It means that West Lake is the main vein of Tản Viên Mountain; then from West Lake the vein will emerge to the Trầm field in Hậu Ái village, Vân Canh commune, where talented people who pass high examinations always appear.
His Excellency Đỗ Kính Tu was born in that land of sacred spirits and outstanding people.
Đỗ Kính Tu, when serving as an official under three reigns of the Lý dynasty, was granted the royal surname Lý Kính Tu. His father was Đỗ Khiêu, a Confucian scholar of Di Ái village (as it was then called).
The year of His Excellency's birth and the year of his death remain unclear to this day. According to the Thần Phả by Mr. Nguyễn Bá Đôn, a Tiến sĩ of the Chế khoa examination, His Excellency was born in 1172 (Nhâm Thìn).
His Excellency was intelligent from childhood; at the age of 2 he could remember the faces of characters; at the age of 3 he understood character analysis (analyzing characters, because Chinese characters are usually composed of many combined characters). At the age of 5 he went to study with a teacher.
When he was 8 years old, a monk from Thăng Long citadel came to visit his father; seeing that he was intelligent, the monk took him to study at the pagoda. At the age of 13 he took an examination and passed first in his local area (valedictorian). His family had him study martial arts as well; at 18 he passed the Phố school (now Giảng Võ). He was sent by the king to suppress rebels, and he achieved merit by pacifying them.
At the age of 23, the king opened the Tam Giáo examination (Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism); His Excellency passed first in the Lý dynasty examination, a degree called “Thái học sinh” (in the Trần dynasty it was called Tiến sĩ), and together with three other friends he was appointed by the king to the post of “Hàn Lâm viện Đại học sĩ”.
In 1204 His Excellency was Thái Bảo Phụ Quốc; after suppressing rebels in Đại Hoàng, he was conferred by the king with the Tam Công titles (Thái sư, Thái Bảo, and Thái phó) and then Đại Vương.
When King Lý Cao Tôn died, he entrusted His Excellency with installing Crown Prince Sảm on the throne and appointed him Thái Uý phụ chính (Thái Úy was the highest position in the Lý court).
Thus His Excellency served as an official under three Lý kings (Anh Tôn, Cao Tôn, and Huệ Tôn).
As for the people of Hậu Ái village, His Excellency did two great things:
The first was: He moved all the villagers from the “Gò Tu” area to the present location, ensuring convenient travel, farming, and trade, adjacent to two villages in the same commune, and free from thieves and robbers. Since then the villagers have avoided using his name as a taboo, so it was called “Gò Tô”.
The second was: He had a canal dug through the villages of Hòe Thị and Thị Cấm, flowing into the Nhuệ River to drain the Trầm field so that the villagers could plant two rice crops with certainty and not suffer flooding. And because of that work, he was slandered by treacherous officials to the king, saying that “he intended to rebel and seize the throne”.
Because of that unjust accusation, His Excellency decided to take his own life to show his loyalty to the king, the country, and the people. Legend recounts that before the civil and military mandarins he said: “If I harbor any intention to rebel against the king, harm the people, or harm the country, then both man and horse will drown and never return. But if my deeds benefit the people and the country, then both man and horse will turn back.” Indeed, as in his oath, both man and horse, still in a galloping posture, turned against the current and returned to Hậu Ái village.
When the king learned that His Excellency had been unjustly accused, he conferred on him the title “Thượng Đẳng thần” and ordered a communal house to be built to worship him at the entrance of Hậu Ái village; he also granted fields and gardens to bury his body and took the annual produce for incense and offerings to him (now Vườn Am, about 4,000 m2).
His Excellency's death day is the 21st day of the 5th lunar month. Unfortunately, the year is unknown (according to the above Thần Phả, he died at the age of 45).
Since then the people of Hậu Ái village have taken the 21st day of the 5th lunar month, the death anniversary of the Saint, as the traditional festival day of the village.
Although His Excellency died about 800 years ago, every year he still manifests his sacred power, such as: on 21/5, although the morning weather is very hot and sunny, by past noon and in the afternoon there is rain and thunder (experience shows that in 10 years, 9 years will have rain on that day, so when there were fields, every family avoided sowing winter rice on 21/5).
- Royal decrees: there are 05 royal decrees currently kept at the village communal house:
+ Tự Đức 33rd year, 24/1/1880.
+ Đồng Khánh 2nd year, 1887.
+ Duy Tân 3rd year, 11/8/1909.
+ Khải Định, 2 copies, on 25/7/1924.
- In 1989, the Ministry of Culture decided to recognize Hậu Ái village communal house and the tomb of Đỗ Kính Tu as a national-level historical relic.
b. Description of the forms of expression, practice process, material and spiritual products created in the process of practicing the intangible cultural heritage, related cultural space, etc.:
- Main festival: The current festival takes place only for 1 day, the 21st day of the 5th lunar month, the death anniversary of His Excellency.
- Hội lệ: (once every 5 years) a procession is held from the communal house to the tomb and from the tomb back to the communal house from the 6th to the end of the 8th day of the 2nd lunar month.
- The male ritual team has 18 people, all elderly men aged 60 and over.
- The procession team for the (Hội lệ) year has 200 people, including:
+ Incense Table Procession: 16 people + Eight Treasures and eight-tone ensemble: 16 people = 32 people
+ Long Đình Procession: 32 people + Eight Treasures and eight-tone ensemble: 16 people = 48 people
+ Palanquin Procession: 32 people + Eight Treasures and eight-tone ensemble: 16 people = 48 people
+ Banner bearers: 6 people + parasol bearers: 6 people + parasol bearers: 6 people, flag bearers: 30 people = 32 people
Together with the ceremonial drum commander and reserves = 40 people.
They are the sons and daughters of the village.
- The elders in the ritual committee (18 men) require that the family be complete, with sons, daughters, and grandchildren on both the paternal and maternal sides (three generations). This rule has existed since ancient times and was discussed for selection one month before the festival date. During implementation, if any man affects the above regulations, the Organizing Committee (BTC) will find a replacement.
- Rituals and ceremonies (the death anniversary of the Saint on May 21): Two days before the festival, the Organizing Committee, the elders, and festival attendants perform the task of cleaning the inner sanctuary, the Saint's Tomb, and Gò Nàng, wiping ritual objects with fragrant water, and sweeping around the communal house. On the morning of the following day, they decorate with the national flag, the deity flag, and decorative flags from the communal house to His tomb and Gò Nàng.
In the afternoon, after the Mục Dục Ceremony of the elders in the ritual committee, the delegation of the Organizing Committee, the elders, and all the people go to offer incense to President Ho Chi Minh at Uncle Ho's Memorial House and place a wreath in memory of the commune's martyrs.
- Taboos and prohibitions:
For 7 days before the village festival (the death anniversary of the Saint), the entire Organizing Committee, the elders, and all festival service participants are not allowed to eat dog meat. Especially from the morning of May 20 to 17:30 on May 21. If someone in the village dies, no trumpets may be blown, drums beaten, or funeral procession held.
- In the ritual committee, there is 01 chief celebrant wearing red clothes, a red hat, and red boots; 01 master of texts, 01 text transmitter, 02 fire attendants, 01 Eastern chanter, 01 Western chanter, and 11 men serving as assistant celebrants. All ritual rounds are directed by the two Eastern and Western chanters.
- The opening is "Khởi trinh cổ" (03 rounds of bells and drums)
While waiting for the chief celebrant to perform "Quán tẩy" and "Thuế tẩy", that is, washing hands and wiping hands, the eight-tone ensemble plays the background music "Nhạc sinh tựu bi".
- Next, the chief celebrant and the 02 fire attendants go into the inner sanctuary to inspect the offerings. After inspecting the offerings, the first wine offering round begins, called "Tuần sơ"; the next round is the "Trúc" round, or trúc văn. Then there are 02 more wine rounds called "Á" and "Sơ". During the ritual rounds, the assistant celebrants, following the chief celebrant in turn, bring offerings from the front ritual yard (outer yard) to the rhythm of bells and drums, stop before the altar desk, and pass them to the chief celebrant to offer to the Saint. After the ritual is completed with 3 wine rounds and 1 text (Trúc) round, the ceremony concludes; only the 5 men—the chief celebrant, the text master, the text transmitter, and the two fire attendants—do not have to perform the remaining rituals, while everyone else must perform 4 rituals.
- One ritual session lasts about 90 to 100 minutes.
- The Hậu Ái village festival annually organizes recreational games and artistic performances such as:
+ Badminton, table tennis, chess, health exercises, martial arts....
+ Performances of quan họ singing on boats, exchange of artistic items with neighboring villages...
- Ritual objects: incense bowls, thrones, Eight Treasures, lamps, incense burners, altar desks, cranes....
- Offerings: wine, sticky rice, pork, chicken, incense, flowers, betel and areca....
- Worship utensils: offering trays, bowls, chopsticks....
- Costumes: red clothes, red hats, and red boots for the chief celebrant; blue clothes, blue hats, and blue shoes for the assistant celebrants; four-panel dresses for the sinh tiền participants.
The ritual team continuously has successive members. In the cultural village convention, there have been some regulations on organizing the village festival and the palanquin procession (once every 5 years), but it is still mainly transmitted orally.
