Exciting Swimming Festival at Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda on the 3rd day of Tet

(CLO) On the afternoon of January 31 (January 3, year of the Snake), the Ngo Duong Temple Swimming Festival - National Intangible Cultural Heritage opened in An Hoa ward, An Duong district, Hai Phong city .

The Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival is a traditional folk festival that represents the unique cultural identity of An Hoa and An Duong land. It has a long history and is organized by the local community in the space of the village communal house.

This festival is also known as the boat racing festival or boat racing festival, a traditional festival that is a spiritual product created, preserved and organized by the people of Ngo Duong village in the local cultural life.

5 teams competed on a 1000m stretch of the Co Bong River with 4 swims. Photo: Hai Phong Newspaper

The festival has a long history, organized in association with the worship of the village guardian spirit of Ngo Duong village, Hoang Do Cu Si (from Nai Thuong commune, now Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province). During his lifetime, as a mandarin of the Tien Dao Do Chi Huy Su Tuong Quan, Hoang Do Cu Si and his six brothers contributed to helping Hai Ba Trung fight the enemy. After that, the seven brothers of Hoang Do Cu Si were awarded titles and returned to their hometown. When sailing to the middle of the river in Ngo Duong village river area (today's Co Bong river), the monk and his brothers died, from then on, they appeared, and through the dynasties, they were all awarded titles. To commemorate the merits of Hoang Do Cu Si, the people of Ngo Duong built a temple, held a festival every year on the 25th of December and organized swimming on the river.

Before 1945, the Ngo Duong Swimming Festival was held with the participation of 7 swimming teams, representing the 7 brothers of the village's tutelary gods. Along with that, the 7 teams were also selected from 7 hamlets in the village, including: East chief, East second, West, South, North, Central and West hamlets.

In recent years, the Ngo Duong Swimming Festival has been organized with the participation of 5 teams, corresponding to 5 villages (residential units in order from 1 to 5), not according to clans and hamlets as before.

The 2025 Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival takes place from January 31 to February 2 (ie from January 3 to 5, At Ty year) with the participation of 5 swimming teams from residential groups in An Hoa ward including: Ngo Duong 1, Ngo Duong 2, Ngo Duong 3, Ngo Duong 4, Ngo Duong 5.

The teams competed on a 1,000 m long river section (Co Bong), divided into 2 rounds. On the opening day, the first round consisted of 2 swimming rounds; on the afternoon of February 2, the teams continued to compete in the return round, closing and awarding prizes. The scoring method is: the first team of a swim gets 4 points, the second team gets 3 points, the third team gets 2 points, the fourth team gets 1 point and the fifth team does not count points. The total score of the 4 swimming rounds is added together to take the order of the prize from highest to lowest. The results of the opening day's competition, Ngo Duong 5 team led with 8 points.

Participants in the swimming competition are between 18 and 45 years old, in good health, with good moral character, especially must understand swimming and be good at rowing on rivers. Each team has 16 people, including: 1 rower, 1 rower and 14 rowers, and may have 1 person bailing water. Each team wears traditional costumes, each representing a color in the five elements, including: red, yellow, green, blue and pink; the waist and head are tied with a red silk ribbon.

People cheering on the teams. Photo: Hai Phong Newspaper

Unlike other swimming/boating/boat racing, the Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival is a combination of speed and skillful swimming techniques, because during the swimming process, the teams have to swim single and double laps. Without good swimming techniques, the teams can easily capsize or have to swim wide, far laps, wasting time and possibly colliding with each other during the swimming process. This is the unique feature of the Ngo Duong Temple and Pagoda Swimming Festival.

With its unique and typical cultural and historical values, in 2020, the Ngo Duong Temple Swimming Festival was included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/hai-phong-soi-noi-le-hoi-boi-trai-den-chua-ngo-duong-ngay-mung-3-tet-post332544.html