Co Loa Festival – Unique festival of Hanoi

On February 3, 2025 (January 6, year of the Snake), the main ceremony and procession at the Co Loa Festival took place solemnly and respectfully, attracting a large number of people and visitors from all over the country to participate.

Spring is the season of festivals. In the capital, there are hundreds of large and small festivals held in the spring, including the Co Loa festival in Dong Anh district.

The Co Loa Festival is held annually on January 6 at the Co Loa National Monument. The festival commemorates the merits of King An Duong Vuong, who founded the first State of our country.

According to folklore, January 6th is the day King An Duong Vuong entered the palace. On January 9th, the king held a coronation ceremony, ascended the throne and held a feast for the troops.

The Co Loa Festival takes the day the king enters the palace as the main festival. The festival has existed for thousands of years and has been preserved and maintained by the Co Loa people through many generations. Through the festival, it aimsto educate patriotism, national pride, and demonstrate the morality of remembering the source of our nation.

The first unique feature of the Co Loa Festival is the participation of many generations, from the elderly to children, of all genders.

The second unique feature of the Co Loa Festival is the participation of the Eight Communes (8 Communes) of Loa Thanh in the past, now including many villages in many communes of Dong Anh district, forming a regional festival, attracting thousands of participants.

Eight communes of Loa Thanh together carry the palanquin to Co Loa Temple to worship and make offerings to the King, then eight villages carry the palanquin back to their villages and hold their own festivals. The Co Loa festival officially ends on January 18. To have a large-scale, grand festival with many unique rituals and ceremonies, the preparation work for the festival was organized by the Eight Communes of Loa Thanh many days before Tet, especially the selection of people to perform the ceremony, carry the palanquin, and carry the saint is extremely important and thorough.

Co Loa Festival consists of 2 parts: ceremony and festival. The most unique part of the ceremony is the palanquin procession to An Duong Vuong Temple. The palanquin procession goes from Thuong Temple around Ngoc Well and then along the road to the Imperial Citadel to Ngu Trieu Communal House. In addition to the 8 palanquins of Bat Xa, there are also many pink and white horses, flags and indispensable weapons. The weapons are brought into the temple for worship such as bows, arrows, crossbows during the ceremony. When Bat Xa performs the ceremony, the eldest brother Quay is allowed to enter the ceremony first (Quay Village is originally a native of Loa Thanh, moved to another place for the King to build Co Loa Citadel). On the festival day, the villages in Bat Xa Loa Thanh must come out to welcome the Quay Village sacrificial procession. During the festival, Quay Village also has the opportunity to perform the "Mat Khan" reading ceremony on the above edict. The council ceremony at Co Loa Festival will last about 2 hours, through 67 chants...

The festival part of Co Loa Festival includes water puppetry, Quan Ho singing at Ngoc Well, folk games such as swinging, human chess, wrestling, crossbow shooting, nowadays there are also art programs, sports tournaments, etc.

Co Loa Festival has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as an Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2021.

On February 3, 2025 (January 6, At Ty year), the main ceremony and procession at Co Loa Festival opened, attracting a large number of people and visitors from all over the country to participate.

At the opening ceremony of the Co Loa Festival held on the morning of February 3, 2025, Chairman of Dong Anh District People's Committee Nguyen Anh Dung said: More than 2,300 years ago, after leading the resistance war against more than 500,000 Qin troops to victory, Thuc An Duong Vuong built Loa citadel to create the Co Loa capital of Au Lac country, one of the extremely valuable historical relics with unique ramparts, special architectural works, important archaeological sites, the place was twice chosen as the capital of Vietnam. Becoming a symbol of the ancient Vietnamese civilization, the pride of the Vietnamese people.

Besides commemorating the contributions of King An Duong Vuong and his predecessors to the people and the country, Co Loa festival also honors the nation's patriotic tradition, praying for national peace and prosperity.

Quynh Anh

Source: https://sovhtt.hanoi.gov.vn/le-hoi-co-loa-le-hoi-doc-dao-cua-ha-noi/