Dien Hue Nam Festival will be held on April 10-11 (ie March 2-3 of the lunar calendar)

Hue Nam Temple Festival

Right in April 2024, a big festival is about to take place, attracting the attention of thousands of people and tourists, that is Dien Hue Nam festival, held on April 10-11 (ie March 2-3 of the lunar calendar).

According to the representative of the Department of Culture and Sports , this year's Hue Nam Temple Festival will have a procession on foot. The procession on foot will depart from 352 Chi Lang to move to Nghinh Luong Dinh. At the same time, the boat procession will depart from 352 Chi Lang to Nghinh Luong Dinh wharf to wait to join the road procession carrying the Mother Goddess to Hue Nam Temple. The festival is expected to have about 30 plaques, altars and 3,000 - 5,000 participants. On April 10, the procession on foot and the boat procession, after gathering at Nghinh Luong Dinh, will perform the Cao Yet ceremony and pray for peace. After the ceremony, the Daoist groups will board the boat and move to Hue Nam Temple. In the afternoon of the same day, the main ceremonies will take place such as welcoming the Holy Mother and the Council to Hue Nam Main Temple, after which the organizing committee will beat the drum to open the festival and conduct the Cao Yet ceremony.

Hue Nam Temple Festival is known as a traditional activity with spiritual cultural elements of worshiping the Holy Mother Thien YA Na, held in the third and seventh lunar months every year. Each time it is held, the festival always attracts a large number of followers of the Mother Goddess worship with tens of thousands of people attending. This is also considered a typical folk and community cultural festival of the ancient capital. The festival organizers said that through the festival, it aims to contribute to preserving and promoting the cultural values ​​and heritage associated with the relics; at the same time, meeting the spiritual needs of the community practicing the Mother Goddess worship of Tam Phu - a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity recognized by UNESCO, attracting tourists to Hue.

The organization of this year's festival has been carefully prepared, with close coordination between departments, branches, sectors and localities. The festival aims to be organized with appropriate scale and content, ensuring solemnity, practicality and efficiency; ritual activities are organized in accordance with the nature and historical and cultural significance. According to the representative of the organizing committee, the organization of the festival is closely linked to the implementation of measures to protect relics and scenic spots; ensure security, order, social safety, fire prevention, traffic safety and environmental sanitation.

Diverse spiritual tourism activities

Along with the upcoming Dien Hue Nam festival, Hue also has many spiritual tourism activities attracting pilgrims, worshipers and experiencers. For a long time, the ancient capital of Hue has been known as the land of Zen with hundreds of large and small pagodas, many of which carry within them valuable historical stories of the ancient capital. Hue has more than 100 ancient pagodas and dozens of communal houses with Buddhist rituals and solemn Buddhist activities. Many large-scale architectural works serving religious and belief tourism have been newly built such as: Huyen Tran Temple Cultural Area, Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery, Lieu Quan Buddhist Cultural Center, Quan The Am Spiritual Cultural Tourism Area... Not only does it have a dense system of pagodas, Buddhist culture in Hue is also known for its rituals that are preserved quite intact, with many festivals bearing unique spiritual colors in Hue.

The boat procession of the Holy Mother in the Hue Nam Temple festival

When mentioning Buddhism and Mother Goddess worship in Hue, we also need to mention Catholicism. Going back in history, Catholicism has a history of being introduced and developed in Dang Trong quite early. Currently, in the center of Hue city, there are two large churches with a long history, Phu Cam church and Our Lady of Perpetual Help church, along with dozens of other churches, monasteries, convents and seminaries.

According to researchers, on the basis of traditional festivals that are characteristic of Hue's religious life, if there is logical investment and combination, these festivals can become the highlight to form a unique spiritual tourism route with content that conveys the entire spiritual life of Hue people.

As for tourists, the chaining and development of spiritual tourism products and the introduction and promotion to tourists will create new experiences for visitors to Hue. Mr. Ngo Thai Bao Chau, a tourist from Vung Tau, shared: “Tourists are not locals, so they cannot know all the information about Hue. Spiritual tourism in Hue is very interesting, the more you learn, the more interesting it is, and I believe that if there are attractive products, it will attract a lot of visitors. But the important thing is to have a professional and extensive promotion method so that visitors will come to experience it.”

Exploiting potential

According to many tourism experts, spiritual tourism is the strength of the ancient capital of Hue, but for many years, Thua Thien Hue has been struggling to exploit it to "take money" from tourists in a humane and luxurious way.

The system of pagodas in Hue and the outstanding features of Buddhist culture give Hue many advantages in developing spiritual tourism.

In fact, in recent times, the province has paid attention to spiritual tourism. Among them, Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery (Phu Loc District), Huyen Tran Cultural Center (Hue City), Quan The Am Statue Spiritual Tourism Area (Huong Thuy Town) ... are gradually attracting tourists. However, with its position as one of the religious centers of the country, religious tourism in Hue has not yet fully exploited its inherent potential and strengths.

Exploiting resources and advantages of spiritual tourism is a must. According to the representative of the Department of Tourism, currently, tourism management agencies and businesses have researched, built, and formed a number of spiritually related products, integrated with a number of previously existing traditional tours to renew, upgrade, and organize a number of tours specializing in spiritual tourism, visiting temples, learning about Buddhism and experiencing some activities in temples (practice, meditation, etc.), participating in activities during the annual Buddha's Birthday Week, increasing tourism products to help visitors when coming to Hue not only experience cultural heritage and experience with the community, but also learn and experience more about spiritual tourism. However, there is still a lot to do to fully promote the potential and advantages of this type of tourism. The Hue Festival Organizing Committee and related departments and sectors are making efforts to exploit spiritual tourism activities to develop tourism, turning Buddha's birthday into a major religious and cultural festival in the province's four-season festival series.

According to researchers, on the basis of traditional festivals that are characteristic of Hue's religious life, if there is appropriate investment and combination, these festivals can become the highlight to form an attractive spiritual tourism route with content that conveys the entire spiritual life of Hue people. Moreover, the Buddhist imprint with great influence, deep and widespread influence, bold and popular with the regular maintenance of worship rituals on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month; in which, it is worth mentioning the full moon worship ceremony in July - Vu Lan festival is also related to the spiritual life of Hue residents. From festivals and religious activities of diverse types, if they are linked together along the axis "Vu Lan - Mau - Thu Te", it will become an impressive spiritual tourism model with specific tours.

In the coming time, the Department of Tourism, the travel business community, departments, branches and units will continue to research, improve and diversify spiritual tourism products, while stepping up promotion and advertising to develop spiritual tourism more sustainably in Hue.

MINH TAM