Over 200 years of history

Van Ta Tan has just organized Cau Ngu Festival (1 of 3 large-scale worship ceremonies of the village) during the National Day holiday on September 2nd, attracting many locals and tourists to visit and learn about the historical relics here.

Lifespan over 200 years

The Cau Ngu Festival takes place for 3 days from September 1 to 3, 2023 (July 17 to 19 of the lunar calendar), with many diverse activities. For generations, the Cau Ngu Festival has been a typical cultural product of the coastal community across the country in general and in Phan Ri Cua town in particular, associated with the whale worshiping belief. For the life of the coastal community, the Cau Ngu Festival is the most important festival of the year, because this is a festival to pray for a good harvest - pray for fish, asking the gods to grant a year of "favorable rain, favorable wind, calm seas, and a full tank of shrimp and fish".

From early morning, the atmosphere at Phan Ri Cua estuary was bustling with trumpet, drum and flag teams preparing for ceremonies.

According to the historical geography of Phan Ri Cua, when the war between Lord Nguyen and Lord Trinh in 1627 divided Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai, Mr. Phan Hiep, a native of Nghi Xuan - Ha Tinh, left his hometown and went to Dien Ban - Quang Nam to make a living. After the war between Nguyen Phuc Anh and Tay Son Quang Trung Nguyen Hue ended, Mr. Hiep and a group of people from Quang Nam came to Phan Ri to settle down and make a living. He commented that Phan Ri had very rich natural conditions, geographical terrain of rivers and seas, diverse fishing grounds, suitable for seasonal weather, so he was determined to stay and make a living here forever.

During his time working in the seafood fishing industry, although Phan Ri land had favorable weather conditions, with few storms and natural disasters compared to Quang Nam, it was inevitable that there would be storms during the changing seasons. Combined with the spiritual and religious customs that had existed since Quang Nam, Mr. Phan Hiep started to mobilize fishermen to establish the first fishing village in Phan Ri land, named Van Nam Binh in the year of Ky Mao 1819. In the year of Tan Ty 1821, King Minh Mang granted a royal decree to Van Nam Binh.

People pray to the gods for a year of "favorable rain, favorable wind, calm seas, and abundant fish and shrimp".

The first time Phan Ri was granted a royal decree by the Nguyen Dynasty to build Van Nam Binh to worship the god Nam Hai. The name Nam Binh means that people from Quang Nam came to Binh Thuan to establish a fishing village to worship the god Nam Hai, so they combined the names of the two hometowns to form Nam Binh. In the 24th year of Tu Duc, or 1870, when Mr. Nguyen Quang was the Van Truong, the location was changed, the temple was built in Giang Hai 2 quarter with solid materials and tiled roofs, and the name was changed to Ta Tan until now. The life of Van Ta Tan has been over 200 years, granted 16 royal decrees by the dynasties of Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, Tu Duc, Dong Khanh, Thanh Thai, Duy Tan, Khai Dinh, Bao Dai and 19 Van Truongs took turns serving. Mr. Phan Hiep was the first founder.

Cau Ngu Festival is the biggest and most important festival of the year for coastal people.

The ceremonies were prepared quite carefully by the seniors.

A place to keep hundreds of whale skeletons

Mr. Vo Mao - Head of Van Ta Tan Management Board said: "Every year, at Van Ta Tan, there are 3 rituals of worship according to the lunar calendar: the first ritual of the season on April 17, the great ritual of July 17 (the main ritual of praying for fish) and the late ritual of October 25, aiming to guide people back to their roots. The recent Cau Ngu Festival took place with rituals such as the Royal Welcome of Ong Sanh Nam Hai; the Tien Hien Ceremony, the Am Linh Ceremony, the Great Altar, the King's Revelation and the Complete Ceremony... Besides the rituals, the festival is also organized on a large scale with traditional cultural activities such as rowing and rowing, singing traditional opera... Van Ta Tan is where hundreds of Ong Nam Hai skeletons are kept, including the largest skeleton weighing several tons and 14m long. In 2008, Van Ta Tan was granted a Provincial-level Cultural Heritage Historical Relic Certificate by Binh Thuan province".

Due to its long construction, Van Ta Tan has seriously degraded. After being renovated once in 1980, in 2020, the authorities continued to pour funds into the renovation and by the end of 2022 it was basically completed and resumed operations after 2 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, according to Mr. Mao, during the renovation process, the budget was still short of more than 40 million VND to complete the interior of the house. Therefore, he is calling for socialization and people from all over to join hands to make Van Ta Tan "beautiful on the outside and solid on the inside" - worthy of being a place for annual folk cultural activities as well as preserving valuable heritages.

Van Ta Tan has just been renovated and repaired.

Cau Ngu Festival not only represents the unique folk culture, but is also a beautiful local culture, expressing the morality of drinking water, remembering its source, and showing gratitude to previous generations who contributed to building the fishing industry. At the same time, the festival is also a place to preserve traditional folk art forms and is an important festival that needs to be maintained, preserved and promoted.

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