Trieu Khuc Village Festival

Located in a suburban area of Hanoi, Trieu Khuc village is the site of a former 4,000-year old ceramics production centre.
Trieu Khuc village is nearly ten kilometres far from Ha Noi, belonging to Tan Trieu community, Thanh Tri district. This village is famous for its pretty hats with fringed chinstrap winning praise in folk songs and proverbs. Here, every year, the festival takes place from 10th to 12th of the first lunar month captivating a lot of visitors.
When coming to Trieu Khuc, any visitor is also attracted by an intact beauty of an old village closing to Ha Noi - a bustling center of politics and industry. Here, pagoda, communal house, well, banyan tree... all have nothing changed from general to general. The clean brick paved alleys remain of the girls who have to contribute bricks for her village when they get married. Many kind of heavy roofs in sequence give rise to artist aggressive emotion. Inside walls of each house, on its ground or its clothesline people bask in the sun all over multi coloured silk threads and feathers of cock and ducks. The whole village is always full of vitality with warm and cheerful atmosphere made from people's voice and smile and the sound of. Everyone has his own duty such as weaving, embroidering, making broom, dying... These dexterous handicrafts results the existence and development as well as the prosperous life during many recently generations of Trieu Khuc old village.
The man of merit in teaching village's people this noble embroidery is the fore father whose surname is Vu. When he passed away, citizens in the village built a worship hall for him and casted his statue from copper and brought to the communal house for worshiping till now.
It is really a great defect for any visitor who comes to see the festival without calling in the pagoda. The pagoda making the scenery of the village distinguished named Van Huong. In front of it is a fresh lake and a water pavilion. This lake is like the shape to a tortoise. It was said to be cruel in former time, many people was harmed by it. So, the water pavilion was built for burying an exorcising charm against this tortoise.
Next is the communal house where the festival takes place. Trieu Khuc village has two communal houses to be Sac (for showing honour) and Dai (for worshipping Phung Hung).
The architectural styles of both are remained before. This integrity according to people here, achieved by relying on the ancestors' miracle left. In any situation, Trieu Khuc village's people always of consciousness of preserving carefully these old architectural relics and consider them as an indispensable part of the country.
Trieu Khuc village's festival is often begun after families finish downing all the bamboo trees. The gate of the communal house is opened on the 9th despite the fact the official festival starts on the 10th. In the 10th morning, the ceremony is organized in Dai communal house. According to legend, this is the ceremony of declaring to become the emperor of Phung Hung. A solemn procession with full' of necessary rites is implemented before the worship in order to bring Phung Hung's emperial clothes from Sac communal house to Dai communal house. In this procession, the special point is that the persons who carry the sedan chair at two sides both go and turn round their faces each other in the solemn atmosphere. When the procession arrives, notable elders read funeral oration, open the iron box to take the brush pen and official start up the ceremony called "Hoan Cung" (means return to the palace). In the festival, all participants wear beautiful and sophisticated clothes with fancifully embroidered designs, it is not ashamed to be the home of embroidery and weaving. Seeing the ceremony, under the lights, candles and smoke from joss-sticks and sound of music, visitors seem to lose their ways into an illusory world of fables. While implementing the rites, people also dance. "Bong - dancing" has existed for a long time with one or two participants. Some boys disguise into girls with clothes hanging loose on their bodies and mannered made up faces. The harmony of sounds of music, drum, bell and dance creates the wonderful attraction for this festival. Completing the worship, people begin to take part in public games such as wrestling "cheo" singing, dragon dancing...
Formerly, all competitions of wrestling in Trieu Khuc village used to captivate a plenty of well-known wrestlers from Thanh Tri, Mai Dong... Dragon dancing is the traditional one of the village. It appeared at the period when the communal house for worshipping Bo Cai was constructed. Experiencing many times, the group of dancers have not been being lost yet in spite of any change. Their dresses and instruments have always been preserved carefully. Every year, they are invited to perform in the Dong Da Hillock festival.In the end of the festival, people organize flag-dance to complete the worship. This dance was said to reappear the story that Pining Hung selected talent men to fight the enemy. Trieu Khuc village used to be the general headquarters of Phung Hung righteous armiers before attacking Tong Binh citadel (Ha Noi stronghold). Trieu Khuc itself was the place for the last manoeuvre and choosing soldiers. The flag-dance was resulted from this tale. When the sounds of drums, horns and cymbals are started playing repeatedly with the same zeal as in the fight, a big flag is raised in front of the gate of the communal house. There are two groups of persons running on the right and left sides in front of the house with ready-prepared weapons in their hands. They run noisily around the fields until getting about 400 metres far from the communal house. When encountering, they stop and make actions as if they are fighting. Then, they continue to run back the house following a enclosed circle. Everybody is waiting for them by the gate of the communal house to acclaim and stimulate both groups in continuous urgent drum-beats and the sound of music and horns until both arrive. At this moment, all people gather in front of the altar to fall on their knees and give thanks to the god and finish the festival. Finally, they enjoy together a little present from the god. The village's festival ends, people wish a better harvest and expect next festival.
Among busy and bustling Ha Noi capital, it is great to take a great interest in wonderful and quiet landscape of an ancient village with many historical relics and enjoy characteristic cultural activities. Therefore, the annual festival always attracts tens of thousands of visitors.