Culture - Sports

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds

Tran Thuong Temple’s food-distributing festival in Ha Nam and Tran Kings temple’s seal opening ceremony in Nam Dinh took place on March 1, the 14th day of the first lunar month.
Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 1Food parcels that contained corn, soybeans and rice - key feature of the Tran Thuong festival   (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Tran Thuong Temple’sfood-distributing festival in northern Ha Nam province and Tran Kings temple’sseal opening ceremony in the other northern province of Nam Dinh took place onMarch 1, the 14th day of the first lunar month.

Tran Thuong temple is dedicated to Tran HungDao (1228-1300), the supreme commander of Vietnam in the Tran Dynasty, whorepelled three major Mongolian invasions in the 13th century. It is located inNhan Dao commune of Ly Nhan district, which was chosen by Tran Hung Dao as afood storage area to supply his army during the fight against the invaders.

In honour of the past event, afood-distributing festival is held annually at Tran Thuong Temple on the 14thday of the first lunar month.   

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 2Traditional rituals performed at Tran Thuong Temple's food-distributing festival (Photo: VNA)
Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 3 (Photo: VNA)

This year, the festival was attended by VicePresident Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, leaders from ministries, agencies and Ha Namprovince, as well as many locals and visitors. About 180,000 food parcels thatcontained corn, soybeans and rice – staples produced by Ly Nhan residents –were handed out to participants.

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 4Food parcels are distributed to visitors (Photo: VNA)
Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 5A crowd gathers at the festival (Photo: VNA)

Also on March 1, a seal opening ceremony beganat the Tran Kings temple relic site in Nam Dinh to pray for a new year ofhappiness and a bumper harvest. Thousands of people flocked to the event.

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 6Thousands of people are waiting for the seals to be distributed. (Photo: VNA)

The ceremony re-enacted a custom dating backto the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400), when mandarins took out their seals after the lunarNew Year holiday (Tet) to resume administrative activities, including conferringtitles.

As is tradition, this year’s event openedwith a procession to take the seal from Co Trach temple to Thien Truong temple,where 14 kings of the Tran Dynasty are worshipped.

Following a short speech by Chairman of theNam Dinh People’s Committee Le Quoc Chinh praising the Tran Dynasty, the sealopening ceremony was held in line with the traditional rites, participated by100 Tuc Mac villagers.

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 7Scene taken during the traditional seal-opening ceremony (Photo: VNA)

The site was closed to visitors during theceremony and then opened at 23:55 pm last night, with stamps distributed amongresidents and visitors starting 5am on March 2 or the 15th day ofthe first lunar month.  

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 8People line up from early morning waiting to receive lucky seals (Photo: VNA)

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 9Local elderly people are selected to be seal distributors (Photo: VNA)

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 10Lucky seal distribution (Photo: VNA)

Northern festivals remembering Tran Dynasty draw public crowds ảnh 11A man just receives his lucky seal (Photo: VNA)

It has become a tradition for Vietnamese tojoin the ceremony to get a stamp in hope for good luck and happiness.-VNA
VNA
#Tran Thuong Temple’s food-distributing festival Ha Nam #Tran Kings temple seal opening ceremony Nam Dinh #Vietnam festivals #Vietnam culture #Vietnam News Agency #vietnamplus Ha Nam Nam Dinh
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