Gióng Festival

The boy who became a giant

The legend tells of a boy born in a miraculous way in Phù Đổng village. At three he still could not speak or laugh, and lay all day in a basket hung from a bamboo pole — a gióng, which gave him his name. When the king called for someone to fight foreign invaders, Gióng suddenly grew, went to war and drove the enemy out. Then he rode to Sóc mountain and flew up to heaven on his horse. He is worshipped as a saint who protects the harvest, peace in the country and the prosperity of families.

The festivals at the temple of his birth in Phù Đổng, Gia Lâm, and at Sóc temple in Phù Linh, Sóc Sơn, where he ascended, are among the largest in the Red River delta. They were inscribed together on UNESCO’s Representative List in 2010.

The battle at Phù Đổng

Families chosen to provide the main roles — the Flag Master, Drum Master, Gong Master, Army Master and Children’s Master — prepare for months and keep strict rules beforehand. Twenty-eight girls aged nine to thirteen are chosen to play the enemy generals. The festival opens with offerings to the saint, a procession to fetch water from the well of the Mother Temple to wash the ritual objects, and a procession of the command flag.

On the 9th day the two battles are fought, at Đống Đàm, by a lotus pond about two kilometres from the upper temple, and at Soi Bia. The battlefield is three mats, each with an upturned bowl for a hill on a sheet of white paper for the clouds. The Flag Master steps onto each mat, leaps over the hills and dances with the flag while the crowd shouts over the drums and gongs; if the flag wraps around its pole, it is a bad omen. Paper butterflies released from the flag scatter the invaders. The festival ends with a victory procession and feast, to which the enemy generals are pardoned and invited, and rain after the festival is taken as the saint’s blessing for a good harvest.

At Sóc temple in spring, the rites include bathing the saint’s statue and a procession carrying flowers made of bamboo to the temple as offerings.