VI
EN
Dao Xa is an ancient land with a long-standing culture dating back about 1,800 years ago in the Khuat Dong Lieu region. In the early days, it was called Lang Dau, Lang Da, and later changed its name to Dao Xa village. Accordingly, Dao Xa communal house and temple have also existed for a long time. Dao Xa temple is also called Tam Cong temple, worshiping the three water gods, sons of Hung Hai Cong, namely Dat Cong Long Vuong, Man Cong Long Vuong, and Uyen Cong Long Vuong. In addition, Dao Xa temple also worships Princess Trang Hoa, wife of Hung Hai Cong, and Que Hoa, servant of Princess Trang Hoa. Dao Xa communal house worships Hung Hai Cong to show gratitude for the merits of the saint who helped people create heaven and earth.
According to legend, during the Hung King's time, Hung Hai was sent by his brother, King Hung, to govern the Tam Giang region (where three rivers meet: the Da River, the Red River, and the Bua River), including the areas of Dao Xa, Hung Hoa, and Tho Xuyen. On January 28 of that year, the two of them went on a boat trip from Tho Xuyen to Dao Xa, built a tower, and stayed there for one night, living in the harmony of heaven and earth. Later, Trang Hoa conceived and gave birth to three sons named Dat Cong Long Vuong, Man Cong Long Vuong, and Uyen Cong Long Vuong. As soon as the children cried out at birth, Trang Hoa transformed. Hung Hai stayed behind to teach people how to manage water and make a living, and raised his children. Then he handed this land over to his three sons to govern, while he returned to look after the Nhi River area (the area of Hai Duong province today).
King Hung saw that he was a man of great merit and rewarded him with two war elephants as a means of transportation. Before leaving for the Nhi River, he led the pair of elephants back to perform a thanksgiving ceremony three times. The farewell to Hung Hai was full of affection and emotion. Later, with the morality of "When drinking water, remember its source", the people of Dao Xa honored him as the village's tutelary god, built a temple here to worship him, and annually held ceremonies and held a traditional elephant procession festival...
Every spring, Dao Xa village holds an elephant procession for three days from the 27th to the 29th of the first lunar month. This is also a beautiful spiritual and cultural feature, imbued with profound humanity. At the same time, for each local resident, this is also an occasion to offer incense to commemorate the ancestors who built the country and the village, to pray for blessings, luck, favorable weather, good crops, peace for the people and prosperity of the country.
The festival consists of two parts: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony involves the procession of elephants, incense altars, precious dragons, tablets, royal coffins, and the worship of Thanh Hoang. The festival includes many folk games such as wrestling, robbing chickens, fetching water, pounding rice, and cooking fire competitions. The entire festival is about returning to the roots, praising the merits of the gods, those who have contributed to the people and the country, and praying for "national peace and prosperity", favorable weather, good crops, a prosperous and happy life.
In the warm spring atmosphere, local people and tourists from all over the world eagerly attended the festival, lit incense sticks and paid homage to their roots, wholeheartedly contributing their efforts with Dao Xa to protect and preserve the precious ancient capital of their homeland so that those tangible and intangible heritages will last forever.
