LONG AN – Man poured water, smashed pots, danced sacks, and caught ducks at the Vegetarian Festival in Tam Vu town, which took place after 3 years of stopping because of Covid-19, attracting 20,000 participants.

Vegetarian Festival is held from February 4-6 (January 14-16) every year, at the Tan Xuan Dinh relic site, Quarter 1, Tam Vu town, Chau Thanh district, to commemorate the beloved hero. Do Tuong Phong and Do Tuong Tu were executed by the French colonialists. Over the years, the festival also adds the meaning of praying for favorable weather, favorable crops and restoring traditional folk values.

The most important part of the festival is the ritual to invite Ong Tieu (Tieu Dai Dai), a bodhisattva who specializes in serving demons and saving sentient beings from the temple to the communal house yard.

In parallel with the procession of Ong Tieu, the ceremony organizers also brought paper boats and bamboo poles from the temple to the communal house yard. After the ritual of burning Ong Tieu, the boat is placed with sacrifices and dropped into the river with the meaning of bringing guests to the soul.

Rituals on the river route include three boats. The first boat carried the team of unicorns, monks and dignitaries, and the second two boats carried out rescue missions. The boats will whistle around the area, the house that organizes to cover the theater to worship the ghost will stop by to carry out the procession of the soul, according to folk beliefs.

Another group will conduct a ritual to recruit you on the road, just like the river, including a team of lions, gongs, monks and dignitaries will walk in combination with cars. Every time they come to the middle of the bridge, the monks will perform the ritual of worshiping the soul and burning votive paper.

The Vegetarian Festival is likened to the “second Lunar New Year” of the locals of the year.

The festival will have folk games such as tug of war, smashing pots, jumping sacks, and catching ducks. Duck catching contest is one of the performances that attract a large number of viewers with hundreds of village boys participating.

During festivals, along the roads, many young people use hoses, buckets and buckets to slap water on passersby. There are even groups that use trucks to carry water to the neighborhood.

A young man disguised as a demon riding a horse along the road could not escape being splashed with water.

A group of young people mobilized trucks carrying water to run through the streets of Tam Vu town, splashing water on passersby. In the photo, after the father agreed, the group splashed the father and son with water.

The ritual of teachers and students of Tang Tang sitting in a flower car in the evening is the most attractive part of the festival. Village boys will dress up as youkai, each neighborhood uses a tree or paper to build a cave. There are more than 10 large and small caves in the area.

When coming to a cave, Qi Tian and Tru Bat Gioi will get off the car to “combat” with the demon, then the cave will be collapsed. Due to a large number of people, both were surrounded and had to be escorted by a guard to open the way to escape. Some caves were surrounded by crowds and collapsed before Tang Tang’s teachers and students arrived.

After the awakening is the ceremony of the boat to release the lantern, towards enlightenment and liberating sentient beings. The boat is decorated with a very elaborate phoenix, in front of which “Kim Dong”, “Ngoc Nu” will run a short distance on the river, then release flowers.

This year, the ceremony area is fenced with an iron frame with police protection. People are blessed with fortune about an hour before the ceremony of burning Ong Tieu, so the scene of breaking fences is no longer repeated as in some years.

At 0:00, the ceremony of burning Ong Tieu was held. This year, Mr. Tieu was placed in the middle of the ceremony ground in case people tried to pull their tongues. Ong Tieu’s tongue, according to folk belief, whoever snatches it will be lucky and peaceful for the whole year.

After completing the ritual of burning Ong Tieu, many people entered the ceremony area to ask for flowers, fruits, and sweets to bring home good luck.

Viet Anh (27 years old, left corner) and her friends, asking for blessings from the festival, is a sponge mascot cats.

 ( According to vnexpress )