Van Ninh communal house festival

Van Ninh communal house festival Van Ninh Communal House Festival (Mong Cai City) is a form of community activity bearing a strong mark of local culture. Through decades of ups and downs, Van Ninh communal house festival has always been preserved, preserved and promoted every Tet and spring. Van Ninh communal house in Trung village, Van Ninh commune was built around the 15th century to worship Ly Thuong Kiet. Legend has it that on the way to attack the Song army to protect the country, Ly Thuong Kiet used Van Ninh land as a place to gather his navy. Van Ninh people are proud and to commemorate his merits, they built a communal house and worshiped Ly Thuong Kiet as the village tutelary god. After that, the communal house also worshiped King Tran Nhan Tong, King Le Thai To, Hung Dao Dai King Tran Quoc Tuan, generals Pham Ngu Lao, Yet Kieu, Zen Master Khong Lo, and Zen Master Giac Hai. Van Ninh Communal House was ranked as a provincial-level historical and cultural relic in 2011. Van Ninh communal house festival is held on the 10th and 11th days of the first lunar month every year and is a spring festival, opening a series of traditional festivals in Mong Cai city. In 2023, the traditional festival of Van Ninh communal house has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. This is the only festival of Mong Cai City that has two types of intangible cultural heritage registered in the list of national intangible cultural heritage: communal house festival heritage and folk performance heritage of Nha To singing and communal house singing and dancing. Mr. Tran Van Canh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Ninh commune, Mong Cai city, said: The communal house festival has many rich contents, including ceremonies and festivals. In particular, the ceremony of carrying the god from the Dong Ha area (also known as Nghenh Than mound) to the communal house according to traditional rituals has many typical cultural features of Van Ninh residents. Besides the ritual part, the festival part also has many rich folk games such as: Jumping in sacks, catching ducks blindfolded, smashing pots blindfolded, tug of war, soccer... often attracting a large number of local people and tourists. The most notable point in the Van Ninh Communal House Festival is a very famous folk singing style that people often call Nha To singing, communal house singing and dancing, also known as worshiping the gods or wishing the gods. Female singers often stand to sing at the door of the communal house, supported by drums and lutes. Singing at the communal house is associated with the Vietnamese custom of worshiping the Village God. This type of art is a variation of Ca tru, considered the soul of the festival, a unique cultural feature in the coastal land of Quang Ninh. Van Ninh Communal House Festival is a festival with coastal characteristics to commemorate the merits of ancestors and pray for a peaceful new year, good weather, good weather, health, peace, happiness, and good harvests. Thereby, arousing national pride, compassion and civic responsibility towards the country. At the same time, educate people to preserve and preserve the traditional cultural beauty of their homeland. Currently, Van Ninh Communal House Festival is maintained every year and is increasingly expanding its scale, becoming a traditional cultural feature of the people of the coastal area of ​​Van Ninh with full cultural and religious characteristics, considered one of the "cultural milestones" affirming Vietnam's territorial sovereignty in the northeastern corner of the Fatherland.