Co Le Pagoda Festival

Co Le Pagoda Ceremony (Tran Quang Tu), Co Le town (North Ninh) is a historical-cultural relic ranked as a national historical relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) since 1988. It is the place where many traditional cultural rituals and Buddhist beliefs take place, usually held from September 13-19 of the lunar calendar every year. Co Le Pagoda is an ancient Buddhist architectural complex with bold Gothic architectural elements, located in Co Le town - Truc Ninh district - Nam Dinh province. In this pagoda there is the Dai Hong Chung bell cast by monk Thich The Long in 1936, and is the largest bell in Vietnam. Co Le Pagoda is a Buddhist temple, but its architecture looks like a Catholic cathedral, because its architecture is a combination of Vietnamese ancient architecture and European Gothic architectural elements.  In front of Co Le pagoda is a Cuu Pham Lien Hoa tower with a height of about 32m, built in 1927. The base of the tower is built on the back of a large turtle with its head facing the pagoda. This turtle is placed in the middle of a square lake, the four corners are four quite large fake mountains and four elephants as big as real elephants. Inside the tower there is a spiral staircase to the top with 98 steps. Legend has it that Buddhists and pilgrims who reach the 98th step and touch the statue at the top of the tower will always have good luck in life. Every year, on September 13 of the lunar calendar, the Co Le pagoda festival opens. The festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors from all over the country. The ceremony part has many traditional cultural rituals such as puppet shows to worship the Holy Ancestors, procession of Buddha... The Festival part has many fun folk games such as shrimp nests, corn bridge climbing, Chinese chess, swimming, sports competitions... The special thing is the traditional swimming game of Co Le village, with the participation of 5 families: Le, Nguyen, Phan, Duong Nhat, Duong Nhi. Their 5 gates include 4 clubs. Each day, each gate will draw 1 fisherman to start the competition on a river running along Co Le territory. After 4 days of competition, a winner will be selected to award prizes.