The Ha Loi Festival

Ha Loi village now belongs to Me Linh district, Vinh Phuc province. Legend has it that Ha Loi is the native village of the Trung Sisters, the two heroines who led a people's uprising against the Han invaders in the year AD 40. 

Trung Trac was the daughter of a local notable in Me Linh district and the wife of Thi Sach, a local notable of Chu Dien district. Both Trung Trac and Thi Sach were scheming to rise up against foreign domination when Thi Sach was killed by the Chinese governor. As national humilitation piled on family sufferings, the bereaved woman, together with her sister, Trung Nhi, rapidly rallied the population and staged an uprising which succeeded in restoring the country's independence after some 200 years of Chinese rule, though not for long.

The Ha Loi villagers regularly hold a festival on the 6^th of the first lunar month in honour of the memory of the Trung family. The two sisters and Thi Sach are worshipped in a temple of the village, while four Protector Spirits of the village - Do, Ho, Bach, Ha - are worshipped in the Communal House. On the festival day, the palanquins of three cherished personalities are taken, in full ceremony from the temple to the Communal House

The temple is located on the southeastern edge of Ha Loi village. It is not possible to identify exactly its date of construction but its architecture, decorations and cult implements suggest that it dates from long before the 19^th century.

It is situated in a large and airy area, amidst high rice fields overlooking the Red River dykes. It has a beautiful gate with a horizontal board carrying four Calligraphic Chinese characters which mean 'Shedding light to the four directions'. Behind the gate is a large yard at the end of which is located a half-moon shaped pond. On the shore of the pond is the antechamber of the temple, and behind it the back chamber within which is an altar with two statues, put on an equal footing, of Trung Trac and Thi Sach and a stone tablet in honour of Trung Nhi. Thus, Trung Trac and Thi Sach are the main objects of worship.

During the initial period, the two statues were terracotta. Later, in 1882 - that is, the 11^th year of the reign of Emperor Gia Long - they were replaced by two wooden statues.

In the early days of the anti-French resistance war (1947-1948), both statues and the stone tablets were destroyed by the invaders. After the liberation of North Vietnam (1954), the villagers had two big pictures of the statues drawn up and hung in the backchamber of the temple.

The festival

In the past, religious ceremonies were held on the 6^th of the first lunar month known as the 'feast day for soldiers', the first of the eighth lunar month (the birthday of Trung Trac) and the 8^th of the third lunar month (the day of the death of the two sisters). Of course, the biggest day was the 6^th of the first lunar month, which the people of the neighbouring areas used to call as the Ha Loi Festival. On that festival day, moon-shaped rice pies are presented as offerings and a procession of the palanquin is organised, as the main item of the ceremony.

Three palanquins are taken out if the temple, that of Thi Sach preceding the other two. But, on reaching the highway, know by locals as the Trong Quan road, the palanquin of Thi Sach falls behind the other two. This change of order reflects the feudal perception of hierarchy (in family, Thi Sach was the supreme authority, whereas with respect to the country at large Trung Trac was the monarch).

The carriers of the palanquins of the two sisters are all unmarried, pretty girls of similar height, aged 18-20. Each palanquin is served by 32 main carriers and 32 reserve carriers. There are, in addition, a dozen others who carry parasols and weapons from the temple. All in all, over one hundred girls clad in traditional clothes - turbans with red stripes, three-layer dresses of respectively green, red and yellow colours, dark satin skirts and leather sandals.

Thi Sach's palanquin is carried by about 70 males, with traditional turbans, tunics, towels fragrant incense packets, etc.

After covering a certain distance on the highway, the procession of palanquins heads for the communal house for a reunion between the three dignitaries and the four village guardians and God Cot Tung.

According to some sources, the cult implements of Ha Loi temple are painted black.

An eighty-year old man says that when he was still a small child he could hear the palanquin carriers singing while marching with the procession. He can still remember one of these songs but could not obtain explanations from elders about its meaning. According to the old man, the male carriers sang as follows:

We climb the mountains
We climb the mountains
We chase the deer
We chase the deer.

Female carriers also sang:

We climb the mountains
We climb the mountains
We chase the roe
We chase the roe
With whom can we share our intimate feelings
As we look at the East, we see large expanses of water,
As we look at the West, we see masses of white stones,
As we look at the South, we see clouds enveloping the woods,
As we look at the North, we see high, very high mountains.

The songs have no relation with the legend of the Trung Sisters. We can thus conclude that the festival and its songs are a link between ancient religious beliefs and the cult of national heroes which have been practiced together for a long time in many Vietnamese villages.