Boats on the Luc Dau River reenact the three victories of the Tran Dynasty over the Yuan-Mongol invaders over 700 years ago, an activity of the Con Son – Kiep Bac Autumn Festival (Photo: VNA)Hai Duong (VNA) – The special national relicsite Con Son – Kiep Bac in Chi Linh city, the northern province of Hai Duong,welcomed about 120,000 visitors from September 13 to 18 during its autumnfestival, up about 40 percent year on year.
On the three peak days of the event fromSeptember 14 to 16, it attracted around 75,000 people, according to the relicsite’s management board.
The annual Con Son – Kiep Bac Autumn Festivaltakes place in the eighth lunar month, which is in the middle of autumnaccording to folk beliefs.
This year, it marked the 719th death anniversaryof national hero Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan (1228 – 1300), known as TranHung Dao for short, and honoured the Tran Dynasty (1225 – 1400). The event alsocelebrated the 577th death anniversary of the world’s Great Man of CultureNguyen Trai (1380 – 1442).
The festival featured a range of traditionalrituals and cultural activities. Notably, a performance with the participationof 1,500 people and around 500 boats on the Luc Dau River reenacted the threevictories of the Tran Dynasty over the Yuan-Mongol invaders over 700 years ago.
Activities during the festival also aimed topopularize the values of the Con Son – Kiep Bac special national relic site,helping to raise public awareness of the practice, preservation and promotionof national cultural heritage.
Most visitors to this year’s event weresatisfied with landscape improvements at the site, which had many of itsfacilities upgraded and services bettered.
They also received support from local youthvolunteers who helped with keeping the environment clean and givinginstructions to visitors.
Additionally, in response to the anti-plasticwaste campaign, organisers placed a number of large water containers inmultiple places across the site to serve visitors for free instead ofdistributing small bottles. Flower lanterns floated at the event were made ofpaper.
Under the Tran Dynasty, commander Tran Hung Daoled the military of Dai Viet (Great Viet – the name of Vietnam then) tovictories over two of the three Yuan-Mongol invasions, in 1285 and 1288.
Kiep Bac Temple is the most renowned place ofworship of Tran Hung Dao. The local area was also his birthplace and the placewhere he set his military base during the fights against the foreign invaders.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Trai was a great contributorto the establishment of the Hau Le (Latter Le) Dynasty (1428 – 1789) followingthe triumph over the Ming invaders. He was also a most famous poets and writersin the country’s history.
Con Son Mountain was where Nguyen Trai spentpart of his time in seclusion.
Con Son – Kiep Bac was recognised as a nationalrelic site in 1962 and a special national relic site in 2012.
Aside from the autumn festival, it is also thevenue of an annual spring festival. Both events were listed as nationalintangible cultural heritage in 2013 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism.
Hai Duong province was associated with the livesof not only Tran Hung Dao or Nguyen Trai but also many other renowned figuresin Vietnam’s history such as Khuc Thua Du, Chu Van An and Mac Dinh Chi.
It is home to more than 2,200 historical andcultural relic sites, including 144 national relic sites and four specialnational ones.
Additionally, Hai Duong boasts a number ofscenic landscapes like Con Son Mountain, Phuong Hoang Mountain, An PhuMountain, Duong Nham Mountain, Kinh Chu Cave and the Luc Dau River.
Craft villages have also make the province knownfar and wide, including Dong Giao wood engraving village, Chu Dau potteryvillage, Chau Khe jewelry making village, Xuan Neo embroidery village, and TienKieu mat weaving village./.
VNA
