Giáp Ngọ Village Festival

- Venue of the festival

Giáp Ngọ Communal House, Giáp Ngọ Residential Group, Chương Mỹ Ward

The festival takes place from the 14th to the 16th day of the first lunar month

According to village legend, the Giáp Ngọ communal house festival dates back more than 500 years; the communal house is dedicated to Princess Tiên Dung. By the custom of Giáp Ngọ village, the communal house festival is held once every 3–5 years (the great festival), with offerings and palanquin processions, taking place from the morning of the 14th day of the first lunar month until the end of the afternoon of the 16th day of the first lunar month. In ordinary years when the great festival is not held, it is called only village affairs, with offerings and rituals but no procession, taking place on many days of the year such as the 1st and the full moon day.

The festival is held to commemorate the merits of Princess Tiên Dung. Princess Tiên Dung was the daughter of the 18th Hùng King (Hùng Vương period), famous in Vietnamese fairy tales through her beautiful and equal love with the poor young man Chử Đồng Tử, one of the Four Immortals, expressing the overcoming of social class and wealth differences to reach true love; later she was worshipped as a patron deity of marriage and family.

* Prohibitions and taboos during the festival: Families observing mourning for their four generations of parents must wait until the end of mourning before they may join the festival organizing committee.

* Before the festival: The local government holds a joint meeting, including the Party Secretary, Village Head, and heads of departments and mass organizations. Then, a festival organizing committee is established, and tasks are assigned to each member of the committee. The meeting takes place at the communal house or the residential group cultural house.

* Afternoon of the 13th day of the first lunar month:

- Elderly men of the village go to the communal house to perform ceremonies to dust and clean the ritual objects and to assemble and wash the palanquins. The elders wipe them three times: first with clean well water, then with ginger water, and finally with alcohol. After that, the shrine keeper and some respected elders dress the Village Tutelary God. The elderly women sweep and clean the communal house. The registration ceremony is performed.