A ceremony for opening Tra Co communal house festival 2021 was held on July 10 in Quang Ninh province’s Mong Cai city.
The event saw the presence of Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Đỗ Văn Tuấn.
Tra Co communal house located in Nam Tho area of the city’s Tra Co commune was built from the Later Le dynasty. The communal house has preserved many artifacts of historical and cultural values, and was recognized as a national relic site in 1974.
The communal house’s festival is a folk festival annually held from the 30th of the fifth to the 3rd of the sixth lunar month. The festival was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2019.
The highlight of the festival is the contest and the procession ceremony of “Ong Voi”.
According to the tradition, the festival village chooses 12 households for raising 12 pigs to prepare for the next year's festival. These pigs are considered as mascots of the god and called "Ong Voi".
At the festival, 12 households use a red painted crib with a roof for covering the rain and sun in the procession of these washed pigs, and line up them in two rows in front of the communal house to worship the god.
After worshipping rituals, the festival’s organizing board measures the length, weight, neck size of every pig. The pig that has the longest body, heaviest, and biggest and most beautiful neck will win the first prize, and then used to worship Gods.
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12 households are chosen to raise 12 pigs in one year
Procession of “Ong Voi” to communal house
Palanquin procession of Gods at Tra Co beach
Due to Covid-19, this year festival was organized with a strict implementation of the epidemic prevention recommendations.
