City-level relic: Triệu Xuyên Communal House, Phúc Thọ Commune

City-level relic: Triệu Xuyên Communal House, Phúc Thọ Commune

Triệu Xuyên Communal House is in Triệu Xuyên Village, Phúc Thọ Commune, Hà Nội City. According to stories told by elderly villagers, especially through a stone stele recording a posthumous donation dating from the Lê period still kept at the relic, Triệu Xuyên Communal House was first built in the Lê period. The communal house formerly had a massive architecture, with wooden columns so large that two people could not embrace one. However, through many historical changes, harsh nature and war, the old communal house no longer exists. During the resistance war against the French, the communal house implemented the scorched-earth resistance order. In 1948, the communal house burned down completely. In 1952, the people rebuilt the two bays of the Rear Sanctuary. In 1995, the villagers rebuilt the Great Worship Hall following the old model but larger and wider. However, because the locality was still poor, it was not possible to restore all the components of the communal house according to its original architecture.

By 2024-2025, the State had paid attention and invested in the overall repair and embellishment of the relic's components using the state budget, including: the Ceremonial Gate, the Main Hall (Great Worship Hall, Rear Sanctuary), the Left Side Hall, the Right Side Hall, the caretaker's house + kitchen + toilets, the paper-offering furnace, the communal pond, the ceremonial yard, and the technical infrastructure system throughout the relic grounds. After more than one year of repair and embellishment construction, the relic was completed and put into use in 2025 to serve the local people's cultural and spiritual needs.

Triệu Xuyên Communal House worships the village's Tutelary Gods, two Water Deities: Thủy đế Long Quân (the Dragon Lord, Emperor of Water) and Thủy thần Hiển công Đại Vương (the Water Deity Hiển Công Great King), who are sons of the Holy Mother Water Deity ((The Holy Mother is worshipped at Triệu Xuyên Shrine). Legend has it that the Holy Mother and the village Tutelary Gods manifested their divine power to support and protect the people and also manifested to support the Trần dynasty army in defeating the invading Nguyên Mông (Yuan-Mongol) forces in our country; these merits were summarized in the couplets at the Great Worship Hall:

Transliteration

The Holy Emperor delivers living beings; his heart is the great sea,

In the human world, people worship him; his virtue shines for a thousand springs.

Tentative meaning

The Holy Emperor helps the people's livelihood, his heart like the great sea,

The human world worships him, his virtue shines for a thousand springs

The main annual festival of Triệu Xuyên Village takes place from the 11th to the 13th day of the second lunar month, to commemorate the merits of the Holy Mother and the village Tutelary Gods, who secretly supported and helped the villagers have plenty and warmth. The worship of the Holy Mother at the shrine and the Tutelary Gods at the communal house are closely related, so the festival here is held in a space that closely connects the two relics, Triệu Xuyên Communal House and Triệu Xuyên Shrine. The Triệu Xuyên village festival is attended very joyfully by people who are far from home and by people in the surrounding area. Everyone prays for favorable rain and wind, for people to be healthy and prosperous, for the homeland to become richer and more beautiful, and for the people to have a warm, full life and lasting happiness.

With its typical historical and cultural values, Triệu Xuyên Communal House was ranked as a City-level relic under Decision No. 4523/QĐ-UBND dated 12 October 2012 of the Hà Nội City People's Committee.