Con Temple Festival

Con Temple Festival and historical - cultural values Con Temple (Quynh Phuong ward, Hoang Mai town) is a valuable architectural and sacred relic ranked among the most famous landscapes in Nghe An (first Con, second Qua, third Bach Ma, fourth Chieu Trung). Con Temple Festival is also one of the largest-scale, unique, and richest festivals in Nghe An today, with the longest holding period compared to other festivals in Nghe An. This is a festival of great historical and cultural value and has been included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. Con Temple Festival is one of the oldest festivals in Nghe An. According to historical documents, Con Temple was ordained and sponsored by the feudal state to renovate and worship starting from the reign of Tran Anh Tong (1312) and has existed until today for more than 800 years. Historically, Con Temple Festival has been of great interest to feudal dynasties and is considered "international". In addition to being passed down among the people, the Con temple festival is also recorded in documents and engraved on stone stele with detailed and specific regulations and terms into an immutable convention that the villagers must comply with. Previously, Con Temple festival lasted for 1 month, starting from December of the previous year and ending in January of the following year. From January 15 to 21 is considered the main period of the festival, and the main festival focuses on January 20 and 21. The festival takes place with many contents, the ceremony and festival parts are intertwined. Among them, the most unique feature of the festival is the custom of vomiting, associated with the legend of the magic log. Festival activities take place from the morning of January 20 to the evening of January 21, including folk games such as wrestling, cockfighting, card chess (human chess), smashing clay pots, pushing sticks, singing chau van, tuong cheo, cuisine, etc. The festival space is mainly concentrated in the area of Con Trong Temple and Con Ngo Temple in Quynh Phuong ward, Hoang Mai town and involves some coastal communes such as: Quynh Di, Quynh Lap, Quynh Lien (Hoang Mai town) and Quynh Luong (Quynh Luu district) - where there are relics of Quy Linh temple, a temple associated with the custom of running and vomiting in the ancient Con temple festival. However, due to many historical fluctuations, after 1945, the Con temple festival was not organized on the same scale as before, some activities were shortened to suit the actual local conditions at that time. Con Temple Festival is only held within Phuong Can village. In 1993, after Con Temple was ranked as a national historical and cultural relic, the Con temple festival was gradually restored. Especially since 1999, the Con temple festival has been restored, most of the main activities have been restored and since then the festival has strongly revived, not only attracting people in Hoang Mai and Quynh Luu areas but also attracting many tourists from all over to participate. This place has become a spiritual destination for the people of Nghe An and the whole country during the early spring of the new year. Con Temple Festival is associated with Con Temple relics, which has a history of formation and existence for hundreds of years. Although there are still intersections between legend and history, the story about the origin of the Four Holy Ladies associated with the event that King Song De Binh and his family were oppressed by the enemy, fled to the South and drifted to Cua Con, also partly reflects the details surrounding the historical events of the Song Dynasty's demise and the Yuan Dynasty's rise to power in China in the 13th century. Con Temple Festival in Nghe An consists of two main parts: the ceremony and the festival with activities imbued with traditional culture such as fish praying ceremony, worship ceremony, taste-listing ceremony... and other interesting folk games.