Dong Cuong Temple Festival

Dong Cuong Temple Festival in Yen Bai Dong Cuong Temple in Ben Den village, Dong Cuong commune, Van Yen, Yen Bai, Dong Cuong is a large, ancient temple full of traces and sacred legends about Mother Thuong Ngan. Every year, the temple festival is held on the first day of the Cat in January and September, attracting a large number of people across the country to offer incense, visit the temple and pray for themselves and their loved ones to have a very lucky new year... The beginning of the festival is the buffalo slaughtering ceremony to sacrifice the Mother, the ceremony is performed at the first moment of the first day of the year. The buffalo used for the ceremony must be a white male buffalo, big and strong, and carefully selected. When the sacred moment comes, the shaman will step out from the forbidden palace with the villagers and the monks to perform the ceremony and perform a sacrificial ceremony to pray for the souls of the heroes who died at Ghenh Ngai waterfall on the Red River in the war against the Mongols in the past. One of the special rituals of Dong Cuong temple is the buffalo hanging ceremony in front of the temple. This ritual is both ancient and deeply spiritual, but still clearly shows the customs and habits of the Tay Khao people. The ceremony took place extremely solemnly, people of hundreds of families turned to their origins to pray for peace in the country, good weather, good crops, peace and happiness, etc.  Right after the buffalo slaughtering ceremony is the procession of the Mother Goddess across the river, this is also one of the main ceremonies of the Dong Cuong temple festival. After carrying the Mother Goddess across the river on a large boat back to the temple, this is also the time to offer incense to the Mother. Thousands of people in the area and tourists from all over take turns offering incense to pray for good luck to come to themselves, friends and family. After the ceremony, there will be a festival, sports competitions and folk games such as tug of war, stick pushing and other forms of folk activities such as throwing also make the Dong Cuong temple festival more lively. Dong Cuong Temple Festival is a festival imbued with spiritual culture, and also has the meaning of evoking the traditions and heroic history of our nation.