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Fish festivals declared intangible heritage
The fish-worshipping festival of the central city has been
recognised as one of seven National Intangible Heritage items by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The central city has restored 12 annual fish-worshipping festivals at fishing
villages in the beach districts of Lien Chieu, Thanh Khe, Ngu Hanh Son and Son
Tra.
It’s the third National Cultural Intangible Heritage designation for the city
after the Stone Arts Sculpture of Non Nuoc craft village in Ngu Hanh Son
District in 2014 and Tuong Xu Quang (Quang Nam’s classic drama) in 2015.
The annual festival, known as the Whale Worshipping (Le Hoi Cau Ngu), has been
an indispensable part of life in fishing villages in the city and is an
important spiritual and cultural event, staged in the hope of winning favour
with the sea god.
The earliest festival was first held in 1893 in Thanh Khe Village, home to 3,200
fishermen. The festivals are mostly held in the middle of the first lunar month,
which is the start of the fishing season, and most trawlers go to sea as soon as
the festival ends.
Local fishermen launched 300 paper flower garlands to sea to pray for the dead
and to the god of the sea. Fishermen believe by so doing they will have a safe
year and good catches.
The central attraction of the festival sees elderly fishermen carrying a sedan
in a procession from the sea to the beach.
The god of the sea is presented with an offering of a boiled pig’s head and
three trays of food and fruits.
The festival is organised along with local folk games, the weaving of fishing
nets, a coracle race and local food delicacies.
Each fishing village along the beaches of Da Nang build a temple to worship the
god of the sea, where a whale’s skeleton is buried.
Da Nang has 15,000sq.km of fishing grounds, and a fleet of 2,300 boats, of which
699 are deep-sea trawlers.
According to the ministry, seven intangible heritages items have been given to
crafts and festivals nationwide, including the bamboo craft village of Xuan Lai
Commune in Bac Ninh Province, the Whale Festival in Binh Dai Commune of Ben Tre
Province, the Festival of Female General Le Chan in Hai Phong, the commemorative
festival of National Hero Truong Dinh in Tien Giang Province, the ancient
manuscript collection of the Thai ethnic group in Son La Province, and the Cai
Rang Floating Market in Can Tho Province.
Source: Vietnamnet |
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