Dinh Ve - Dong Ngac Festival

Dinh Ve - Dong Ngac: Preserving traditional cultural beauty for hundreds of years Until next time, every year on February 9-10 (lunar calendar), tens of thousands of people in Dong Ngac ward (Bac Tu Liem district, Hanoi) and tourists from all over return to this spiritual place of outstanding people to attend the traditional festival of Ve - Dong Ngac communal house to remember and pay tribute to the gods. Dong Ngac Communal House is one of the few ancient communal houses in Hanoi Capital that still preserves its layout, architectural landscape and precious relics quite intact. Dong Ngac communal house was ranked as a historical architectural and artistic relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) in 1993. Legend has it that for a long time, Ve village had an ancient temple worshiping the Earth God located outside the dike. In 1635, under the reign of King Le Than Tong (first name Duong Hoa), the people together moved the temple to this place to rebuild with the purpose of worshiping the Thanh Hoang. Since then, Ve communal house has been restored four times, but is still preserved and retains the beauty of ancient architecture. In recent years, thanks to the attention of the authorities at all levels, the dedication of the people in the ward and tourists from everywhere, agencies, units, and businesses, the grounds of Ve communal house relics have become more and more spacious and clean, and the worship objects are more and more complete. According to historical books, by the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, Ve village (Dong Ngac) had 21 doctors of literature, 1 doctor of martial arts and many bachelors and baccalaureates that cannot be counted accurately. Through the ages, this land has gone down in history and from here, excellent people have been born, with many contributions to their homeland and country. Over the years, Dong Ngac communal house has become a gathering place for villagers and honors those who have contributed to the village and the country. Every year, at the Dong Ngac communal house festival, there is a pen tower procession to honor the village's learning and academic tradition. At the same time, preserve and promote the cultural values ​​of traditional festivals to pass on to future generations. Currently, Dong Ngac ward has 32 relics including communal houses, temples, pagodas, literature, shrines, revolutionary resistance relics, family churches and many ancient house architecture. Typical of these cultural and historical relics is Dong Ngac communal house. The highlight of Dong Ngac ancient village is the village communal house, which is more than 500 years old. Legend has it that at first it was just an ancient temple. Dong Ngac communal house is the center of cultural and spiritual activities of the community. The most prominent cultural feature is the Ve village communal house festival held in the second lunar month every year. On the main ceremony of February 10 (lunar calendar), 4 palanquins follow each other to process water from the Red River, procession of incense burners and dragon communal houses. The procession goes from the communal house across the dike, turns to Tu Khanh pagoda and then returns, the procession is about 1,000m long. The procession was attended by thousands of Dong Ngac people, neighboring people and tourists from everywhere. In the past, the festival featured Ca tru singing, in addition to games such as human chess fighting, cockfighting, swinging, blindfolded goat catching... there was also poetry reading and singing - a unique feature of Van Hien village. To this day, folk games are still preserved. It can be seen that the festival is a place to store, store and transmit culture to future generations, which has made the local cultural beauty last forever and ensured unity throughout the festival. Not only Dong Ngac people, the festival also attracts people on the dike from Chem village, Bac village, Ga village, Boi village, especially tens of thousands of tourists from all over, international visitors... to visit and admire the relics here. Organizing the annual traditional festival is also to preserve and promote the value of Ve communal house relics. This is a cultural beauty that needs to be preserved and promoted forever for generations to come. Through each festival, we become more and more deeply aware of the value of the precious tradition of studiousness that our ancestors built, always reminding our children and grandchildren to constantly study to contribute to building a rich and beautiful homeland.