Every Mid-Autumn Festival, Tay Ninh becomes bustling because this is the time of the biggest festival of the year for Cao Dai followers: Dai Le Hoi Yen Dieu Tri Cung. This festival includes both the ceremony and the festival, in which the ceremony is more important.
Not everyone knows about this festival of Cao Dai followers, but if you come to Tay Ninh a week before the Mid-Autumn Festival, you will definitely feel the bustling atmosphere. The church has everything repaired from the roads, bonsai trees, flower pots. They also redecorated the main gates and built rows of pavilions around the Mother Goddess Temple. The beauty of a festival with religious imprints is that Cao Dai followers at this time voluntarily come to the Holy See to help and do good deeds. According to Cao Dai followers, the full moon of the eighth lunar month is an opportunity to do good deeds, so no one calculates or compares their contributions.
In religionCao Dai religion, the great festival of the Yen Dieu Tri Palace is only held at the Tay Ninh Holy See and not anywhere else. Photo:nhipcautamgiao
On the day of the festival, observing the main worship place of the cathedral, you will see hundreds of exhibition booths displaying offerings surrounding. They are just ordinary flowers and fruits, but thanks to the talented hands of the artisans, they have created many brilliant, vivid works with many themes such as Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle, Phoenix...
The traditional ceremony of the religion, held on the 15th night of the lunar calendar, lasted from afternoon until 12 o'clock with many activities such as the procession of the Buddha Mother's flower palanquin and the nine fairies, dragon dance with incense, unicorn, turtle, and phoenix; the phoenix dance team and the grand music team. In particular, the procession of the Buddha Mother's flower palanquin was very large, followed by the music team, drum team, dancers and the lion dance team.
In particular, the Incense Dragon Dance is a unique feature only found in Tay Ninh. The nearly 20 meter long dragon is controlled by 30 dancers. Just standing and looking from afar, you can see a bright sky. The incense smoke moves continuously, making the surrounding witnesses feel the power and solemnity of the sacred animal in beliefs. The Incense Dragon will slowly move towards the Holy See.
The jubilant Dragon Dance scene at the Tay Ninh Holy See. Photo:btgcp
Because it is a very big festival day of Cao Dai followers, visitors can also experience many other special activities such as martial arts performances, poetry writing, drama, chess, flower arrangement or cake making competitions. In particular, visitors coming here also have the opportunity to enjoy an extremely delicious vegetarian meal that cannot be found anywhere else. This is the largest and most crowded vegetarian meal. There are nearly 500 volunteers doing charity work, cooking to serve pilgrims for 3 days, from the 13th to the 15th of August.
From 4am to 10pm, pilgrims can stop by to eat as they like. It is estimated that the number of people stopping here to eat vegetarian food is up to 25,000 people at peak times. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, it often rains, but most Cao Dai followers and pilgrims do not mind the difficulties to come here to attend the festival. The Festival of Yen Dieu Tri Palace is a beautiful activity in Tay Ninh in general and Cao Dai religion in particular. The festival contains many values not only related to spirituality but also has a positive impact on daily life.
