King procession ceremony at Sai Temple festival, Thuy Lam commune, Dong Anh district.
Cultural treasure
On January 11, 2024, the people of Thuy Loi village, Thuy Lam commune held the Sai Temple festival with the unique procession of "living kings and lords" and the ritual of cutting the white chicken spirit.
According to the elders in the village, the Sai Temple festival originated from the story of King An Duong Vuong building Co Loa citadel. Legend has it that around 258 BC, the Thuc dynasty defeated the Qin dynasty, An Duong Vuong ascended the throne, established the capital in Co Loa, and named the country Au Lac.
To govern the country and bring peace to the people, the king ordered the construction of a citadel and ramparts, but during the construction process, the citadel was built during the day and collapsed at night, so the citadel could not be completed. At that time, people believed that it was the evil spirit Bach Ke Tinh (white chicken spirit) that was causing the destruction. The white chicken spirit hid in That Dieu mountain during the day and only appeared to destroy the construction of the citadel at dusk...
Associated with the Co Loa historical relic, Sai Temple also preserves the legend of the golden turtle helping King An Duong Vuong build the citadel and ramparts. According to legend, when the Golden Turtle God led the king to That Dieu Son, he saw a strange footprint on the mountain. When the king asked, the golden turtle replied: "This is where Huyen Thien Tran Vu descended to help the country destroy demons and help the people north of Cai River live and work in peace."
Vice Chairwoman of Dong Anh District People's Committee Nguyen Thi Tam said that the king and lord procession festival is held with the wish for a new year with lots of fortune, success, peace and happiness - likened to an encyclopedic museum of the rich cultural and spiritual life of the people of Thuy Loi village, Thuy Lam commune in particular and the people of Dong Anh district in general. This is an opportunity for each resident and tourist to exchange and pass on the traditional cultural values and good morals of the nation. It is also a priceless asset that needs to be preserved and promoted...
Previously, on January 10, in Mach Trang village, Co Loa commune, the traditional festival of the Year of the Dragon 2024 was also held. Chairman of the People's Committee of Co Loa commune Nguyen Kim Nhat said that Mach Trang village was formerly called Mach Truong - one of the 8 communes commonly known as "Bat xa ho nhi", "Bat xa Loa Thanh" taking care of the worship and organizing the palanquin procession to pay homage to King An Duong Vuong in the Co Loa festival on January 6 every year.
According to ancient legend, King An Duong Vuong brought barley seeds to this place to teach people how to grow them. Later, King Ngo Quyen chose this land to open a national school, so this land was called Mach Truong, and the people called it Mach Trang.
The 10th of January was chosen as the day to hold the traditional festival of the village because of the previous custom: After the Co Loa festival was held on the 5th and 6th of January, the Eight Communes of Loa Thanh, which were 8 villages, carried the palanquin, worshiped the king at the Upper Temple, took turns carrying the palanquin to the village communal house and organized a "khao dan" (people's feast).
The traditional festival of Mach Trang village, Co Loa commune includes: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony includes rituals of worship and incense offering. The festival is organized in a variety of ways with traditional wrestling, chess, Quan Ho singing and some sports competitions such as men's and women's volleyball...
These are just two of the many festivals, unique cultural and historical features in Dong Anh district. According to the district's statistics, this place has a rich and diverse cultural heritage system with 413 relics, 93 festivals and unique traditional folk performing arts. Dong Anh is implementing many programs to promote local cultural resources, in which tourism is developing quite effectively.
Building tourist routes
Despite its rich potential, Dong Anh also faces many challenges. The rapid urbanization process and the development of the district into a district pose great challenges to the preservation and promotion of the district's cultural heritage system.
To promote resources from culture and preserve culture, first of all, Dong Anh focuses on implementing Resolution No. 09-NQ/TU dated February 22, 2022 of the Hanoi Party Committee and the Action Program of the Dong Anh District Party Committee on "Developing cultural industry in the capital for the period 2022-2025, orientation to 2030, vision to 2045" in the area.
In particular, the district promotes the development of cultural industries in terms of scale, product quality, services and markets with focus and key points, promoting advantages, suitable for socio-economic conditions, maximizing the economic factors of cultural values associated with promoting the image of Dong Anh land and people, creating synchronous and harmonious development between economy and culture, making cultural industry an important economic sector with high added value.
According to Vice Chairwoman of the District People's Committee Nguyen Thi Tam, the district has completed the book Dong Anh Cultural Heritage; preserved and promoted the value of intangible cultural heritages (focusing on traditional arts and the groom-choosing festival of Duong Yen village, Xuan Non commune...) and outstanding cultural heritages such as Co Loa, Sai Temple; organized the Cultural Tourism Week "Heritage Journey from Sai Temple to Co Loa". In particular, the district continues to guide artisans to prepare dossiers to request recognition as "People's Artisan", "Meritorious Artisan"...
Besides, Dong Anh strongly promotes the role of family, community, and society; effectively promotes conventions, village rules, and traditional cultural values in building Dong Anh people to develop comprehensively.
“To promote cultural resources, the district focuses on building cultural and historical tourism routes, applying digital technology in promoting cultural tourism, especially forming infrastructure and human resources in developing cultural and historical tourism…”, Vice Chairwoman of the District People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Tam emphasized.
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