Nghia Linh sacred mountain. (Photo courtesy)
Value from the sacred Nghia Linh mountain
In the hearts of the Vietnamese people, Hung Temple on Nghia Linh Mountain has long been a sacred gathering place embodying the tradition of "drinking water, remembering the source." Every year on the anniversary of the Hung Kings' death, people from all over the country make pilgrimages here to offer incense and pay respects to the Hung Kings. However, while previously the festival activities mainly took place within the Hung Temple National Special Historical Relic Site, in recent years, especially during this year's festival season, that cultural space has been significantly expanded.
Originating from Nghia Linh Mountain, the festival has spread to many localities throughout the province. Cultural and sporting activities, folk performances, camps, exhibitions, and the promotion of local products are organized widely, creating a vibrant and colorful festival atmosphere. Not only people around the Hung Temple area but also many other localities in the province directly participate in the series of events of the festival.
A notable new development is that local incense offerings are now organized by clusters of communes and wards, instead of just at the district level as before. This approach is not only consistent with the reorganization of administrative units but also allows more communities to directly participate in this sacred ritual honoring their ancestors.
Alongside this, many folk cultural activities have been revived and expanded in scale, including street folk cultural festivals with the participation of a large number of people from various communes and wards. Processions, folk performances, and colorful traditional costumes have created a vibrant picture of the cultural life of the ancestral land.
It is noteworthy that in this space, the people are not just participants but become the main actors in the festival. Each village and community brings its own unique cultural values to the festival, from folk games and Xoan and Gheo singing to distinctive local products. This widespread community participation has contributed to making the Hung Temple Festival increasingly vibrant.
From a festival associated with a historical site, the Hung Temple Festival is gradually becoming a shared cultural space for the entire province and the whole country – a place where each region and each person can contribute a color to the cultural tapestry of the Ancestral Land.
Students from Achi Home Kindergarten (Vinh Phuc Ward) performed the play "The Dragon and the Immortal Descendants".
A national holiday of international significance.
If community engagement is what gives the festival its vitality, then expanding international exchange activities is giving the Hung Temple Festival a new stature.
The Hung Kings worship belief has been inscribed by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This not only affirms the special value of this belief in the cultural life of the Vietnamese people but also opens up opportunities to promote the image of the ancestral land's culture to the world .
During this year's festival season, many international cultural exchange activities were organized, such as art exhibitions, cultural exchanges, and programs introducing Vietnamese heritage and culture to international friends. These activities contributed to elevating the Hung Temple Festival beyond the scope of a traditional festival to become a bridge for cultural exchange.
For many international tourists, a trip to Hung Temple is not just a visit to a historical site, but also an opportunity to learn about the origins of the Vietnamese people, the tradition of ancestor veneration, and the spirit of unity and community cohesion that has existed for thousands of years.
Through these exchange activities, the image of the Hung Temple Festival – a symbol of the principle of "drinking water, remembering the source" – is introduced more widely to international friends. This is also a form of subtle yet effective cultural diplomacy , contributing to spreading Vietnamese cultural values to the world.
The vitality of a thousand-year-old festival
What makes the Hung Temple Festival so special is not just its scale or the number of activities, but its profound significance in the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people.
Throughout history, the image of the Hung Kings has always been regarded as a symbol of the nation's origins. From the mountains to the plains, from within the country to Vietnamese communities abroad, every year in the third lunar month, millions of hearts turn towards the ancestral land.
It is this strong bond that has helped the Hung Temple Festival to be continuously nurtured and developed. In the context of increasingly modern social life, the festival still retains its solemn rituals and core traditional values, while adapting to the new demands of cultural life.
Today, as the festival is organized on an increasingly larger scale, in more open spaces, and with the role of the community being increasingly emphasized, the Hung Temple Festival is not only an occasion to commemorate ancestors but also a major cultural festival of the entire nation.
From the sacred Nghia Linh mountain peak, considered the origin of the Vietnamese nation, these cultural values continue to spread throughout community life, among every Vietnamese person, and are gradually expanding to the world as a unique symbol of Vietnamese national cultural identity.
Quang Nam
Source: https://baophutho.vn/tu-nui-thieng-nghia-linh-buoc-ra-the-gioi-252495.htm
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