Cự Chính Communal House

Cự Chính Communal House is the communal house of two villages, Cự Lộc and Chính Kinh, also called Mọc Cự Chính, belonging to Nhân Mục commune, later renamed Nhân Chính commune, in Từ Liêm district; from January 1, 1997, it became Nhân Chính ward, Thanh Xuân district, Hà Nội. On the twelfth day of the second lunar month every year, the five Mọc villages still maintain the custom of carrying palanquins to the communal house of the village that hosts the grand festival. The communal house has a layout favorable to literary success: according to legend, the ink slab is the lake in front, the inkstone is the mound in the middle of the lake, the road running past is a brush resting on the ink slab, and the plot on the left is an open book. Cự Chính Communal House was built at the latest in the 17th century. It worships the tutelary deity Lã Đại Liệu, a descendant of heroes and a native of Liễu Chử hamlet (later renamed Liễu Lâm), Siêu Loại district, now Song Liễu commune, Thuận Thành district, Bắc Ninh province. He was a general of Ngô Quyền; when the Ngô dynasty disintegrated, he was one of the Twelve Warlords, occupying the Tế Giang region (now in Văn Giang district, Hưng Yên province). Legend has it that the communal house is also called Toad Communal House because there are carvings of a pair of toads on the pillar, implying a prayer for favorable rain and wind so that farmers have a good harvest. When the resistance war against the French broke out at the end of 1946, the communal house was severely destroyed; in the 1990s it was restored, and at the beginning of the 21st century it underwent a major restoration. The village road has long since become the spacious Quan Nhân Street.