The festival shows the respect for and gratitude to the river goddess and ancestors for their land exploration and village establishment. (Photo: VNA) Speaking at a ceremony toreceive the heritage certificate on March 14, Vice Chairman of the Duy XuyenPeople’s Committee Nguyen The Duc said the festival holds great importance inthe spiritual life of residents along the upper Thu Bon River.
The festival shows therespect for and gratitude to the river goddess and ancestors for their landexploration and village establishment, which laid the foundation for followinggenerations to settle down and develop. It also reflects the solidarity of Cham,Co Tu, and Kinh ethnic groups living in the upper river basin.
The Thu Bon Goddess Festival featuresprecious humane values and is deeply imbued with traditional belief, history,and culture, Duc said, highlighting the need to preserve and bring into play thefestival so as to help educate love for humanity and patriotism.
Tran Van Tan, Vice Chairman of theQuang Nam provincial People’s Committee said it is a folk festival that cameinto being when Vietnamese people migrated from the northern region to thisarea in the 15th century. Later, it was mixed with the culture of theChampa kingdom and ethnic minority groups in western mountainous areas of QuangNam to possess the special cultural values upheld today.
The vitality of the Thu Bon Goddess Festivalcomes from locals’ aspirations for good weather, bumper crops, and nationalpeace, he added.
Tan described the heritagerecognition as an important event in the Visit Vietnam Year 2020 hosted byQuang Nam.
Legend has it that the goddess was aCham ethnic general who fought many battles. Defeated in a fight, she and hertroops moved westwards to Phuong Ranh (now Que Trung commune of the province’sNong Son district), which had inaccessible terrain to garrison there and waitfor a counter-attacking opportunity.
In this place, apart from trooprecruitment and training, she also taught sericulture, fabric weaving, andherbal remedies to locals.
Losing a battle, she killed herselfby drowning in the Thu Bon River. Her body drifted to the downstream river andthen buried by residents in Thu Bon village of Duy Tan commune, Duy Xuyendistrict, where her mausoleum was built.
A festival is held from the 10th to 12th days of the second lunar month annually, which falls onMarch 12 - 14 this year, to commemorate the goddess./.
VNA
