(CLO) On the afternoon of January 31 (January 3, At Ty year), the Ngo Duong Temple Swimming Festival - National Intangible Cultural Heritage opened in An Hoa ward, An Duong district, Hai Phong city.
The Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival is a traditional folk festival that represents the unique cultural identity of An Hoa, An Duong, with a long history, organized by the local community in the space of the village communal house.
This festival is also known as the boat racing festival or boat racing festival, a traditional festival that is a spiritual product created, preserved and organized by the people of Ngo Duong village in the local community's cultural life.
5 teams competed on a 1000m stretch of the Co Bong River with 4 swims. Photo: Hai Phong Newspaper
The festival has a long history, organized in association with the worship of the village guardian spirit of Ngo Duong, Hoang Do Cu Si (from Nai Thuong commune, now Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province). During his lifetime, as a mandarin of the Tien Dao Do Chi Huy Su Tuong Quan, Hoang Do Cu Si and his 6 brothers helped Hai Ba Trung fight the enemy. After that, the 7 brothers of Hoang Do Cu Si were awarded titles and returned to their hometown. When they sailed to the middle of the river in Ngo Duong village (today's Co Bong river), he and his brothers died, from then on, they appeared, and through the dynasties, they were all awarded titles. To commemorate the merits of Hoang Do Cu Si, the people of Ngo Duong built a temple, held a festival every year on the 25th of December and organized swimming on the river.
Before 1945, the Ngo Duong Swimming Festival was held with the participation of 7 swimming teams, representing the 7 brothers of the Thanh Hoang. Along with that, the 7 teams were also selected from 7 hamlets in the village, including: East Chief, East Second, West, South, North, Central and West.
In recent years, the Ngo Duong Swimming Festival has been organized with the participation of 5 teams, corresponding to 5 villages of the village (residential units are ordered from 1 to 5), not according to clans and hamlets as before.
The 2025 Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival will take place from January 31 to February 2 (ie from the 3rd to the 5th of January, At Ty year) with the participation of 5 swimming teams from residential groups in An Hoa ward including: Ngo Duong 1, Ngo Duong 2, Ngo Duong 3, Ngo Duong 4, Ngo Duong 5.
The teams competed on a 1,000 m long river section (Co Bong), divided into 2 rounds. On the opening day, the first round consisted of 2 swimming rounds; on the afternoon of February 2, the teams continued to compete in the second round, closing ceremony and awarding prizes. The scoring method is that the first team in a round gets 4 points, the second team gets 3 points, the third team gets 2 points, the fourth team gets 1 point and the fifth team does not count points. The total points of the 4 swimming rounds are added together to take the order of the rankings from highest to lowest. The results of the opening day's competition showed that Ngo Duong 5 team was in the lead with 8 points.
Participants in the swimming competition must be between 18 and 45 years old, in good health and moral character, and must especially understand swimming and be good at rowing on rivers. Each team has 16 people, including: 1 rower, 1 rower and 14 rowers, and may have 1 person bailing water. Each team wears traditional costumes, each representing a color in the five elements, including: red, yellow, green, blue and pink; the back and head are tied with a red silk ribbon.
People cheering on the teams. Photo: Hai Phong Newspaper
Unlike other swimming/boating/boat racing, the Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival is a combination of speed and skillful swimming techniques, because during the swimming process, the teams have to swim single and double laps. Without good swimming techniques, the teams can easily capsize or have to swim wide, far laps, wasting time and possibly colliding with each other during the swimming process. This is the unique feature of the Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival.
With its outstanding and unique cultural and historical values, in 2020, the Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival was included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/hai-phong-soi-noi-le-hoi-boi-trai-den-chua-ngo-duong-ngay-mung-3-tet-post332544.html
Comment (0)