The story goes that, when Thai Duong village was first established in the early 14th century, Mr. Truong, one of the three founding families of the village, did not like to "hoe the land and turn the grass" to do farming, but only liked "boats clinging to the sea", so he chose the land below the village to make a living.
Life gradually became more prosperous, especially compared to the residents in neighboring villages. From then on, the villagers followed him to learn the fishing profession, honored him as Thanh Hoang, built a temple to worship him, and every "tam nien dao le" (once every 3 years) held a fishing ceremony to commemorate the founder of the profession.
From a geographical perspective, natural disasters have continuously impacted the coastal strip of Thua Thien Hue throughout history. Historical records record severe floods during the reign of King Thanh Thai of the Nguyen Dynasty.
In the years 1897 and 1904, floods and storms brought sand and soil to fill Eo estuary (old Thuan An estuary) and opened Sut estuary (current Thuan An estuary). This event caused the original Thai Duong village to be divided into two villages, Thuong and Ha, separated by the estuary.
In the current administrative boundary, Thai Duong Thuong village is located on the left side of the estuary, in Hai Duong commune, Hue city; Thai Duong Ha village is located on the right side, in Thuan An ward, Hue city, about 12km northeast of Hue city center.
On this afternoon, January 9th of the lunar calendar, the elders and residents of Thai Duong Ha village held a ceremony to welcome the village's tutelary god from the temple to the communal house. The procession had gongs, drums, flags, cymbals, an octagonal orchestra, and especially a symbolic boat carried by young men, parading from one end of the village to the other, then entering the communal house.
On the night of the 9th, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the gods took place. At around 2am on the 10th, the main ceremony was held with full offerings and solemn rituals of the main priest and his assistant. After the main ceremony, the profession presentation ceremony was conducted as a performance to pay homage to the Thanh Hoang - the founder of the profession who taught the villagers how to make a living by living on the sea.
After three drum beats by the commanding officer, the village chief will throw money and gifts into the communal house yard for the children to jostle to pick up. The children were previously disguised as shrimp, crab, fish, squid...
At the same time, the young men playing the role of fishermen stood next to them, casting their fishing rods so that the children, who were dressed as different kinds of seafood, could compete to catch the bait. Next to them, another group of people carried a red-painted boat with people sitting on it, running into the communal house yard, circling around the children in costume.
The people on the boat began to cast nets to surround the “seafood” below. The nets surrounded the “shrimps” and “fish” in a circle in the communal house yard, the “seafood” tried to find a way to escape, while the people on the boat were reenacting the movements of “do”, “ho”, and pulling the net in the middle of the ocean. When the net circle became smaller, the fisherman on the boat jumped down to catch the biggest “fish” and brought it to the communal house to offer to the Thanh Hoang.
Then the “seafood” caught when collecting the net will be put into baskets, carried by women, some to the beach to wash with salt water, symbolizing seafood processing; others are carried to the market to sell. The people pretending to be traders when buying these seafood also haggle and bargain like buying real seafood, just as bustling and noisy as a real market.
Heritage Magazine
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