A royal seal bestowing ceremony opened at Tran Temple in the northern province of Nam Dinh on February 11 or the 14th day of the first lunar month, with a plenty of exciting cultural and sports activities and drawing thousands of local people and visitors.
The ceremony re-enacted a custom dating back to the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400), when mandarins took out their seals after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday to resume administrative activities, including conferring titles.
As a tradition, this year’s event began with a procession to take the seal from Co Trach temple to Thien Truong temple, where 14 Kings of the Tran Dynasty are worshiped.
Following a short speech by Chairman of the Nam Dinh City People's Committee Nguyen Tien Dung, which praised the Tran Dynasty, the seal opening ceremony was held in line with the traditional rites.
The site was closed to visitors during the ceremony which took place from 22:45. The distribution of stamps to residents and visitors started from 5am on February 12 or the 15th day of the first lunar month.
It has become a tradition for Vietnamese to join the ceremony to get a stamp in hope for good luck and happiness.
A range of cultural and artistic activities were held during the festival including water puppetry performances, lion and dragon dances, cockfighting, human chess competitions, bonsai display, showcasing of One Commune One Product (OCOP) items and a photo exhibition of Nam Dinh tourism.
The same day, a seal opening ceremony began at the Tran Kings temple relic site in central Thanh Hoa province to pray for a new year of happiness and a bumper harvest.
Along with the royal-seal bestowing ceremony, many unique cultural and sports activities were also organised within the framework of the event, such as sports competitions, art exchanges, and exhibitions of agricultural products of Ha Trung district.
The festival is not only an opportunity to honour national traditions, but also contributes to promoting local tourism.
Also on February 11, Tran Thuong Temple’s food-distributing festival kicked off in the northern province of Ha Nam.
Speaking at the event’s opening ceremony, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Truong Quoc Huy said that the festival has become a fine tradition, honouring heroes who had contributed to constructing and safeguarding the homeland, while reminding future generations to cherish the past, expressing respects for ancestors, strengthening the great national unity bloc. He highlighted the festival’s significance to the hope of peace, prosperity, national development as well as contributing to preserving and promoting traditional cultural identity.
Tran Thuong temple is dedicated to Tran Hung Dao (1228-1300), the supreme commander in the Tran Dynasty, who repelled three major Mongolian invasions in the 13th century. It is located in Tran Hung Dao commune of Ly Nhan district, which was chosen by Tran Hung Dao as a food storage area to supply his army during the fight against the invaders.
In honour of the past event, a food-distributing festival is held annually at the Tran Thuong Temple on the 14th day of the first lunar month.
As many as 180,000 food parcels have been prepared for distributing to visitors at 12 gates around the temple from 23pm on the 14th day to 5pm on the following day./.
