Dinh Ruoi Festival

Dinh Ruoi Festival Yen Nghia commune (Y Yen) is an ancient land that still retains many traditional cultural values, from the village symbol with the banyan tree - well - communal roof to customs, practices, lifestyle, and community activities. In Yen Nghia, preserving, embellishing and promoting the value of historical and cultural relics is always highly valued by the Party Committee, authorities and people. Dinh Ruoi Festival is one of the 7 major annual festivals of Y Yen district, taking place from November 23 to 25 of the lunar calendar to commemorate the achievements of Trinh Liet's wife Luong Thi Minh Nguyet - the first female "intelligence" in Vietnamese political history. According to historical documents kept at Dinh Ruoi, in 1426, the Ming enemy marched north, stationed at Co Long citadel (Lai Cach field, now in Yen Tho commune) - the key center of the Ming enemy dominating and oppressing the southern region of the Red River Delta. At that time, Ms. Luong Thi Minh Nguyet and her husband, Mr. Dinh Cong Tuan (from Co Chue village, Chue Cau commune, former Tu Mac canton) opened a pub on the edge of the city. Every day, she and her husband regularly monitored and scouted for news about the Ming enemy. With her intelligent, skillful nature and beauty, Ms. Luong Thi Minh Nguyet easily became acquainted with many Ming enemy officers and was allowed by the enemy general to bring wine and meat to sell in the citadel. Therefore, she thoroughly understood, grasped and recorded the routes, the layout of military provisions, weapons, and military camps. When he heard about Le Loi's uprising, he attacked Dong Quan citadel and encountered Co Long citadel, looking for a plan to defeat it. Hearing the news, she found her way to Lam Son to inform the insurgents of all the situation of the Ming enemy in Co Long and presented her plan to take down the citadel. Co Long Citadel was defeated with the first credit going to the heroic female general Luong Thi Minh Nguyet and her husband. In the year of Mau Than (1428), after Le Loi ascended the throne (King Le Thai To), he bestowed the titles on Mrs. Luong Thi Minh Nguyet and Mr. Dinh Cong Tuan as Lady Trinh Liet of the Nation and Trung Dung Cong of the Nation. Afterwards, King Le invited her and her husband to the palace to bestow benefits, but she refused, only asking for 200 acres of good fields to share with the villagers and a 3-year tax exemption for people in the area where it was easy to live. On November 25, the year of Quy Suu (1443), both grandparents passed away suddenly. King Le Thai To sent troops to mourn with the title of King, awarded them the title "Two Phuc Gods" and built a temple to worship the Lady of the Nation in Ngoc Chue village. During the reign of King Thanh Thai the 13th (1902), the temple was greatly restored into a communal house. The communal house worshiping Lady Kien Quoc today is located next to the inter-commune road. In front of the communal house is a hedge of ancient bamboo trees running like a wall protecting the relic, so local people have long known it as Dinh Ruoi.  Dinh Ruoi is a cultural and religious work with unique artistic value following the architectural art style of the Later Le period (17th-18th centuries). The front hall has 5 rooms with 4 sets because it is made in the style of stacking gongs and gongs; 4 sets of burdens are supported by 24 ironwood pillars with a diameter of 0.4m. The system of rafters and armpit beams are elaborately carved with themes: four sacred animals and four precious animals. The vertical beams in the middle space are carved with "two dragons flanking the moon" and multi-layered layers of swords. The harem consists of 4 rooms separated from the outside by a door system. The upper truss is made of elaborately carved rafters, mainly with dragon motifs, creating majesty and sacredness for the place where the throne and the altar tablet are placed to worship the couple. With its historical and architectural values, Dinh Ruoi has been ranked a national historical and cultural relic by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism since 1992. To commemorate the merits of Minh Nguyet and her husband, every year, on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of the lunar calendar, local people eagerly celebrate. The festival takes place including many outstanding activities such as: Literary projection ceremony, palanquin procession, peace ceremony, male mandarin worship, female mandarin worship, incense and flower offering ceremony... In particular, the festival of carrying the palanquin of the Saint to the communal house is held solemnly and solemnly. At the head of the procession are the Ong palanquin and the Ba palanquin. The Ong palanquin is carried by 6 men, the Ba palanquin is carried by 6 women, followed by 6 palanquins worshiping the village's tutelary god. Attending the Dinh Ruoi festival, visitors will not only learn about traditional sacrificial rituals bearing the historical mark of the Le Dynasty, but also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the art of Van singing, Quan Ho singing, cruise on the lake, enjoy vegetarian dishes that Mrs. Minh Nguyet is said to have sold to the Minh invaders such as: Day cake, Chung cake, honey cake, gai cake... and participate in folk games such as tug of war, Chinese chess, kite flying, lion - lion - dragon dance, etc. drum dance, sword dance, banh day making contest, art contest...