The Ba Chua Xu festival in Sam Mountain took place at the end of April in the lunar calendar at the Ba Chua Xu shrine in Chau Doc town, An Giang province. Annually, this festival attracts a large number of people coming to this place to explore and Chau Doc is an important destination for customers who would like to make a combined tour Vietnam Cambodia.

Anecdotes About Ba Chua Xu

In the 1820s, Siamese troops often harassed our country. When they came to Sam mountain, they saw a statue. Despite their effort to carry the statue down the mountain, the statue was so heavy that they could not move it. One of the soldiers broke the arm of the statue and immediately was punished with pain.

Sometime later, many people in the village kept dreaming about the statue calling itself Ba Chua Xu. She told them to bring her statue down the mountain and worship her. Then she would protect the villagers from the Siamese troops and bless them for favorable weather. The villagers did everything like she’d said, bringing the statue down the mountain and building a shrine for her.
 

Ba Chua Xu Festival

After the construction, the temple was administered by a caretaker called Tu. Initially, the worship activities were quite sporadic and simple. After 1870, the shrine was renovated. Since then, the Ba Chua Xu Festival has become popular among many people from every corner of the country. The festival takes place from 23 April to 27 April in the lunar calendar, with the main day of the festival on 25 April. The ritual offerings will be performed by village officials in the traditional manner.

At the daybreak of 24 April, there will be a formal ceremony. The Ba Chua Xu statue is washed with fragrant water and changed into new clothes. The old clothes are cut into small pieces and given to the visitors as a lucky charm.

The Thoai Ngoc Hau greeting ceremony is conducted at 15:00 on 24 April in the lunar calendar. Legend has it that Thoai Ngoc Hau was a famous general in the Nguyen dynasty who had great merits in reclaiming hamlets, digging canals, and building and protecting the new land. The elders in the village and the management of the temple hold the Thoai Ngoc Hau ceremony to express gratitude to people who have publicly exploited this wilderness.

The Tuc Yet ceremony is held on the night of 25 April, early morning of 26 April. It happens with the order: offering incense, offering alcohol, offering tea and reading the funeral oration. Finally, they burn the funeral oration with votive paper.

Next to the Tuc Yet ceremony, there is also a signing ceremony in order to pray for the country to be peaceful.

The festival is very exciting and intertwined with the ceremony, and folk arts and cultural performances such as lion dance, dance, and cup dance attract the attention and participation of visitors in the cross of the Ba Shower, which is the pre-traditional part. After that, the Restoration will be carried out with the meaning of recreating the context of the procession of the statue from the top of the Sam mountain legend.

The festival is very exciting and intertwined with the folk arts and cultural performances, such as lion dance, plate dance, etc., which attract the attention and participation of visitors in and out of the country. The opening ceremony is usually held before the washing of the Ba Chua Xu statue night. The program is quite unique, with various theatrical performances such as dragon performances, flower parades, Khmer music performances, and so on.

Every year, Ba Chua Xu Temple attracts thousands of visitors on pilgrimage to worship, contributing to the restoration of shrines. In addition to the restoration of the shrine, the management board used part of the money contributed to social welfare.

Every year, Ba Chua Su is one of the favorite tourist destinations of many visitors coming to join the festival and the pilgrimage. Thanks to the festival, festival participants helped to generate income for local people, so their lives became more stable.

The festival is still a unique cultural feature of the Vietnamese ethnic groups. The signification of the Festival is not only the spiritual culture but also the national pride of the country’s glorious history as well as contributions to society. Visitors to the festival not only participated in a regional culture but also witnessed the historical evidence that the previous generation had built and preserved.