Tram Pagoda Traditional Traditional Festival

Festival Traditional Traditional Festival of Tram Pagoda, Long Chau Mieu residential group, Chuong My Ward, Hanoi CityCity Hanoi.

The festival takes place from the 2nd to the 3rd day of the 2nd lunar month

-where the festival takes place

+ At Tram Pagoda, Long Chau Mieu village, Chuong My Ward

According to the village convention of Long Chau Mieu Village, the traditional festival of Tram Pagoda is organized once every 5 years (great festival) with rituals and palanquin procession taking place over two days, from the 2nd day of the 2nd month to the 3rd day of the 2nd lunar month. In the remaining years, no Great Festival is held; only the annual ritual ceremony is held, with 1 palanquin procession.

The festival is held to commemorate the merits and worship: Mrs. Tran Thi Tho from the south, who mobilized the building of the pagoda from 1515 to 1548; the pagoda takes her birthday, the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month, as the date of the Tram Pagoda festival.

The Tram Pagoda festival was interrupted due to war. From 1994 to the present, the traditional Tram Pagoda festival has been restored and regularly holds ritual ceremonies and incense offerings.

- Taboos in the festival: the chief officiant's family must have four parents (both spouses' parents). The paternal clan must perform a thanksgiving ceremony. Glutinous rice, chicken, betel, and wine must be abstained from; the family may not offer them until 100 days have passed. If serving as the next chief officiant, there must also be a ceremony to continue as chief officiant. During rituals, the chief officiant must not come into contact with, or be intimate with, women; he must regularly gargle with wine and ginger and bathe in ginger water.

- Preparation work before the festival. A plan is made for an organizing meeting including departments, unions, the mass mobilization committee, the ceremony committee, and members of the festival steering committee. The meeting takes place two months before the festival. The venue is the village cultural house. Forty male and female youths are arranged as the procession team.

The palanquin wears a brown robe (palanquin bearers); 20 days before the palanquin procession, the youths must all gather at the communal house to practice rituals before joining the palanquin procession.

- On the 25th day of the 12th lunar month, the elderly, villagers, and the pagoda collectively clean the pagoda grounds, ritually clean with ginger wine and clean cloths the worship objects, ritual offerings, palanquins, and palanquin drums, and assign a security team to guard assets throughout the festival. On the afternoon of the 1st day of the 2nd lunar month, the elderly perform rituals; afterward, the temple keeper and respected elders in the village dress the Village Tutelary God, and the elderly women and the Women's Union clean the Tram Pagoda area.

On the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month, from 6:30 a.m., the members of the palanquin procession team and all the people are present. At 7 o'clock, the chief officiant and the ritual team perform a ceremony asking permission from the Tutelary God to go from the communal house to Tram Pagoda.

At 8 o'clock, the traditional Tram Pagoda festival opens. An elderly person in the village beats the drum to open the festival. Then the elders perform the presentation ceremony. The ritual team and incense-offering team perform the incense-offering ceremony. During the festival there are folk games, tug of war, human chess, wrestling, and cultural and sports performances. The venue is the Long Chau Mieu village stadium.

The palanquin procession begins from the village communal house; at the head of the procession is the dragon palanquin, carrying the royal edicts for the deities, followed by the Eight Treasures palanquin procession. Then the Bat Cong palanquin is carried, along with offerings of flowers and fruit.

In years when the great festival is not held, only 1 flower-and-fruit palanquin is carried. The procession goes from the communal house to the pagoda, about 1 km; along the way the palanquin may be turned many times without affecting the offerings inside.

On the afternoon of the 3rd day of the 2nd lunar month, the elders perform the ritual ceremony, thanksgiving ceremony, and carry the Tutelary God from Tram Pagoda back to the village communal house, and the festival ends.

Through the traditional festival, the villagers' gratitude and remembrance of the Saints; the festival is also an occasion for the people in the village to gather and meet one another. Connection the affection and neighborhood ties of the homeland's children studying and working domestically and abroad toward the day of the festival.