People and tourists participate in the Festival of Lady of the Land of Sam Mountain
This is the 16th intangible cultural heritage of Vietnam recognized by UNESCO, and is also the first heritage of Vietnam whose subjects are both majority and minority ethnic groups. The festival is the inheritance, absorption and creation of Vietnamese residents in the process of land reclamation, a synthesis of the Mother Goddess worship beliefs of the Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham and Chinese ethnic groups.
The Via Ba Chua Xu festival of Sam mountain aims to show respect to Ba Chua Xu - one of the six Holy Mothers according to Vietnamese folk beliefs. Because Vinh Te villagers worship her as the village deity, the rituals and offerings in the festival are performed similarly to the Ky Yen worship ceremony at the village communal house worshiping the Thanh Hoang Than Bon Canh.
People come to offer sacrifices, praying for her protection, blessing, and bringing them a prosperous and happy life. The festival of Lady Chua Xu of Sam Mountain has a strong vitality in the consciousness and spiritual life of the community and is an important ritual practice in the spiritual life of the people in the region.
The festival takes place from April 22 to 27 (lunar calendar) every year, performed according to traditional rituals, including: Opening ceremony, procession of the Lady's statue from the top of Sam mountain to the temple, bathing ceremony, ceremony to invite the decree of Thoai Ngoc Hau and his two wives, the ceremony of building the altar, the main ceremony and the ceremony of returning the decree. In the current context, the Festival of Lady Chua Xu in Sam mountain attracts more and more people from all over the country to participate, with over 5 million pilgrims each year.
Among the places of worship of Ba Chua Xu, Ba Chua Xu Temple in Sam Mountain is the most sacred and representative place in terms of legend, shrine and festival. Up to now, there are four legends about her appearance, of which the following legend is the most popular.
According to legend, the statue of the Lady was once on the top of Sam Mountain, where there was a square sandstone pedestal, 1.6m on a side and nearly 0.30m thick. In the early years of the 14th century, the Siamese invaders often came here to harass. When they went up Sam Mountain and encountered the statue of the Lady, they pried it open and carried it down the mountain, but after a while, the statue became so heavy that it could no longer be carried.
One day, the villagers found the statue of the Lady in the middle of the forest, so they gathered together to find a way to carry it back and build a temple to worship it. Strangely, although the villagers mobilized many strong young men, they still could not lift it. Suddenly, a woman possessed herself, calling herself the Lady of the Land, and said that nine virgin girls had to bathe and clean themselves to carry the statue down the mountain.
The villagers did as they were told, and when they got near the foot of the mountain, the statue of the Lady was so heavy that it could not be moved. The villagers believed that the Lady had chosen this place to reside. So a shrine was built. Since then, every year, the people around Sam Mountain held a festival to worship the Lady, which gradually became a famous festival throughout the Southern region.
Among the Mother Goddess temples of the Vietnamese in the South, the temple of Ba Chua Xu on Sam Mountain is the largest. Previously, the temple was not located in this location. When the French colonialists occupied the entire Chau Doc province, they opened a traffic route and the temple was moved to its current location. Currently, the temple is located in Nui Sam ward (formerly Vinh Te commune), Chau Doc city, An Giang province, right at the foot of Sam mountain.
The center of the Ba Chua Xu Temple Festival takes place in the sacred space where the statue of the Lady is placed. From the belief in Mother Goddess worship in the mind, the Vietnamese people have mythologized a statue and created a separate shrine for the Ba Chua Xu Temple on Sam Mountain with its own forms of cultural, religious and festival activities. This creates a difference compared to the temples of the Lady in the South, where there is no such shrine.
The worship of Ba Chua Xu is the spiritual and faith convergence point of the pioneers. She has become a sacred symbol of "Mother Earth" - Mother of the land, capable of protecting and sheltering the community when they come to new lands. This belief and aspiration has been passed down through generations, creating spiritual strength and courage for those who are far from home, and spreading to many other lands in the South. Ba Chua Xu, the main character worshiped, is the symbol of Vietnamese beliefs throughout the festival. Thanks to these sacred spiritual elements, Vietnamese people have created the strength to unite ethnic communities such as the Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham, and Khmer in the South, helping to avoid ethnic and religious conflicts in history - something that many modern countries still desire.
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