Phu Day festival kicks off to commemorate Mother Goddess

An annual festival opened at the Phu Day Temple, the heartland of the Mother Goddess worship, in the northern province of Nam Dinh on April 7, the third day of the third lunar month.

A performance at the opening ceremony of the Phu Day Festival.
A performance at the opening ceremony of the Phu Day Festival.

The festival is associated with the legend of Holy Mother Lieu Hanh, one of the four immortal deities of Vietnamese mythology, and the chau van ceremonial singing and hau dong medium rituals.

Since the Vietnamese worship of mother goddesses was recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humankind, Phu Day Temple has become an attractive tourist site for both domestic and foreign visitors.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims flock to Phu Day to practise rituals of the mother goddess religion and admire the unique architecture of the temple complex.

As part of the Phu Day Festival, which lasts until April 12, a wide variety of activities will be held, such as a chau van singing contest, a procession of mother goddesses from Van Cat Palace to Linh Son Temple, a torch procession at Tien Huong Palace, human chess, and so on.