Reenactment of the king plowing at the 2014 Tich Dien festival

On the morning of February 6 (the 7th day of the Lunar New Year), the 2014 Tich Dien - Doi Son Festival took place in the fields of Doi Son commune, Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province. This is a traditional festival of plowing the fields, praying for a year of favorable weather and bountiful crops.

This year's Doi Son Tich Dien Festival was held in conjunction with the New Rural Development Program in Ha Nam province. Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan and leaders of several central ministries, departments and agencies, and a large number of local people attended the Festival.

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan (second from right) and leaders of the Party, State, Ha Nam province... offer incense to open the Tich Dien festival in Doi Son commune, Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province. Photo: KT

At the ceremony, leaders of Ha Nam province awarded Certificates of recognition of communes meeting new rural standards and excellent emulation flags of the Provincial People's Committee to 6 communes meeting new rural standards.

After the procession of King Le Dai Hanh's spirit tablet from Doi Pagoda to the ceremony area, the Tich Dien festival was solemnly held in order with dragon dances, reading of the report, respectfully informing ancestors for permission to open the festival and respectful incense offering.

According to historical records, in the Spring of the year Dinh Hoi, the 7th year of Thien Phuc (987), King Le Dai Hanh returned to the foot of Doi mountain to hold the first Tich Dien (plowing) Ceremony in Vietnamese history, opening a new page in the history of Vietnamese agriculture. Since then, the Tich Dien Festival has become a fine custom that has been performed respectfully and solemnly by later dynasties.

Over thousands of years of history, the Tich Dien festival has become an important spiritual and cultural activity, a cultural heritage of the nation. In recent years, Ha Nam province has successfully restored and recreated the tradition of "Dĩ nong vi ban" to encourage agriculture, organizing solemn rituals of the festival on a large scale, attracting the attention of many people.

The organization of the Tich Dien Festival contains many beautiful customs of the Vietnamese people, arousing and educating the nation's cultural traditions for future generations, recalling the good traditions of our ancestors, from kings to farmers, who all love labor and work diligently on their beloved land.

Reenactment of King Le Dai Hanh plowing the fields. Photo: TNO

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, a resident of Ha Nam province, said: "The Tich Dien Festival is a tradition of our homeland. We are very excited and hope that this festival will be maintained regularly, thereby promoting the construction of a new rural homeland to develop more and more."

At the end of the festival, a village elder, wearing a royal robe, leisurely plowed the first furrow. Following that, representatives of the central ministries and branches, leaders of Ha Nam province and Duy Tien district turned over layers of loose brown soil, promising bountiful harvests and a prosperous and happy life.

According to VOV