The festival keepers

Nguyen Trung Truc Festival has long been a festival of the community and the people; the festival's status as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage is also thanks in no small part to the silent, persistent efforts of the community.

People do volunteer work at Nguyen Trung Truc communal house. Photo: PHAM HIEU

Through many events, it was not until 1964 that the communal house was restored and officially named "Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House". In 1986, the late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet called for the restoration and renovation of the tomb and communal house of Nguyen Trung Truc Rach Gia. After being restored, the communal house truly became a center for cultural activities and patriotic education for the people.

In 1988, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Nguyen Trung Truc's sacrifice, the government, the Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House Protection Committee and the people raised the scale of the organization to become a typical festival of the province. Since then, the annual Nguyen Trung Truc festival has become a major festival in the whole Southern region.

For a long time, there has been a folk song to remind each other: "No matter how far or near you are trading/On the anniversary of Mr. Nguyen's death, we will remember you." Because, for the people of the South, attending the festival not only shows respect for the national hero who contributed to the people and the country, but also shows the heart of the children and grandchildren attending the death anniversary of their grandparents in the family.

For this reason, every year, when the Nguyen Trung Truc festival comes, there are always nearly 5,000 volunteers taking care of the work, from preparing, cleaning the communal house grounds, wrapping banh tet, preparing vegetarian dishes... to offering to Mr. Nguyen and entertaining guests. Millions of visitors from all over the world come to attend the festival without worrying about food and accommodation, because everything is free. There is rice, porridge, vermicelli, even a vegetarian buffet, all contributed by the people. People can even get free medical check-ups and medicine. To sleep, there are thousands of hammocks arranged by the organizers around the communal house. So, regardless of rich or poor, ethnicity or religion, people together organize, preserve and promote the festival to become more and more imbued with cultural identity and tradition, the morality of drinking water and remembering its source shines brighter...

Participating in the volunteer work at the Nguyen Trung Truc festival this year, Ms. Nguyen Thuy Hang, A Tan tofu farm, said that the tofu farm was set up for 3 days, serving tofu for rice farms and making soy milk to give to people. “Every day, the farm makes about 1.3 tons of soybeans to serve the festival. The funding comes from our contributions and from mobilizing brothers and friends. Everyone voluntarily joins hands to serve the most successful festival, because for us, Mr. Nguyen is not only a national hero but also like a grandfather in the family, so everyone does it with the most respect.”

Mrs. Thai Thi Kim Cuc shared: “For many years, every day I have come to the communal house to do volunteer work such as drying traditional herbs, cleaning the communal house grounds… Especially on the anniversary of Mr. Nguyen’s death, I spend more time with my brothers, sisters, and nieces to serve the ceremony. Although there is a lot of work, I feel happy to be able to contribute a little effort to the overall success of the festival.”

Mr. Nguyen Van Gion's rice cooking team has up to 70 people participating in cooking continuously day and night. "Today, we are responsible for cooking about 40 barrels of rice (each barrel weighs 100kg). On the official day, there will be many guests, I expect to cook 70-80 barrels of rice each day. Although it seems like cooking rice is not hard at all, because seeing people enjoy delicious rice makes us happy," said Mr. Gion.

According to the Committee for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Relics of Nguyen Trung Truc Tomb and Communal House, the festival is participated in by the people of An Giang and the provinces of the Mekong Delta. The festival has an increasingly widespread influence, when it was raised from a normal death anniversary to a festival, the number of people participating in the festival increases every year. The ceremony follows the traditional rituals, some festival activities become indispensable content of the festival. Many researchers also commented that the Nguyen Trung Truc traditional festival is a special community festival, with a strong vitality in the people's lives that very few festivals in Vietnam have...

As of October 15, the Management Board of the Nguyen Trung Truc Tomb and Communal House Historical and Cultural Relics received more than 130 tons of rice, more than 6 tons of sugar, more than 6 tons of soybeans... These items will be processed to serve all pilgrims and festival attendees. The Board also arranged 6 rice camps, 2 more than last year, 2 banh xeo camps, 2 tofu camps... to serve the festival.

PHAM HIEU

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/nhung-nguoi-giu-hon-le-hoi-a464219.html