Unique features of Tran Temple Festival

Over the past decades since the Tran Temple relic in Tien Duc commune (Hung Ha) was restored, the traditional festival here has always been maintained annually on a large scale, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from many provinces and cities to attend, respectfully paying tribute to the contributions of the Tran kings and their ancestors. This is also an opportunity for visitors to learn about unique activities with cultural and historical values that are not easily found anywhere else.

Water procession at Tran Temple Festival in Thai Binh.

Traditional rituals

Although the opening ceremony of the Tran Temple Festival takes place on the evening of January 13, every year, from early morning, thousands of tourists and local people flock to Tran Temple to respectfully offer incense and flowers to express gratitude for the contributions of the Tran Kings and their ancestors, and participate in rituals such as the temple opening ceremony and the incense offering ceremony at the Tran Kings' tombs to pray for prosperity, national peace and people's well-being, the longevity of hundreds of families, peace for the country, and happiness for the people.

Mr. Pham Van Cuong, Deputy Head of the Tran Temple Management Board, shared: The Tran Kings built the Son Lang area in Thai Duong Lang, now Tam Duong village, Tien Duc commune, to bury their ancestors and the previous kings of the Tran Dynasty. These are the tomb (the Old part) of Thai To Tran Thua, the Chieu Lang of King Tran Thai Tong, the Du Lang of King Tran Thanh Tong, the Duc Lang of King Tran Nhan Tong, and the tombs of the four queens. The incense offering ceremony is a ritual to invite ancestors to attend the ceremony to express the gratitude of future generations.

Within the framework of the traditional festival, on the afternoon of January 13, the water procession takes place in the form of a water procession and a foot procession, which every year creates many emotions for the participants. In the 2024 festival season, the water procession attracted 76 groups with over 2,000 participants. The image of the procession walking in a long line along the dike with drums and flags flying high in the sky creates a magnificent scene. This is not only a ritual to encourage agriculture and fishery, praying for favorable weather and agricultural development, but also has the meaning of showing gratitude to the ancestors of the Tran Dynasty, a dynasty that started from fishing, associated with rivers and waters.

Folk competitions

Immersing in the spring festival atmosphere at the Tran Temple Festival, visitors cannot miss the elaborate folk competitions in each stage of preparation, the culinary talents of the people of Tien Duc Commune. To have a fish offering tray to worship the king, showing the hearts of the local people to the Tran Kings and to the traditional festival of their homeland, the villages in Tien Duc Commune spent many months preparing from the stages of selecting fish, catching fish to processing so that when the tray was completed, no fish had their scales peeled off, each fish was big, beautiful and looked like it was swimming. Admiring the sumptuous fish dishes, carefully arranged including ham, meatballs, pig's feet, lotus seeds, nem chao, betel leaves, and flower arrangements, few people know that the talented and skilled chefs on the festival day were usually the village's plowmen and planters.

In addition to the fish dish competition, this year, the Tran Temple Festival also has a banh chung wrapping competition to demonstrate the industriousness, dexterity, agility, and harmonious coordination of women in each village to make the biggest and most beautiful cakes to present to the king. The fire-making competition needs to recreate the practical response of our army and people in the resistance wars against foreign invaders, ensuring that our army will always win and protect the country.

Fire pulling competition to cook rice at Tran Temple festival.

In addition, at this year's Tran Temple Festival, there are also phoenix-wing betel-wrapping contests, clay firecracker contests, exchanges between Cheo clubs, singing festivals, calligraphy contests, wrestling competitions, tug-of-war competitions, and chess competitions. The exciting competitions taking place throughout the festival days create a lively and exciting atmosphere among all classes of people in early spring. At the same time, it is also like an invisible but strong thread connecting today's generation with the unique cultural features of their homeland and nation, thereby increasing their love, pride, and attachment to their homeland's traditions.

Many tourists visit Tran Temple during the traditional festival.

With its historical and cultural significance and value, in January 2014, the Tran Temple Festival in Thai Binh was granted a certificate of national intangible cultural heritage; in December 2014, the Prime Minister signed a decision to grant a certificate of special national monument ranking for the tombs and temples of the Tran Dynasty kings. Harmoniously combining tradition and modernity, demonstrating the unique cultural features of the land and people of Thai Binh, the Tran Temple Festival with 5 days of taking place not only meets the cultural and spiritual needs of local people and tourists from all over the world, but also creates favorable conditions to promote the value of the festival and the cultural heritage of the Tran Dynasty, thereby educating today's generation and future generations in patriotism, national pride and self-respect.