The beauty of national culture in the Co Loa temple festival in Hanoi

Co Loa is a famous historical relic located on the territory of Dong Anh district, about 17 km northwest of Hanoi center, is a large citadel, a physical vestige of military architecture and an ancient citadel far away. more than 2 millennia.

This place preserves many glorious historical values ​​from the reign of King An Duong Vuong. According to the old saying, January 6th is the day when King An Duong Vuong entered the palace, then 3 days later, on the 9th, he ascended the throne and opened a festival for a series of military forces, so the people also organized the deployment. celebratory festival. Co Loa temple festival was also opened from here and preserved until now.

When does Co Loa Temple Festival take place?

Co Loa festival is also known as Bat commune Loa Thanh festival or Bat commune Ho Nhi festival, held for 2 days (May 5 – 6), the 6th day is the festival itself. After January 6, the remaining 7 villages in the “Bat communes of Ho Nhi” hold festivals in their villages until January 18.

The space for practicing the festival is the inner citadel area of ​​Co Loa commune, where there is a complex of architectural monuments of temples, communal houses, am, and whorehouses, the place of worship of King An Duong Vuong, My Chau, god Kim Quy, General Cao Lo and related characters.

Features of Co Loa festival

Co Loa festival has the participation of Bat communes including Co Loa, Ngoai Sat, Van Thuong, Mach Trang, Cau Sa, Dai Bi, Thu Cuu, and Ready Gia. In addition, participating in the festival also had Ha Vi village – an original village in Co Loa but had to move to Ha Vi at the end of the river to give up land for King Thuc to build a citadel and be honored by Bat Commune as the elder brother.

Preparations for the festival begin on the morning of the 6th, when the village will hold a sacrificial procession from the fairy’s house only to the temple to sacrifice.

According to custom, the prepared rite must be placed on a shelf and when the 12 village chiefs arrive, they will begin to correct the ceremony. At the beginning is the image of 5 flags of the five elements, then to the ward of the ward of the eight yin yin culture and then followed by the village officials and the elders.

Outside the temple yard, the tail flags and the festival flags are lined up from the beginning of the village to the temple yard with a large flagpole in the middle of the yard and a large flag fluttering above. Next to the temple door is a pair of white and pink horses with colorful saddles on both sides. Outside are bowls of post and ceremonial clothes, and in the middle of the yard are palanquins of 12 hamlets.

In front of the temple’s door is a large incense burner displaying all the bronze five items, offerings and a glass box containing a pair of yellow hyacinths. There is also a small altar, on top of which is a crest, a pair of bronze cranes, a vermilion crossbow, a sword and a bunch of arrows. After the command drum, Bat communes entered the king’s palace in order, first Ha Vi village and then Bat commune Loa Thanh council in turn presented offerings with products to the King.

The ceremony lasted until the hour of the Horse, while the elders and officials made sacrifices in front of the altar, the people knelt to worship in the inner temple. Some elders will be appointed to represent the village to pray to the king for a peaceful and prosperous life.

After the sacrifice is completed at Thuong Temple, in the afternoon, there will be a procession ceremony, each participating commune has to prepare two palanquins, a palanquin with bowls of tribute to the king and a palanquin with Minh attached to process the Cao Lo card. Particularly in Co Loa, there must be more That Phoenix palanquin to process the Lady of My Chau.

In addition to the above fun, in the Co Loa festival, there are many other equally attractive games and competitions such as the whore’s nest attracting the elderly, swinging to attract elegant boys and girls, water puppetry, communal house singing. …At night, there are tuong singing and rowing. These are the festivals that in the past, everyone in the countryside was so passionate that they could “abandon their children and leave their grandchildren” to return to the association. These fun games lasted from the day of the wedding to the day of the festival.

On the occasion of Tet this year, if you intend to travel to Hanoi, do not miss the opportunity to experience interesting activities at Co Loa festival to have a meaningful spring trip. Hope the article will help you have a complete and fun trip!

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