Preserving traditions through village festivals

Spring comes, along with the blooming of all kinds of grass, trees, flowers, and leaves, dispelling the cold of winter, spreading the warmth of heaven and earth into people's hearts, making everyone happy and excited. At this time, village festivals throughout the Ancestral Land are taking place. This is one of the spiritual and cultural activities of the community, expressing the gratitude of descendants to their ancestors who have contributed to building and defending the country, protecting national independence through historical periods, contributing to preserving traditional cultural identity in building new rural areas and civilized urban areas.

Participation of the wrestlers in the wrestling festival at Vinh Mo communal house in 2025.

Village bonding

Vinh Mo Communal House, Cao Xa Commune, Lam Thao District is a provincial-level historical and cultural relic recognized by the State in 1998. The Communal House worships the current tutelary god, Nguyen Van Ky - a famous general of the Hung King period. After helping the King defeat the enemy, he returned here to recruit people to establish hamlets and open up land, becoming the present-day Vinh Te (Cao Xa) village - a heroic land located on the left bank of the Thao River with lush vegetation all year round.

Proud of the priceless heritage left by their ancestors, the people of Vinh Te village always pay attention to educating the younger generation about traditions. This includes preserving the Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival - a beautiful feature of the local people's customs and community cultural activities.

According to tradition, every year on January 6 and 7, the children of the homeland eagerly gather to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival. This year, the Party Committee, the government of Cao Xa commune and the people of Vinh Te village were honored and proud when the Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage.

In the joyful and exciting atmosphere, the crowd flocked to the festival, including those who had returned from working far away, meeting relatives and friends with laughter as lively as a spring full of vitality. Everyone prayed for a year of favorable weather, peace, and prosperity. To create a good impression on visitors from all over, the Organizing Committee of the Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival prepared all conditions, ensuring that they were suitable for cultural traditions, safe, healthy, and economical.

Comrade Ta Tien Dung - Vice Chairman of Cao Xa Commune People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Festival Organizing Committee said: The goal of the Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival is to commemorate the battles of soldiers in the past, and at the same time demonstrate the martial spirit of the local people. The Vinh Mo communal house wrestling festival has different characteristics from all other wrestling festivals in the country. The chasing of prizes is the special feature that makes Vinh Mo wrestling festival unique, always attracting and appealing to young men in the commune, neighboring areas and tourists from all over to come to compete, compete, and test their strength at the beginning of the year to hope for luck, health and success in the new year.

Phu Tho - the land of origin of the Vietnamese people, rich in cultural heritage in each administrative geographical area. The whole province is currently maintaining 315 festivals (311 traditional festivals; 4 cultural festivals), mainly concentrated in the 3 months of Spring. Festivals in Phu Tho are mostly village festivals, but many festivals have influence and spread over a large area, typically the Hung Temple Festival of national significance, crystallized from the beauty of village festivals in the Ancestral Land. Festivals are occasions for unique, distinctive cultural heritages, imbued with the origin, to be practiced and performed by communities... attracting tens of thousands of people and tourists from all over to attend and worship.

Organizing festivals has contributed to strengthening and uniting the village community. That is, in the ceremony and festival, all villagers have the responsibility to contribute human and material resources, together participating in performing, creating, enjoying and enjoying cultural values.

Every year, on the 10th of March (lunar calendar), Hung Lo commune, Viet Tri city and the people organize the Hung Lo communal house festival to commemorate and show gratitude to King Hung.

Promoting traditional values

Traditional folk festivals - village festivals in the Ancestral Land are often associated with spiritual spaces and perform rituals imbued with traditional cultural values. People who attend village festivals first of all return to their roots, express gratitude to their ancestors, and express their aspirations to rise up, in order to fulfill their spiritual needs, pray for blessings, fortune, peace, and happiness...

To stimulate the flow of traditional festivals, every year, implementing the direction of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Culture and Sports of districts, towns and cities has proactively advised the People's Committees of the same level to direct the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns to promote propaganda to raise awareness and responsibility of all levels, sectors, people and tourists in implementing the regulations of the Party and State on festival management and organization, ensuring conformity with cultural traditions, safety, health and economy.

Accordingly, the festivals are organized on a large scale: The ceremony is performed solemnly, following traditional rituals; the festival is diverse and rich with folk and traditional games... At the same time, in some festivals, there are organized mass sports activities and many services, souvenir sales, local cuisine... to meet the needs of the majority of people and tourists.

In order to preserve, promote and honor the values ​​of the province's typical intangible cultural heritage, every year, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism develops a detailed plan to prepare dossiers of typical intangible cultural heritage to propose inclusion in the list of national intangible cultural heritage, including traditional festivals.

From 2020-2024, the Department has prepared scientific dossiers of 5 festivals to submit to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for inclusion in the list of national intangible cultural heritages, namely: Van Luong Temple Festival, Van Phu Ward, Viet Tri City; Hung Lo Communal House Festival, Hung Lo Commune, Viet Tri City; Princess Girl Procession Festival, Hung Son Town, Lam Thao District; Du Yen Temple Festival, Chi Tien Commune, Thanh Ba District; Wrestling Festival at Vinh Mo Communal House, Cao Xa Commune, Lam Thao District.

In 2025, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will continue to develop a scientific dossier on the province's typical intangible cultural heritage for the Cocoon Robbing Festival in Di Nau commune, Tam Nong district, and is proposing to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to include it in the list of national intangible cultural heritage in 2025.

Implementing the Project "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" under the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has carried out the work of preserving and restoring traditional festivals of ethnic minorities, typically: Ngoc Tan Communal House Festival, Ngoc Quan Commune, Doan Hung District; Khoang Communal House Festival, Huong Can Commune, Thanh Son District; New Rice Festival of the Muong people, Tu Vu Commune, Thanh Thuy District...

Hung Son town organizes the Festival of the Lady of Vi village - Treo village (the ancient He village festival) in the year of At Ty.

Discussing this issue, Comrade Nguyen Dac Thuy - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: Traditional festivals always receive the attention and direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels and the consensus and support of the majority of people. Through the organization of festivals, it has contributed to maintaining the practice, teaching and performing intangible cultural heritage in the locality; affirming the historical, cultural, scientific values ​​and the role of intangible cultural heritage in contemporary community life. From there, the province continues to have solutions to preserve and promote the values ​​of traditional village festivals, meeting the requirements in the management of cultural heritage of the province.

Anh Tho

Source: https://baophutho.vn/luu-giu-truyen-thong-qua-le-hoi-lang-227924.htm