Cultural symbols in An Giang

Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House Festival (commonly known as Nguyen's death anniversary) is held from the 26th to the 28th of the 8th lunar month every year in Rach Gia city, Kien Giang province (now Rach Gia ward, An Giang province). This is a cultural beauty with profound meaning, expressing the nation's morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking water", and is a unique cultural symbol in An Giang.

Many people came to offer incense at Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House Festival.

Many activities to honor the cloth hero

The traditional festival commemorating the 157th anniversary of the death of National Hero Nguyen Trung Truc this year will take place for 3 days, from October 17-19 (August 26-28 of the lunar calendar), in Rach Gia ward. The festival aims to honor the life, achievements and heroic sacrifice of the cloth-clothed hero Nguyen Trung Truc.

The unique feature of the Nguyen Dynasty Commemoration Festival is the community cohesion, expressed through the voluntary spirit of the participating people, thereby multiplying the patriotism in each person. The festival has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage.

This year, the rituals were solemnly held: Incense-lighting ceremony at the stele marking the place where the hero was executed; incense-offering ceremony by delegations and solemn incense-offering ceremony at Nguyen Trung Truc Monument Park on the morning of October 18.

Along with that, a youth theater festival with the theme "The spirit of the national hero" will be held, giving young people the opportunity to express their feelings, admiration and learn from the hero's indomitable spirit.

Main streets in Rach Gia ward have hung decorative lanterns to serve the Nguyen Dynasty's death anniversary.

The festival takes place throughout October 2025 with many special activities: Southern amateur music space, Vovinam tournament, amateur music competition, calligraphy and art photography exhibition, art photography exhibition, calligraphy space, Lion-Dragon-Unicorn performance, lantern festival to pray for national peace and prosperity... All have created a rich cultural picture, bearing the mark of Rach Gia ward, a place closely associated with the name Nguyen Trung Truc.

The annual festival is also an opportunity to promote tourism and local specialties. According to the An Giang Provincial Center for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion, on this occasion, the organizers of the "Southern Traditional Cake Festival - An Giang" combined with the 2nd OCOP tourism, trade and product promotion fair/2025, with the theme "Fragrance and Colors of An Giang" from October 18-26, in Long Xuyen Ward, An Giang Province.

The festival gathered more than 300 booths, honoring the traditional culinary culture of the South through folk cakes, promoting the image of people, culture and tourism of An Giang, contributing to expanding the market for OCOP products. At the same time, creating a space for exchange, promoting trade, tourism and investment.

Lanterns in preparation for Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House Festival.

An Giang province hopes that the Nguyen Dynasty Commemoration Festival will continue to be a unique cultural and tourist destination, a source of pride for the people of the South and the whole country. Thereby, preserving and promoting the traditional culinary culture of the South, contributing to spreading the message of a dynamic, friendly An Giang, imbued with national cultural identity.

Community Engagement

There are still 3 days left until the official Nguyen death anniversary, but from today, October 14, Mr. Tran Van Nam (70 years old), residing in Chau Doc ward, An Giang province, has come to Rach Gia ward to do "logistical" work, preparing firewood, rice, water, vegetables, fruits... to serve visitors from all over.

For more than 15 years now, every year, Mr. Nam has come 5-7 days before the ceremony to serve. Before that, he arranges family affairs, mobilizes relatives and acquaintances to contribute necessary necessities to prepare to bring back to Rach Gia to celebrate Mr. Nguyen's death anniversary. "I prepare firewood, utensils to cook rice, and make banh xeo to serve people near and far. Each person has a job, but in general, it is to sincerely remember Mr. Nguyen," Mr. Nam shared.

Thousands of volunteers serve the Nguyen Dynasty's death anniversary.

Mr. Phan Van Thi (also known as Tam Thi, 74 years old), residing in Tinh Bien ward, An Giang province, has been doing charity work for more than 25 years to serve the Nguyen's death anniversary. Every year, about 20-30 days before the ceremony, he arranges family affairs, plans to mobilize relatives to contribute rice, vegetables, tubers, and fruits to prepare for the Nguyen's death anniversary.

Like every year, Mr. Tam Thi's charity group has about 100 people, assigned to be in charge of a number of rice camps, along with making banh xeo to serve diners for free. "My group is divided into many groups, doing the work of mixing flour, picking vegetables, making dipping sauce, making banh xeo... Each person has a job, but it is bustling in a joyful and warm festival atmosphere," Mr. Tam Thi confided.

Thousands of hammocks are provided free of charge to people attending the Nguyen Dynasty's death anniversary.

This year, Mr. Dang Tuan Anh, manager of the Sponge-Liu Riu Restaurant System and Mr. Danh Viet Thang, Anh Loc Enterprise, residing in Rach Gia Ward, prepared 1,000 hammocks to serve people near and far for free.

Mr. Dang Tuan Anh said: “With the support of the Committee for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Relics of Nguyen Trung Truc Tomb and Communal House, we proactively prepared iron and hammocks very early. Currently, the team members have built and completed 1,000 hammocks, helping people from near and far to attend the death anniversary of Mr. Nguyen to rest.”

Deputy Head of the Committee for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Relics of Nguyen Trung Truc Tomb and Communal House, Nguyen Phuoc Hoa, said that every year, the Nguyen Communal House Festival attracts about 3,000 people to serve about 1.2 to 1.3 million people who come to eat and drink for free. About a month before, the Organizing Committee received rice, sugar, soybeans, sticky rice and many other offerings from benefactors. In addition, at the Nguyen Communal House Festival, the Organizing Committee arranged many food camps, bottled water and thousands of hammocks to serve people from near and far for free. Since 2006, every year An Giang province has established the Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House Festival Organizing Committee to prepare for the festival.

Many elderly people do volunteer work to serve the Nguyen's death anniversary.

Rach Gia Ward is the place where the Nguyen Memorial Ceremony is held, so before that, the local government and organizations mobilized people on the main roads in Rach Gia city to clean the streets, hang lanterns, make flower columns, flags... to increase the joyful atmosphere... Everyone prepared the Nguyen Memorial Ceremony neatly, honoring the national hero and demonstrating the nation's eternal morality of "Drinking water thanks to the source".

People burn incense at the National Hero Nguyen Trung Truc Monument Park.

National hero Nguyen Trung Truc's real name is Nguyen Van Lich (also known as Quan Chon, Quan Lich), born in 1838, in Binh Nhat, Cua An district, Tan An prefecture, now Binh Duc commune, Ben Luc district, Long An province (currently Tay Ninh province) in a fishing family. He was very proficient in martial arts, knowledgeable about the books of sages, and had an upright character.

When the French colonialists invaded our country, he was selected to join the peasant army under the command of military leader Truong Dinh. In 1861, the French colonialists attacked Gia Dinh citadel for the second time, he and the peasant army participated in protecting Ky Hoa (Gia Dinh) under the command of the Military Governor Nguyen Tri Phuong.

After the second fall of Gia Dinh citadel (February 1861), he gathered patriots to fight against the French in the Southwest region, typically using fire to burn and sink the small gunboat Hy Vong (L'Espérance) and attacking and destroying all French soldiers stationed at Kien Giang station. Afterwards, the French army captured him and beheaded him in Rach Gia, when he was only 30 years old...

The spirit of fighting against foreign invaders of Nguyen was deeply "worshiped by the people, remembered by the country". In Kien Giang (old), there are 15 relic sites and places of worship that hold the death anniversary of Nguyen Trung Truc such as in Hon Dat, Phu Quoc, Chau Thanh, Tan Hiep... In addition, many provinces and cities also have communal houses to worship Nguyen Trung Truc.

QUOC TRINH

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cultural-symbols-of-an-giang-post915289.html