The Van Ninh communal house festival (Mong Cai City) is a form of community activity deeply rooted in local culture. Despite decades of ups and downs, the Van Ninh communal house festival has always been preserved, maintained, and promoted every Lunar New Year.
The Van Ninh communal house in Trung village, Van Ninh commune, was built around the 15th century to worship Ly Thuong Kiet. Legend says that on his way to fight the Song army and protect the country, Ly Thuong Kiet used Van Ninh land as a staging area for his navy. The people of Van Ninh, proud of his contributions, built the communal house and worshipped Ly Thuong Kiet as the village's guardian deity. Later, the communal house also housed the worship of King Tran Nhan Tong, King Le Thai To, Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan, General Pham Ngu Lao, Yet Kieu, Zen Master Khong Lo, and Zen Master Giac Hai. The Van Ninh communal house was classified as a provincial-level historical and cultural relic in 2011.
The Van Ninh communal house festival is held annually on the 10th and 11th days of the first lunar month and is the spring festival, marking the beginning of a series of traditional festivals in Mong Cai City. In 2023, the traditional Van Ninh communal house festival was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. This is the only festival in Mong Cai City that practices two types of intangible cultural heritage listed in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list: the communal house festival heritage and the folk performance heritage of "hat nha to" and "hat-duong cua dinh".
Mr. Tran Van Canh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Ninh commune, Mong Cai city, said: The temple festival has many rich contents, including both ceremonial and festive parts. In particular, the ritual of carrying the deity from the Dong Ha area (also known as Nghênh Thần hill) to the temple according to traditional customs reflects many distinctive cultural features of the people of Van Ninh. Besides the ceremonial part, the festive part also features many rich folk games such as sack racing, blindfolded duck catching, blindfolded pot smashing, tug-of-war, football... which usually attract a large number of local people and tourists.
The most noteworthy aspect of the Van Ninh Temple Festival is a very famous folk singing style that locals often call "hat nha too" (silk house singing), "hat chau than" (singing and dancing at the temple gate), also known as "hat chuc than" (singing to worship the gods) or "hat chuc than" (singing to bless the gods). The singers are usually women, standing at the temple gate to sing, accompanied by drums and stringed instruments. "Hat chau than" is closely associated with the Vietnamese custom of worshipping the village tutelary deity. This art form is a variation of ca tru (traditional Vietnamese singing), considered the soul of the festival and a unique cultural feature of the coastal region of Quang Ninh .
The Van Ninh communal house festival is a coastal festival that commemorates the contributions of ancestors and prays for a prosperous and peaceful new year, favorable weather, good health, peace, happiness, and a bountiful harvest. Through this, it awakens national pride, compassion, and civic responsibility towards the country. At the same time, it educates people about preserving and maintaining the beautiful traditional culture of their homeland.
Currently, the Van Ninh communal house festival is maintained annually and is expanding in scale, becoming a traditional cultural feature of the people in the coastal area of Van Ninh, possessing full characteristics of culture and beliefs, and is considered one of the "cultural milestones" affirming Vietnam's territorial sovereignty in the northeasternmost part of the country.
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