Preserving the beauty of Mother Goddess worship

*Chau Van performance at the Buu Dan festival of the Third Mother Goddess of Thoai Palace in Hoa Xuan ward. Photo: DOAN HAO LUONG*

Special features of the Mother Goddess worship festival

According to Dr. Dinh Thi Kim Ngan, Institute of Social Sciences of the Central Region (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), Mother Goddess worship is a folk belief with primitive nuances and a history of thousands of years. In Da Nang city, Mother Goddess worship has the cultural exchange and adaptation of Vietnamese people migrating from the North combined with the beliefs of the indigenous Cham people and the introduction of Chinese and Indian culture, creating its own unique features.

Every year, in the second lunar month, people of the old Cam Le district (now Hoa Xuan ward and Cam Le ward) eagerly participate in the Buu Dan festival of the Third Mother Goddess of Thoai Palace at Tam Giang Holy Temple. This is one of the annual cultural and religious events held in the locality. Through the festival, the local government wishes to preserve and promote traditional cultural values, educate patriotism and solidarity in building and protecting the homeland; at the same time, aim to invest in and build typical spiritual and cultural products in the locality and exploit the potential of spiritual and cultural tourism more and more effectively.

Researcher Dinh Thi Trang, President of the City Folk Arts Association, said that hat van, also known as chau van, hat hau dong, hat bong, is a type of folk performance associated with the worship of Mother Goddesses. Currently, this type of performance is still maintained in Cam Le and is performed in Mother Goddess worship festivals to serve the people. Hat van plays an important role in the spiritual life of the people with the wish to pray for children, health...

Need to preserve and promote

According to Dr. Dinh Thi Kim Ngan, the worship of Mother Goddesses in Da Nang includes both land gods and sea gods, including Vietnamese gods and Cham gods, including Thien Y Ana, Lady Dai Can, Lady Dang Que, Lady Ngu Hanh... In the city, there are many places to worship Mother Goddess Thien Y Ana alone or in combination with other gods in relics such as: Duong Lam communal house, Dai La communal house, Phuoc Thuan communal house, Nam Tho communal house, Trung Nghia communal house, Phuong Chao temple, Lady Chua Ngoc temple, Lady Chua Loi temple...

*Camping at the festival of the Holy Mother of the Third Palace. Photo: DOAN HAO LUONG*

Folk beliefs in Quang Nam often go hand in hand with unique festivals, typically the Ba Thu Bon festival associated with riverside folk festivals, expressing the desire for a prosperous life, peace and protection from nature. To date, the Ba Thu Bon festival and the Ba Phuong Chao festival have been recognized as national intangible cultural heritage.

The practice of worshipping the Mother Goddesses of the Three Realms of the Vietnamese people was recognized by UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in December 2016. Although the worship of Mother Goddesses has been with Da Nang residents for hundreds of years, the reality shows that some Mother Goddess worshiping structures are currently rarely renovated on a large scale, some places have been moved and simply rebuilt; some places have been encroached by houses. Meanwhile, rituals are simplified, festivals are narrowed in both time and scale.

To preserve and promote the value of Mother Goddess worship, the city needs to invest in and exploit spiritual tourism through Mother Goddess worship facilities. Along with management work, it is necessary to focus on preserving relics, especially building a system of relics' history.

Build a legal corridor, have clear regulations and rules in the management of relic areas that need to be preserved; at the same time, promote communication to tourists and local people about the awareness of jointly preserving Mother Goddess relic sites. Only then can these cultural heritages be brought back to the community's cultural activities, thereby arousing love and pride for the nation's traditions in each person.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/gin-giu-net-dep-tin-nguong-tho-mau-3303686.html