soft silk strip along the coast. People live on agriculture, seafood exploitation, and handicraft services.

Mr. Ho Tuc (82 years old) told about the origin of this temple: Thuong Temple was built during the Le Dynasty (15th century), worshiping the god Cao Son Cao Cac. The temple has a structure facing the Southeast, with a large tiled roof, thick nose, decorated with the image of two dragons facing the moon. The temple is located on a cool, airy land with many dense trees, the architecture is in the shape of the letter Tam, including 3 buildings: Ha Dien, Trung Dien and Thuong Dien.

During the two resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, Thuong Temple became a place for teaching the national language, for people's activities, and for storing weapons and state goods. Thuong Temple was also the place where hundreds of children went to fight to save the country and gain independence and freedom for the nation. With the above historical and cultural meanings and values, on June 28, 1996, Thuong Temple was recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Information as a National Historical and Cultural Relic.

Previously, the Thuong Temple festival was held annually in mid-January, lasting for 3 days (from the 15th to the 17th). In addition to the procession of the gods, the sacrifices to the yet, the sacrifices to the tuc truc, there were also drum dances and songs, and senh tien dances and songs. Games during the ceremony included wrestling, chess, to tom diem, rowing, acting in plays, and some years, cockfighting and sword fighting. At the end of the village festival, there were also fireworks and fireworks, with a jubilant atmosphere. And especially, every 12 years, Phu Nghia villagers held a commemoration ceremony and performed a scene of fighting the Hop bandits on the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month to commemorate the merits of My Quan Cong Truong Dac Phu through the form of reenacting a play called "tro le".

Mr. Pham Van Dieu - the caretaker of Thuong Temple said that currently, the commune organizes the Great Ceremony once every 5 years. During the ceremony, the local government still follows the traditional rituals. As for the festival, some folk games are organized such as volleyball, human chess, tug of war, wrestling... However, games with historical and artistic significance have not been revived yet...

The festival in Phu Nghia is both an agricultural festival and a historical festival, elaborately organized, converging many meanings: demonstrating intelligence, martial spirit, love of art, praising labor and workers, admiring heroes, and showing gratitude to those who have contributed.

The restoration of traditional festivals contains a secret, profound, and pervasive idea of ​​worshiping the gods. This is the time when villagers express their collective thoughts and psychology, including reverence and gratitude to their ancestors who have contributed to the village and the country, who have blessed and protected the villagers. At the same time, it expresses the wishes of the entire village for a peaceful and prosperous life... Therefore, the restoration of the Upper Temple Festival has an important meaning in preserving and promoting the village culture that has been suppressed in the past of many historical periods up to the present time.

Talking with Mr. Ho Dinh Xich - Chairman of Quynh Nghia Commune People's Committee, we learned: "In the face of social development trends, preserving national cultural identity is an issue of social concern. To meet the spiritual and religious needs of the people for the gods and heroes, the Party Committee and the Commune People's Committee have asked for permission from higher authorities to restore the festival, including restoring "trô lê" and some other folk games. In addition, many recreational activities related to history will be organized to educate the younger generation to remember the national origin. In 2015, the commune will organize the Thuong Temple Festival on a large scale. Currently, we are focusing on building and consolidating the infrastructure, upgrading some related works in the temple to prepare for a successful festival".

Viet Hung