The festival of Lady Chua Xu of Sam Mountain is an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The Ba Chua Xu Festival in Sam Mountain was recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity thanks to its community cohesion and promotion of gender equality.

On the evening of December 4, at the Conmebol Convention Center in Asunción, Paraguay, UNESCO recognized the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This is one of 66 candidates considered in the 19th preliminary round of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Properties 2003 and is the 16th Intangible Cultural Heritage of Vietnam recognized by UNESCO, according to the Department of Cultural Heritage.

The Ba Chua Xu Festival on Sam Mountain takes place from the 22nd to the 27th of the fourth lunar month at the Ba Chua Xu Temple and the stone pedestal area on Sam Mountain, Chau Doc City, An Giang . The ceremony includes spiritual rituals, art performances, expressing the faith and gratitude to Mother Earth - Mother Xu of the Vietnamese, Cham, Khmer and Chinese ethnic communities.

The statue of Lady Xu is placed in the main hall. Photo: Sam Mountain Cable Car

Ba Chua Xu is the Holy Mother in the goddess worship, always protecting and blessing the people. The custom of worshiping her and attending the festival is to satisfy the beliefs and wishes for health, peace and fortune of the Khmer, Cham, Chinese, and Vietnamese communities in Chau Doc, An Giang as well as residents of the Southwest region.

The Sam Mountain Lady's Festival is the inheritance, absorption, integration and creation of Vietnamese people in the process of reclaiming land and is the synthesis of the Mother Goddess worship beliefs of the Vietnamese, Cham, Khmer and Chinese ethnic groups. The festival activities are an educational environment for the traditional morality of "remembering the source of water when drinking", cultural practices and harmony of ethnic groups with the same beliefs in the same territory.

Resurrecting the procession of the Lady's statue to the top of Sam mountain during the Lady Chua Xu festival. Video: Ba Phuc

According to the 2003 Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the nomination dossier for the intangible cultural heritage of the Festival of Lady Chua Xu of Sam Mountain of Vietnam meets the criteria for inclusion in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage with 5 criteria.

The criteria include: The Via Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam Festival is organized by the Kinh, Khmer, Cham and Chinese communities in Chau Doc city; Contributing to improving the quality of education, gender equality, comprehensive economic development, as well as promoting actions to sustainably protect the environment and climate, protect peace and social cohesion; The State has proposed to produce protection measures; The election dossier has identified the role of establishments, figures and community representatives and the Heritage is included in the national list of intangible cultural heritage and the inventory of intangible cultural heritage of An Giang

People and tourists visit Ba Chua Xu Temple in Chau Doc City, An Giang Province in early 2023. Photo: Thanh Tung

Accordingly, the 2003 Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage decided to include the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

UNESCO-listed festivals will raise community awareness in the process of organizing, managing and preserving common heritage. The listing also contributes to sharing festival practices, affirming the role of rituals that are culturally inclusive of communities, reflecting cultural diversity.

At the same time, the festival becoming a representative heritage of humanity will promote understanding and dialogue between ethnic communities with goddess worshipping beliefs in Vietnam, Southeast Asia and around the world, promoting the spiritual cultural creations of ethnic groups and contributing to identifying cultural similarities between ethnic groups.

Every year the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Chau Doc, Sam Mountain.

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