Chu Dong Tu Festival: Effort to Preserve the Romantic Legend

Visitors coming to Vietnam is recommended not to miss the Chu Dong Tu Festival since it is representative of a wider revival of traditional practices in contemporary Vietnam. The Festival is a combination of a whole lot of traditional activities such as procession, music and dance, religious ceremonies, feasting, and children’s games.

The gaudy participants of the procession heading towards Red River

The festival is held annually from 10^th to 12^th day of the second lunar month with the purpose of praying to genies for protection and primarily celebrating Chu Dong Tu, one of four “immortal heroes”  in the Vietnamese Pantheon, who developed agriculture and discovered culture in Vietnamese society.

There is a romantic legend of Chu Dong Tu and Princess Tien Dung behind the festival. The first time they met was in an awkward moment in Da Trach Village as the nature-loving princess happened to bathe above the hiding sand dune of naked Chu Dong Tu. The grateful son had dedicated his only loincloth to his late father, ending up going work daily in his birthday suit. Thinking of its as a signal from god, the princess and Chu Dong Tu fell in love and hold their wedding before long. They settled down in Chu Xa village and did business of merchants from across the kingdom and from foreign territories as well, which contributed to the prosperity of the village. Additionally, the couple taught the villager  wet rice cultivation and take care of sick villagers. After their death, villagers built a temple at their site of a stick topped by a conical hat and began to hold an annual ritual in commemoration of Chu Dong Tu and Princess Tien Dung.

Celebrations  take place at two locales: by the banks of the Red River, the section flowing through Hung Yen Province and at two charming temples of Da Hoa and Da Trach, in Khoai Chau District, which is about 20km far from Hanoi. the ceremonies open with a procession perform a summary of the legend. Headed by a dancing dragon, the procession also boasts beautiful girls, musical bands and golden dragons dancing to the rhythm of the drum. All those gaudy participants head for the river, where they are going to row on ten boats and scoop the water into pots and later give the statue in the palanquin a bath.

People board on boats to scoop water from Red River and later bathe the statue on palanquin

When the thurifying ceremony ends, it comes to the moment of all kinds of entertainment like wrestling, human chess, cock fight in the temple traditional quan ho, trong quan, ca tru singing…

The spectacle and grandeur of Chu Dong Tu Festival definitely attracts a fair share of tourists coming to appreciate the traditional space at the temples in Hung Yen Province.