Mang Son Temple Festival

Mang Son Temple Festival is held once every 3 years, and a regular festival is held every year. The big festival is held jubilantly for 7 days, from January 6 to 12, to take the Holy Trinity on a trip. Mang Son Temple Festival, Doai region was formerly a joint meeting of the people of 5 communes in Tuong Phieu district, including Son Dong, Son Trung, Tuong Phieu, Trach Loi, Thuan My, now belonging to Son Tay town and Phuc Tho district, Hanoi. Mang Son Temple is now a National Historical and Cultural relic in Son Dong commune, Son Tay town. This is an ancient temple worshiping the Holy Trinity, also known as Nam Cung. Mang Son Temple was built in the early 17th century on a land with a beautiful location in Son Dong village. The architecture of Mang Son Temple is in the form of the ritual gate, the Dai worship house, the harem, the left moat, and the right moat; Dragon thrones, tablets, and palanquins are all carved with exquisite patterns; The horizontal panels, couplets, incense bowls, and pairs of Nghe four sacred animals were all created in the 17th century; The four-sided stone stele was carved with Chinese characters from 1746... The Mang Son Temple Festival is held once every 3 years, and a regular festival is held every year. The big festival is held jubilantly for 7 days, from January 6 to 12, to take the Holy Trinity on a tour, showing the People's respect for the gods who have contributed to the people and the country. Today, on January 7, Son Tay people organize the Mang Son temple festival. Traditional festival associated with the national relic cluster of Mang Son temple, Son Trung communal house and Son Dong communal house. The story goes that, during his visits to various places, Saint Tan Vien came to the Shandong region. Faced with the rich and beautiful scenery and the kind people, he stayed and built a palace on Mang Son hill. In Shandong, Saint Tan taught people how to hunt. After Saint Tan Vien left Son Dong, the villagers, remembering his gratitude, built a temple to worship him  and his two cousins, Cao Son and Quy Minh. Every year, the Mang Son temple festival is held to commemorate them. On the day of the festival, villagers from 5 communes send representatives to bring offerings. That is an 8-layer fruit box, carried by 4 people into the ceremony, and a five-fruit tray offered to the gods displaying fruits available in the area. However, the regulation stipulates that the fruit tray must have green jackfruit - a typical jackfruit of Shandong, called jackfruit. In addition, there must be a feast, with the most important offering to Saint Tan being wild animal meat. Nowadays, people use three pieces of raw pork to replace wild game meat. On the festival day, the celebrant, on behalf of Tuong Phieu general, reenacts the ritual of villagers enjoying the fortune that Saint Tan hunted and gave to the people: The celebrant raises the cup to pretend to drink, then turns over and over the  piece of wild animal meat (now 3 pieces of pork) to enjoy his blessings. The celebrant chosen by the General must be an old man, an intact family, and a native of Son Dong village. Next to the celebrant are three waiters, one reader, five wine servers, and one lighting. In the old Mang Son temple festival, in addition to the offerings of the villagers in Tuong Phieu canton, there was also a very solemn and impressive palanquin procession. At that time, each village appointed young men to carry the palanquin. Three palanquins were placed with the thrones and tablets of the Holy Trinity and were carried to Mang Son temple. Each palanquin consists of 8 people carrying it. Going outside, there was one person holding a parasol, one person holding a flag and dancing to lead the way, and one person playing a drum to quell the crowd. The Tan Vien Holy palanquin also has two large fig fans covering both sides. The three saints of Tan sat on a palanquin, wearing a Kim Ngac hat on their heads, white clothes, a red robe, a canary-colored robe, a dragon belt, and tiger shoes. After the ceremony and palanquin procession, there is a festival with many fun games such as wrestling, crossbow shooting, tree swinging, love songs, and finally everyone will carry the palanquin back at midnight. In the evening is the torch relay. A large torch was planted, illuminating an area, surrounded by many small torches of people attending the festival, making the whole area glow, jubilant with cheers. The torch relay aims to reenact the story of Saint Tan hunting, killing animals, and spending the night at Thay beach. People from communes bring wine to sing, have fun, and celebrate victory...