Quang Yen - a land rich in cultural traditions

Quang Yen is a land with a long history of formation and development, with a history of more than 200 years as a town. The ancient citadel and ancient streets still exist today along with a dense system of historical and cultural relics, rich in traditional craft villages, creating a unique beauty of a land along the legendary Bach Dang River.

The most important ritual at the Bach Dang Festival is the procession of the statue of Saint Tran Hung Dao from Tran Hung Dao Temple to Yen Giang Communal House.

Compared to the land of relics and festivals, Quang Yen town is truly worthy of that when owning 219 historical - cultural relics, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total number of relics in the province. Since the 10th and 13th centuries, this land has entered history with 3 times our army and people defeated the Northern invaders in 938, 981 and 1288 on the Bach Dang River. Especially the 3rd victory against the Yuan-Mongol invaders - the most skilled army in the world at that time, contributing to keeping the border peaceful for a long time.

Those who contributed to this great victory, from the legendary general Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan to ordinary people, have gone down in history and are forever worshipped by the people here. These worship structures are preserved, restored and embellished to this day, located in the complex of the Bach Dang 1288 National Special Monument, of which 9 out of 11 relic sites are located in Quang Yen.

Along with that, the historical process of formation and development of this land has left 34 relics that have been ranked at the national level and 15 relics ranked at the provincial level. Associated with the space of the relics, Quang Yen has so far had 3 festivals recognized as National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

In particular, the Tien Cong Festival takes place from January 5-7, at the center of the national relic site of Tien Cong Temple in Cam La Commune, with a unique ritual of welcoming the elders aged 80, 90, and 100 years old to the temple to pay homage to the ancestors, to pay tribute to the Tien Cong, who were the first to build the dike, reclaim the sea to establish the prosperous Ha Nam island region today. Cultural activities, sports, and folk games in the festival are also extremely vibrant, from dum singing, sea singing, to tom diem, tug of war, human chess, card chess...

People eagerly participate in the rice planting competition during the Going to the Fields Festival. *Photo* : Nguyen Dung

The other two festivals are the Bach Dang Traditional Festival and the Xuong Dong Festival. While the Bach Dang Festival (taking place in the early third lunar month) has the meaning of reenacting historical battles of the past, paying tribute to ancestors who have contributed to the country, the Xuong Dong Festival (taking place in the early sixth lunar month) clearly shows the traditional culture of the rice-growing residents of the Ha Nam island region.

The most impressive and important ritual in Bach Dang festival is the procession of the statue of Saint Tran Hung Dao from Tran Hung Dao temple - Queen Mother temple to Yen Giang communal house. In the Xuong Dong festival , the most attractive thing for people and tourists is the rice planting competition and boat racing on Cua Dinh river...

In addition, there are also many rituals that are similar to the above Tien Cong Festival but on a smaller scale, including the Tien Cong Festival in Lien Hoa Commune and the Tien Cong Festival in Hiep Hoa Commune. Quang Yen has many other regional-scale festivals such as: Cau Ngu Festival, Dai Ky Phuc festivals in 14 communal houses, village pagoda festivals in 20 pagodas, the family feasts of 23 Tien Cong family temples along with 70 festivals in other family temples in the area, bearing the cultural characteristics of the residents of the Northern Delta.

Festivals and religious activities in the area are usually most bustling at the end of the year and early spring. The town has directed the development of a methodical organization plan to ensure the religious and spiritual needs of the people and attract tourists from all over the world to visit and experience...

Through research, it is shown that in modern times, this land has a history of 222 years as a town capital (1802-2024). Up to now, many office buildings, houses, and roads from the French colonial period are still preserved intact, creating old quarters such as: Ngo Quyen Street, Tran Hung Dao Street, Nguyen Du Street, Tran Khanh Du Street... with many ancient houses such as the Consul's house (now the headquarters of the Town People's Committee), the treasury (now the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), the military barracks (now the Town Military Command), the gendarmerie center (now the Town Party Committee headquarters), the forest ranger's house (now the Town Police headquarters) and many other houses.

Mr. Ngo Dinh Dung, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Quang Yen Town, affirmed: Quang Yen not only has a long history and cultural traditions, but also has very good natural conditions with a fresh climate, a "mountain-leaning" position facing the sea, with both sides full of "green dragon and white tiger"; in front is the Chanh River, beautiful like a painting, regulating the fresh, cool air for the whole region; there is Ha Nam Island as a "front desk" producing a lot of rice, shrimp and fish. Therefore, it is not by chance that for thousands of years, from the time of the Hung Kings to the feudal dynasties and French colonialists, this area has been chosen as the political center of the Northeast region, so that Quang Yen urban area was formed the earliest in the history of urban development in Quang Ninh.

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