Held once every 4 years, how special is the Water Bridge wrestling festival in Van Bac Giang village coming up?

On May 9, talking with Reporter Dan VietNguyen Dinh My, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Van Ha commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province, said that the Van village water bridge festival was recently recognized as a cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. national intangible.

This year, Van village water festival will be held in 3 days 12, 13, 14 of the 4th lunar month (ie 12th, 13th and 14th of the 5th lunar month). This is a unique festival in Vietnam, held only once every 4 years.

According to Mr. My, in addition to the ceremony announcing the decision to recognize the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, the festival will include procession, playing bridge, exchanging and singing quan ho communication, campfire, and folk games.

Like some other traditional folk festivals, the Water Wrestling Festival in Van village has bold spiritual features of residents who grow wet rice in sedentary cultivation. Spirituality. It is expected that this festival will attract thousands of locals and tourists from all over the world.

“The round ball is yang symbolizing the sun, and the hole symbolizes yin, yin and yang harmony means everyone is prosperous, everything is peaceful and that is also the community’s wish, looking forward to a rainy year. favorable wind, good crops,” Mr. My said.

Legend has it that, in the past, there were four brothers, Truong Hong, Truong Hat, Truong Lung, and Truong Lay, who followed Trieu Quang Phuc to fight the Luong invaders. When they defeated the Luong army and returned to Da Trach lagoon, they were harassed by black demons in the lagoon. On both sides of the battle, the demons set a condition that if they win, they must be rewarded with great rewards; and if they lose, they will submit to the holy house.

In the end, the black demons lost the battle and had to submit to Saint Tam Giang here. Therefore, the villagers of Van open a wrestling festival (also known as Khanh Ha festival) on the day of the saint’s transformation, with the meaning of celebrating the victory.

The rules of the water wrestling festival are organized as follows: 16 healthy young men participating in the wrestling event called the ball are divided into two armors (each with eight people), called the upper and lower armor.

The water wrestling festival was held on the main yard of the temple of Saint Tam Giang (hamlet 4, Yen Vien village, Van Ha commune, Viet Yen, Bac Giang) with an area of ​​about 200m2, the ground is muddy, at both ends of the yard. There are two holes to push the bridge down, each time you can push the bridge down the hole is the end of a round. On the 12th, he played two shuttlecocks (tie), on the 13th he played three shuttlecocks (score 2-1) and on the 14th he played four shuttlecocks (tie).