DOI CHE TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL

Doi Che Shrine in Thanh Binh village currently worships Princess Vinh Hoa, a general under the Trung Sisters. Today the local people still maintain worship of the deities and 19 royal edicts from various dynasties. Every year the people still maintain offerings, incense, festival days, death anniversaries, and hold the festival to commemorate the village's tutelary deities.

The Doi Che Shrine Festival is stipulated to be held once every three years over two days, from the 13th to the 14th day of the second lunar month. In festival years, the village still maintains the deity offering ceremony.

From the 13th: in the morning, the people and the festival organizing committee carry out preparations such as setting up tents, hanging flags, cleaning the altars and ceremonial objects, and the palanquin. The elders perform the bathing ceremony, wipe the deity statue, and arrange offerings. In the afternoon, the festival organizing committee performs the offering and announcement ceremony.

In the evening there is a cultural and artistic exchange activity for the masses.

The 14th: In the morning is the main offering ceremony, after which the procession includes divine flag teams, pairs of ceremonial weapons, one eight-bearer palanquin carrying an incense burner, the male offering team, and the incense-offering team; they process from Quan Communal House to the end of the village and back.

After processing back to the communal house, the organizing committee carries the incense bowl into the forbidden sanctuary and places it there. The male offering team, consisting of 16 people aged 60 and over, performs the offering ritual. The sequence is: starting the drum, inspecting the offerings, offering three rounds of wine, reading the prayer, and burning the prayer. Next is the incense-offering team, made up of women also aged 60 and over, who offer incense, flowers, fruit, tea, etc.

The village holds the festival with folk games such as tug-of-war, duck catching, monkey bridge walking, blindfolded goat catching, etc. On this day the village organizes a communal feast to celebrate the village festival. The people and families in the village all prepare offerings to present to the deities, praying for blessings and peace. The offerings mainly include fruit, cakes and sweets, votive cakes, bananas, etc.

In the afternoon, the people and the festival organizing committee perform the ceremony of returning the deity to the shrine, carrying the deity's incense bowl out to the palanquin and processing back to the shrine. The ceremonial formation remains complete. Upon arriving at the shrine, they carry the incense bowl into the sanctuary, and then the elders perform the seating and installation ceremony. At the communal house, they perform the thanksgiving ceremony to the deities, close the communal house doors, and end the festival.