Preserving 500-year-old wrestling festival

Passed down through generations, the traditional wrestling festival that is hundreds of years old in Trung An village, Hai Khe commune, Hai Lang district, has been preserved intact until now. This unique and long-standing traditional wrestling festival has been deeply ingrained in the consciousness of every person in this coastal area. Every year on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the festival is held with the eager anticipation of many local people and wrestlers.

The traditional wrestling festival of Trung An village attracts a large number of people to watch and cheer - Photo: D.V

Exciting wrestling festival in Trung An village

On the full moon day of the first lunar month of the year of the Dragon - 2024, on the beach of Trung An village, in the light sunny weather of the beginning of the new year, the village's annual traditional wrestling festival was held again.

The wrestling festival took place amidst the bustling sounds of drums and fluttering flags, with the enthusiastic cheers of many local people. After the ceremony of offering the wrestling arena with simple offerings including paper clothes and fruits, the wrestling festival officially began. The wrestling arena was a large open white sand area right in front of the village spirit shrine, surrounded by bamboo fences and ropes.

Mr. Truong Van Ba, head of Trung An village, said that in the past, wrestlers participating in the festival had to be members of clans or families in the village. But now, the participants of the wrestling festival have been expanded to the whole commune and district. The participants include people from all over the place, without age or weight restrictions.

After the ceremonial opening round of the two village elders, there was a competition for the children, followed by the adult rounds. In the past, the winner of all the matches would be the winner, but now the people have a rule that the winner of four consecutive matches will be the winner. If there are many winners, they will go to the final round and be awarded first and second prizes.

Those who participated in the wrestling but did not win were also given gifts by the organizers and prizes by outsiders to encourage and motivate their enthusiasm to participate in the festival.

Wrestlers are determined to compete at the wrestling festival in Trung An village, Hai Khe commune, Hai Lang district - Photo: D.V

The winner of the competition will receive the most valuable prize. The evening after the competition, the winner brings the prize and flag, buys a plate of betel, wine, gold and silver to the Fisherman's Temple, reports on his victory in the wrestling competition, then hangs the flag at the temple and brings the prize back.

Back to the wrestling festival, amidst the drumbeats and cheers of the crowd, the wrestlers competed with all their might. Each unique and powerful wrestling move was demonstrated. There were some extremely intense matches with special and attractive moves, sending up streaks of white sand under the sunlight.

Preserving tradition

Wrestler Truong Van Thang (17 years old) with a muscular and handsome appearance after 2 consecutive wins seemed to have run out of energy and lost to his 3rd opponent. Sitting down to rest under a casuarina tree, Thang said he had participated in traditional wrestling every year since he was 9-10 years old.

“I compete almost every year. Wrestling not only improves my health but also helps preserve the traditional wrestling festival of our ancestors. I hope I will achieve better results in the coming years,” Thang happily said.

Each wrestling match lasted an average of 5-7 minutes, with some matches involving evenly matched pairs lasting longer. In the wrestling ring, the wrestlers were determined to compete. Sand and sweat were dripping from the strong bodies of the coastal men. Outside, people were cheering enthusiastically for their friends and relatives.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, a resident of Trung An village, shared: “Every year, everyone looks forward to the full moon day of the first lunar month to attend the fishing ceremony and traditional wrestling festival of our village. Although I often work far away, when I have the chance to come home for Tet, I always stay until the traditional festival of the village is over before leaving. Being able to immerse myself in the bustling atmosphere and warm neighborhood spirit like this makes me feel very happy and moved.”

Before the traditional wrestling festival, Trung An village solemnly held a fishing ceremony to express the wish for peace and prosperity - Photo: D.V

According to the elders, the traditional wrestling festival of Trung An village has been around for 500 years. Through the ups and downs of history, the people still pass on and preserve the wrestling festival as a precious heritage and an indispensable element in the fishing ceremony of Trung An village, Hai Khe commune. “The wrestling festival has never been interrupted, every year it is organized on a large scale and enthusiastically. Only in 2020 when COVID-19 broke out, the village only organized a few symbolic pairs of matches to maintain it. The wrestling festival has been ingrained in the blood and flesh of the people of Trung An village,” said Mr. Ba.

Wishing you peace and prosperity

Before the wrestling festival, Trung An village respectfully held a fishing ceremony with the meaning: praying for peace - wishing for everything to be peaceful; praying for wealth - praying for the villagers working at sea to have a good fishing season and to do business smoothly with other industries.

According to Mr. Truong Van Ba, the Trung An village fishing festival is a type of folk cultural activity of a craft village - a seafaring profession, which has a long history and has been passed down through many generations to this day. This is a festival in the form of a community cultural activity, close to the life of fishermen. Like in the coastal villages of Quang Tri, the Trung An village fishing festival was formed a long time ago and is held to commemorate the virtues of the fishermen, praying for calm seas, favorable weather, full holds of fish and shrimp, and a prosperous and peaceful village.

In addition, the fishing festival also contains many traditional cultural values, where love for the homeland is taught, community unity is established, and the strength of fishermen is honored. Each festival is also an opportunity for brave fishermen in the storm to affirm their strong belief and strong will to overcome all challenges to master their homeland's sea and rise up to become rich from the sea.

Every year, after the Lunar New Year, the commune holds a traditional fishing festival and wrestling festival, not only in Trung An village but also in Tham Khe village. This is a unique and long-standing traditional cultural feature, expressing the desire for peace and prosperity of the local people. In recent times, the villages have maintained and organized these festivals very well, thereby contributing to preserving, maintaining and educating good traditions for the younger generation. We hope that the villages will continue to promote the spirit of solidarity, join hands to contribute to building cultural institutions such as ghost temples, whale temples, wrestling grounds, etc. to have better conditions for preserving and promoting local traditional festivals.

Chairman of Hai Khe Commune People's Committee Tran Kim Cuong

“The fishing ceremony is an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of community solidarity; to arouse and convey the awareness of remembering one’s roots, ancestors and those who have contributed to the village and the country. In addition, this is also an occasion for the village to hold a ceremony to worship the wandering souls who have been entrusted to the village’s land and solemnly hold a ceremony at the Fisherman Temple,” said Mr. Ba.

In particular, this year, thanks to the joint efforts and contributions from villagers and people far from home, the village's spirit temple has been built with a value of hundreds of millions of dong, helping the worship to be more neat and solemn. According to Mr. Ba, Trung An villagers wish to continue building the Fisherman Temple in the near future and hope that all levels and sectors will support the village to build a proper and larger wrestling arena to create conditions to raise the level of the traditional wrestling festival.

Hieu Giang

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa-the-thao/giu-gin-hoi-vat-500-nam-tuoi/184157.htm