For Vietnamese people, Spring is also synonymous with festival season. In the land of the nation's origin, according to statistics, Phu Tho currently has more than 300 traditional festivals. Most of the festivals are held in Spring. Each festival contains intangible cultural heritage (ICH) imbued with the unique culture of the Ancestral Land.
Elderly people perform the announcement ceremony at the Altar of the Field during the Hung King Festival teaching people to plant rice in the Spring of At Ty 2025.
Unique festivals
According to Ms. Pham Nga Viet - Head of Cultural Heritage Management Department (Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism): Phu Tho currently has 22 National Intangible Cultural Heritages, including many traditional festivals such as: Dao Xa Communal House Festival; Lang Suong Temple Festival; Tro Tram Festival; Bach Hac Festival, Tam Giang Temple; Chu Hung Temple Festival; Hung Lo Communal House Festival; Van Luong Temple Festival; Princess Gai Procession Festival; Du Yen Temple Festival; Forest Opening Ceremony of Muong people, Yen Lap district; Wrestling Festival of Vinh Mo Communal House.
Dao Xa Communal House Festival (Thanh Thuy District) is characterized by the elephant procession, held on January 27, 28, and 29 every year. The festival was recognized as a National Heritage Site in November 2016. This place worships Hung Hai Cong - the 19th brother of King Hung, who had the merit of reclaiming land, teaching people how to control water, grow crops, raise livestock, and build prosperous villages.
This year's Dao Xa Communal House Festival, in addition to organizing the ceremony with traditional rituals that have been preserved and maintained: elephant procession, incense altar, precious dragon, tablet, royal coffin and worshiping Thanh Hoang, also organizes the festival with many unique folk games such as: Tug of war, chicken snatching, fetching water, pounding rice, pulling fire to cook rice...
Besides the uniqueness of the elephant procession, the offerings of the four groups of East, West, South, and North around the communal house to the village's tutelary god on the festival day are also carefully prepared, with their own unique features such as fruit trays, honey cakes, sweet soup, worshiping chickens along with flowers, betel and areca nuts, and sticky rice. Especially the ingenuity and meticulousness in preparing the worshiping chickens and arranging the offerings to have golden chickens with flying shapes along with multi-layered, full offerings on all four sides with the wish to pray for a year of favorable weather, prosperity and well-being for every family.
Bach Hac Festival, Tam Giang Temple (Viet Tri city) with the focus on the water procession - this is one of the most important rituals with unique cultural features of the Ancestral Land. Water is taken from Hac junction - the confluence of three rivers: Red River, Da River and Lo River. Besides the purpose of taking water to burn incense and worship the gods, the water procession also shows people's wishes for the growth of all things in nature and humans. As a typical part of the festival, the Bach Hac water procession ritual was chosen to be built into a unique spiritual cultural tourism product of the Ancestral Land to bring attractive cultural experiences, attracting tourists to the province.
Most recently, the Vinh Mo Communal House Wrestling Festival, Cao Xa Commune, Lam Thao District, held on the 7th of January every year, has been recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Communal House worships the village's tutelary god Nguyen Van Ky, a famous general during the Hung King period, who helped King Hung defeat the enemy and save the country; recruited people to establish hamlets and reclaim land to form Vinh Te village, Cao Xa Commune today. The unique feature of the Vinh Mo Communal House Wrestling Festival compared to other wrestling festivals in the country is the addition of the "chasing the prize" custom. This custom originated from chasing the enemy out of the village. After the final match of the wrestling festival, the winning wrestler had to climb the flagpole, grab the prize and run out of the village. The villagers chased after him until the winner jumped into the water, then they stopped chasing him, and only after chasing the prize did the wrestling festival end.
Senh tien dance performance at Thach Khoan Communal House Festival.
Preserve the unique features
This is a land where many ethnic groups live together with a very diverse and rich cultural treasure from language, writing, costumes, folk knowledge, folk performing arts, traditional festivals... including 2 heritages recognized by UNESCO as representative intangible cultural heritages of humanity: Phu Tho Xoan singing and Hung King worship in Phu Tho.
Our province has had many synchronous solutions to preserve and promote heritage values while spreading them in community life. Many localities in the province have issued resolutions and projects to preserve and promote traditional cultural values and have had good ways to contribute to preserving and promoting the cultural values of ethnic minorities such as establishing Muong and other ethnic cultural clubs, supporting the purchase of gongs, building Muong cultural spaces in schools, opening Nom Dao classes, recreating traditional festivals... Each festival is a intangible cultural heritage and contains many other heritages such as the Hung King worship belief; stam duong, cham ong, senh tien dance, dance to scoop shrimp and birds gau; dishes imbued with the cultural identity of the Ancestral Land such as banh chung, banh giay, five-color sticky rice, and leaf feasts...
Traditional festivals include the ceremony and the festival. The rituals of worship, palanquin procession, water procession, and sacred rice procession are performed according to traditional rituals. The festival is organized with many cultural activities, sports, and folk games imbued with the cultural identity of the Ancestral Land such as: Hundred humorous arts; Four people's professions; Gong performance, stabbing, dancing, folk games, swinging, blindfolded pot smashing, blindfolded pig catching, crossbow shooting competition...
Mr. Ha Quang Phung - Member of the Thanh Son District Folk Arts Association shared: I have participated in the Thach Khoan Communal House Festival sacrificial team since 2012, and have been the master of ceremonies since 2020. At the same time, I am also a researcher of folk culture. I really want to work with the elders in the commune to preserve the cultural identity of the Muong ethnic group in general and the cultural identity of the ethnic group in the Festival in particular, so that the Thach Khoan Communal House Festival always retains its own identity. In addition, I also directly participate in teaching the Muong language to the younger generation so that they can better understand and love their ethnic culture.
To preserve and promote the national cultural identity, the inheritance and participation in preserving and conserving by local people, especially the youth, is very important. In fact, at many festivals, junior high and high school students also participate in folk rituals and performances such as: participating in flag-holding and spear-holding in processions; participating in the female mandarin worship ceremony in the Au Co Temple Festival; the procession of Lac and Hong descendants; the Senh Tien dance team in the Thach Khoan Temple Festival; the fairy dance team in the Du Yen Temple Festival, or acting as the Lady in the Lady Procession Festival... have contributed to preserving and promoting the cultural characteristics of the Ancestral Land.
Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/giu-gin-ban-sac-van-hoa-vung-dat-to-20250313152045103.htm
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