Certificate of national intangible cultural heritage to Lady Thu Bon festival

Present at the ceremony was Deputy Chairman of the Quang Nam provincial People’s Committee Tran Van Tan.

According to Vice Chairman of the Duy Xuyen district People’s Committee Nguyen The Duc, there are different legends of Lady Thu Bon but all of them tell a story about a beautiful girl with long hair- an embodiment of love for humanity.

She is considered as mystical Mother of homeland- a symbol of the aspiration for peace, for conquering natural disasters, enemies and poverty.

The Lady Thu Bon festival annually takes place on the 11th and 12th of the second lunar month.

It is a folk belief activity to express the local gratitude towards Lady Thu Bon and those who built villages.

At the same time, the festival also shows the solidarity of the Cham, Co Tu and Kinh communities living upstream the Thu Bon river.

The festival is the cultural and psychical foundation for national cultural spiritual activities, showing a moral principle of ‘when drinking water, think of its source’.

The rituals in the Lady Thu Bon festival include picking up her canonization on the 11th day, water procession and sacrifice on the 12th.

There are also exciting cultural and sports activities in the festival such as Bai Choi performances, lantern festival, cooking contest, folk games and boat racing.

To preserve and promote cultural values of the Lady Thu Bon Festival national heritage, it is essential to raise local awareness of heritage conservation in combination with heritage broadcasting and popularisation.

At the same time, the heritage needs stronger state management in order to contribute to local tourism development.

On this occasion, Deputy Chairman Tran Van Tan congratulated Duy Xuyen district on the Lady Thu Bon Festival recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage.

He also proposed developing spiritual tourism products related Lady Thu Bon upstream the Thu Bon river.