Traditional ploughing festival held to pray for bumper crops
The traditional Tich dien (ploughing) festival took place in Tien Son commune of Duy Tien town, the northern province of Ha Nam, on January 28 (the seventh day of the first lunar month) to pray for bumper harvests and prosperity.
According to historical records, the Tich dien ceremony was first organised at the foot of Doi Mountain by King Le Dai Hanh in the spring of 987 and then became a tradition practiced every spring.
The festival, restored in 2009, aims to pray for good weather and bumper crops, encourage agricultural production, inspire people’s industriousness and patriotism, and educate the young on the traditional culture.
It featured the procession of the memorial tablet of King Le Dai Hanh from Long Doi Son Pagoda to the foot of Doi Mountain, where it merged with the procession of the local tutelary god and the founder of the Doi Tam drum making craft.
After that, the joint procession moved to the rice field where King Le Dai Hanh was said to plough during Tich dien ceremonies in the past. At the rice field, incense was offered to the God of Agriculture and the Le Kings.
A local elderly was then invited to plough the field, followed by local officials and elderly people, marking the beginning of a new year of farming.
The event also included a wide range of festive activities such as sports competitions, folk games, buffalo decoration contests, singing performances, and displays of typical farm produce and handicrafts.
Provincial and local officials along with a large number of visitors attended the festival.