During the war against the Yuan-Mongol invaders, Pham Ngu Lao (1255 - 1320) was a talented man, proficient in martial arts and good at using soldiers. He was highly regarded by King Tran and assigned to command three armies to defend the Northeastern border. He chose Dai Toan seaport (now Diem Dien seaport), a land of talented people and geomancy, as the place to set up a training camp for soldiers. At the place where he was stationed, the local people later built Het temple to commemorate the talented general.
Having gone through the ups and downs of history with two resistance wars against the French and the Americans, the temple has stood majestically for hundreds of years against the storms of the sea. Het Temple is currently a place where many cultural and spiritual activities are maintained, including wrestling and ball wrestling festivals. Legend has it that these were sports organized by General Pham Ngu Lao to train the soldiers' physical strength when stationed here.
Taking the historical date of January 8, 1288, the Tran general and army set out to fight the Yuan army at Dai Bang seaport ( Thai Binh seaport today), many people of Thai Thuong commune and tourists from all over the country eagerly attended the Het temple festival on this day. The festival has many folk games demonstrating the martial spirit of the nation, the most unique of which is the ball wrestling competition.
After the solemn ceremony with the offerings and incense offering, the festival part attracts the most people and tourists. After thousands of years of history, the ball wrestling game is still passed down by the locals with almost original rituals. To prepare for the matches, the villages have previously selected players. On the main festival day, the final matches will take place.
The athletes in the wrestling game are elite village boys, strong, healthy, and intelligent. Before starting, the players go to the temple to offer incense, make the sign of the cross, and then go out to the field to compete, divided into 2 teams: the Farming team (in the word Agriculture ) wears red pants, the Fishing team (in the word Fishery) wears blue pants. Each team has 9 people including 1 general and 8 soldiers competing on a large sandy field.
The ball is made from banana roots, weighs 15kg, is rounded and smooth, and is buried in a small hole in the middle of the yard. On the left and right sides of the yard are two baskets woven from bamboo, mounted on a red painted wooden pole, about 2m high. After the starting signal, the ball is quickly picked up. This is the decisive moment, the ball is round, smooth, solid and heavy, so it requires the players to be brave, know how to promote collective strength, shout and use the force from their hands to push the ball up high.
In shuttlecock wrestling, players must use their strength, agility, and skill to grab the shuttlecock and bring it back to their nest. The match is sometimes fierce, with teams using both muscle strength and coordination to hold the shuttlecock tight against the opponent's obstruction and find a way to push the shuttlecock into the nest. After 2 rounds, each round of 20 minutes, the team that gets the shuttlecock into its nest more times wins.
Comment (0)