On 20 February 2024, Van Yen district opened Dong Cuong Festival.
The temple worships Mau Thuong Ngan, the second Mother Goddess in the Tam Phu Mother Goddesses worship ritual of Vietnamese people, along with the Ve quoc (national protector) God and national heroes who laid down their lives during struggles against foreign invaders.
On January 22, 2009, the temple was listed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a national-level historical-cultural relic site. The Dong Cuong Temple Festival was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage on January 16, 2023. Particularly, the UNESCO’s recognition of the worship of Tam Phu Mother Goddesses of Vietnamese people as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity has contributed to enhancing the values of the temple, making it more popular among visitors.
To create an impressive highlight for tourists during the festival, Dong Cuong Temple Festival in 2024 has been organised on a district scale, with careful preparations.
Dong Cuong Temple Festival is one of the festivals with a long history, combining many indigenous folk beliefs, which preserves traditional cultural values in the spiritual life of the Tay Khao people.
Rituals of the festival are held at Mau (Mother Goddess) Temple in accordance with traditional practices such as welcoming the monk to the temple, white buffalo offering ceremony, Chuc Van offering ceremony in front of the main temple door, incense offering ceremony, main worshiping ceremony, and a Mother Goddess procession ceremony.
Meanwhile, festive activities are diverse and imbued with cultural identities of ethnic groups, including stick pushing, tug of war, Vietnamese wrestling, cotton ball throwing, swinging, and boat racing. Besides, tourists and pilgrimages also have a chance to participate in other activities such as competing in ethnic sports, and shopping at rural market stalls.
Dong Cuong Temple Festival is the opening event for a series of spring festive events in the year of the Dragon in Van Yen district. The festival has become an important highlight of the district tourism, helping Van Yen lure visitors.
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