Trang An Festival – Unique religious culture

Besides the Bai Dinh pagoda festival held in early spring, the ancient capital of Ninh Binh also has a very special tradition, which is the Trang An festival , held on a grand scale right at Trang An eco-tourism area. 

Origin of Trang An festival

Trang An Festival  

(Festival of Saint Quy Minh) is a special traditional festival of Ninh Binh province, held on March 18 of the lunar calendar every year (Solar calendar: April 14, 2017) to commemorate the merits. of Saint Quy Minh Dai Vuong, also known as Than Quy Minh.Legend has it that he was a general under the 18th Hung King, who was responsible for the town of Son Nam, protecting the country’s borders as well as helping good people build a happy and prosperous life. In recognition of this merit, Dinh Tien Hoang De ordained him as a god guarding the southern gate of Hoa Lu ancient capital (Hoa Lu four towns).

In addition to God Quy Minh, Hoa Lu town is also guarded by gods in 3 directions East, West and North, respectively, God Thien Ton, God Cao Son and God Colossus. Trang An festival is considered an important belief feature of the ancient capital of Ninh Binh – the land of birth of King, birth of saint, birth of God.

Trang An Festival Ninh Binh

What is Trang An Festival? Trang An Festival is a series of cultural activities combined with tourism taking place in the mid-March days (lunar calendar) at Trang An World Heritage complex , Ninh Binh. The festival is on March 18 (lunar calendar) associated with worshiping beliefs, worshiping nature, and honoring the gods of the four directions (East-Western-Southern-Northern): Thien Ton god, Quy Minh god, Cao Son god, Colossal god in Hoa Lu town.

Besides, this is also an opportunity for people to express their gratitude to the generals of the Dinh dynasty stationed in Trang An and the early kings of the Tran dynasty who established Vu Lam Palace here. The unique feature of Trang An Festival is that the dragon and water procession rituals take place on the river, passing through relics, trans-water caves, beautiful scenery.

Features of Trang An festival

Every year on March 18 of the lunar calendar, 

the Trang An festival is held on a grand scale at the Vu Lam Hanh Cung tourist route belonging to the Trang An Ninh Binh

tourist area , passing through Tran Temple and Suoi Tien Temple. . Coming to the festival, visitors will be immersed in a unique spiritual space with many interesting activities:

Trang An festival in Ninh Binh , the ceremony of offering procession to the gods begins with the offering of incense, a palanquin and a procession of incense sticks from Tran temple to Suoi Tien temple, followed by a water procession and incense offering at Suoi Tien temple.

  • “Enjoyed” with boat procession and dragon dance on the river

Trang An festival also makes visitors “satisfied” with the spectacular boat procession scene, as well as the dragon dance on the river with rich identity that few places have.

  • Enjoy special ethnic music programs

Coming to 

Ninh Binh Trang An festival , you will be immersed in folk music culture such as gong dancing, cheo singing, xam singing. This is a big festival that receives special attention from the State, bringing together many artists and performances imbued with national identity.

  • Visit the unique beauty of Trang An, Ninh Binh

Trang An Festival is organized along the tourist route of Vu Lam Palace, in the southern area of ​​Trang An scenic complex. This place converges all the typical beautiful scenes of Trang An, especially the charming mountains and rivers. In addition, Vu Lam Palace also owns many historical relics and a system of temples from the Tran Dynasty, creating a special natural-spiritual space.

Trang An festival schedule

The schedule for the annual 

Trang An festival is as follows:– Before 9am: Thousands of boats will gather at Tam Quan wharf to prepare, with rituals of water procession, sacrifice and release on the river, praying for a peaceful life, favorable rain and wind.– Exactly at 9 am: The traditional festival of Saint Quy Minh Dai Vuong ( 

Trang An festival ) begins. After the opening of the festival on the shore and the drumming on the boat, the procession of more than 100 people carrying palanquins and the procession of the altar of Saint Quy Minh Dai Vuong and thousands of tourists in about 1000 boats began to move.

– The procession departs from Ang Muong wharf, passing through 11 caves on Sao Khe river. After 1 hour of marching, the group will be divided into two, half will continue the procession on the river, half will go ashore and cross 3 mountains (3km) towards Noi Lam temple.– The procession on the river will stop at Tran temple wharf and continue climbing to reach the sacred 

Tran Trang An temple area. The temple is famous for its 4 stone columns carved with four spirits (dragon, ly, turtle, phoenix) from the Tran Dynasty.In the evening of the same day, the festival of worshiping the gods was held at Suoi Tien temple, which is an important Buddhist spiritual activity of the Trang An festival in Ninh Binh .

Over the years, the number of temples for the above gods has increased greatly and spread throughout Ninh Binh province. Trang An festival originates from the Tran temple festival (which was founded by King Dinh Tien Hoang, expanded by King Tran Thai Tong) and then expanded its space to most of the relics in the core area of ​​Trang An heritage.

Through the organization of the festival, it also arouses the patriotic tradition, pride, national pride and the spirit of great solidarity of the Vietnamese people in the cause of national construction and defense.

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