People take part in the Festival of Hạ, Thượng and Ỷ La Temples in 2024. This year event will be held on March 9-15 in Tuyên Quang City. Photos of organisers

HÀ NỘI — This year’s Festival of Hạ, Thượng and Ỷ La Temples will be an even more colourful affair, with many unique customs and interesting activities as part of a plan to attract more visitors to the northern mountainous province of Tuyên Quang this spring.

The annual festival which supports and preserves cultural heritage values is also a vibrant showcase for the local tourism industry and will be held in Tuyên Quang City from March 9-15, the municipal People's Committee announced at a press conference on February 19.

The festival is a unique event, associated with the belief in Mother Goddess Worship -- an UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

It is also an opportunity of local people to honour folk belief traditions, show their respect to the gods and demonstrate gratitude to ancestors.

The Mother Goddess procession will be held during the ritual part of the festival.

People also show their aspirations by way of prayers for a prosperous life, happiness, to stay strong and to prosper, including offering invocations for nourishing rains and bountiful winds, to bring abundant harvests.

The processions are a visual feast, aimed at preserving and promote the value of Mother Goddess worship. They create a space for cultural exchange and promote tourism development, promoting the image of Tuyên Quang - a land rich in historical and cultural traditions and an attractive destination to domestic and international friends and tourists.

Under the theme 'Honouring the belief in Mother Goddess worship and Tuyên Quang cultural identity', this year's festival season will offer deeper insights into the Mother Goddess Religion - an important spiritual flow in the religious life of Vietnamese people, especially the custom of worshiping Mẫu Thoải, goddess of all rivers in the sacred land of Tuyên Quang. 

The distinctive performance of hầu đồng ritual will be held at the festival.

The main rituals are the Mother Goddess processions and solemn sacrifices, which, it is hoped, will allow visitors to feel the intersection between spirituality and art.

In the festive part, there will have lively and meaningful cultural experience spaces. Visitors will enjoy hầu đồng (traditional religious practice) performances, be invited to taste Tuyên Region's tea and admire the traditional outfits, with their special embellishments and accessories.

There will also be opportunities for them to take past in folk sports activities and watch music and dance shows.

Vice chairwoman of the Tuyên Quand People's Committee Vũ Quỳnh Loan speaks at the conference. Photo of organisers

This year's festival will have a specific focus on sustainable tourism development, encouraging people to take part in activities of preservation, promotion and exploitation of heritage values, while also creating motivations for economic and cultural development for the community.

"The Hạ, Thượng and Ỷ La Temples Festival 2025 is not only an annual cultural event, but also an opportunity for the community to review, honour and promote the value of folk beliefs in modern life," said Vũ Quỳnh Loan, vice chairwoman of the Tuyên Quand People's Committee. 

In addition to ritual ceremony visitors to Tuyên Quang will enjoy many interesting activities during the festival.

"The Mother Goddess Worship not only brings peace to the soul. It can become the foundation for sustainable spiritual tourism - an important trend in current cultural and economic development. We hope this year's festival will not only be a special experience, but also an invitation for the community to join hands in preserving and spreading these good values.

The Hạ Temple.

"We expect that, through this event, the image of Tuyên Quang will be widely spread. It will be known one of the most distinctive tourism centres of Việt Nam, in addition to being renowned its famous name of 'the capital of the liberation zone' previously." 

The Ỷ La temple.

Mother Goddess Worship is the most ancient indigenous belief of Vietnamese people. Most temples in Tuyên Quang worship the Mother Goddess, specifically in Tuyên Quang City and the surrounding area, where there are no fewer than 14 temples dedicated to honouring these beliefs.  

Thượng temple.

Among them, the Hạ, Thượng and Ỷ La temples are the three oldest, built between the 18th and 19th centuries, the famous and sacred constructions were recognised as national relics in 2017. VNS