About 30,000 people on May 18 flocked to Gia Lam district of Hanoi to attend the main day of Giong Festival 2013, commemorating Saint Giong, who legend says turned from a child to a giant overnight to fight against invaders in the past.
The Giong festival is celebrated annually before the rice harvest to honour the mythical hero, god and saint, called “Thanh Giong”, who is credited with defending the country from foreign enemies.
This year’s festival lasted from May 16-18 (in Lunar calender: from the seventh to the ninth day of the forth) with various traditional unique activities.
First day, the event featured various activities such as offering ceremonies, processions, folk games and traditional art performances.
In the main day, the festival symbolically re-enacted Saint Giong’s feats through the orchestration of an elaborate flag dance. And the performance was ended with the image of Saint Giong flying into the sky.
The legend of Saint Giong said that that Giong was born very strangely. Mother of Saint Giong saw a huge footstep in the field and tried her foot on. Then coming back home and got pregnant and gave birth to the little boy named Giong, but he never talked or smiled.
When Saint Giong was three years old, the country was in danger of invasion.One day the Hung king was looking for people who can fight the enemy. It’s very surprise when Giong told his mother to invite ambassadors. Then he asked the king to forge an iron horse, an armour and a sword for him to kill the enemy. Then stretch encoded into an adult, eat much more rice and meat are not enough, clothes become smaller quickly.
When the ambassadors brought to the iron horse and sword, immediately he wear hat, launch iron horse and took sword, then rushed to war like storm, getting anywhere is encoded as cutting the grass cutting waste invaders. When the sword is broken, he plucked up bamboo groves and throw at the enemy. After got rid off the enemy, he galloped to the Soc Mountain (now in Soc Son) and taking off the armour and flying into the sky.
This is the largest and unique cultural event of Red River Delta region, in 2010 the Giong festival was recognised as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
>> Read more: Saint Giong Festival – The World Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Source: News
Source: News
