Festivals

The beauty of Thai Vi temple festival

Update: 15/04/2022
Thai Vi temple festival is held on the 14th and 15th of the third lunar month every year, at Thai Vi temple, Van Lam village, Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu district.

Thai Vi temple was built by the people on the old ground that King Tran Thai Tong built Thai Vi temple. The main road and the dragon yard are paved with stone. The temple has a very unique architecture when the columns and trusses are made entirely of monolithic green stone which are elaborately and meticulously carved, the decorative lines are extremely flexible and lively as if they were carved on wood.

Thai Vi temple festival is an opportunity for people to remember the merits of the Tran kings, especially King Tran Thai Tong, who had merit in recruiting people to establish Vu Lam Palace.

This is the biggest festival of the year of Ninh Hai people. Right from the afternoon of the 14th day of the 3rd lunar month, Van Lam villagers held a ceremony to open the temple door and process the holy incense bowl to Cac communal house. On the morning of March 15 of the lunar calendar, which is the main day of the festival, the sacrifices are brought out, cleaned, and placed in the dragon yard along with other offerings such as thick cakes, fruits, bananas, pig's heads, and boiled chickens, sticky rice... Especially sticky rice must be white sticky rice symbolizing the purity. In addition to the above offerings, the people also offered to the king a bowl of eight rice and a bowl of vegetable soup.

The form of organizing Thai Vi temple festival consists of two main parts: the ceremony part and the festival part. The ceremony includes procession and sacrifice. The festival includes traditional games such as lion dance, dragon dance, human chess, wrestling, boating, tug of war...

During the ceremony, the palanquin procession is performed by men and women dressed in dignified and respectful old festival customs. The palanquins are all painted splendidly. When the procession has entered the temple, the torch relay ceremony will be conducted. After offering incense in the palace, the torch is carried out and burned on the stone tray outside the dragon yard. The end of the ceremony is the sacrifice. The celebrant will read a sacrificial poem praising the merits of King Tran Thai Tong by performing arts.

Thai Vi temple festival is an opportunity for people to show the good moral of "drinking water, remember the source" of our nation. This is also a special opportunity for visitors to admire the charming scenery of the ancient capital, feel the sacred atmosphere of the ceremonies and immerse themselves in the joyful atmosphere of folk games.

Source: Translator: Hai Van; Photographer: Xuan Lam
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