Hanoi holds festival to commemorate Trung Sisters

The annual 2023 Traditional Festival of Hat Mon Temple is scheduled to be held from April 23 to 25 in Hat Mon Commune, Phuc Tho District, Hanoi, promising to attract a large number of locals and visitors.

The procession of floating cakes to worship Trung Sisters will be held this year at Hat Mon Temple’s Traditional Festival. Photo: Trong Tung

The festival's highlight is the floating cake and incense offering procession to commemorate the 1980 anniversary of the death of Hai Ba Trung or Trung Sisters (43-2023).

According to Nguyen Quoc Thang, head of the management board of Hat Mon Temple Relics, the ritual of offering floating cakes to the Trung Sisters on their death anniversary, which falls on March 6 of the Lunar Calendar, dates back about a thousand years.

"The most delicious and beautiful plates of floating cakes prepared by exemplary local households are offered to the Trung Sisters. Meanwhile, for a few days before the date, local people will refrain from eating these cakes to show their respect for the two national heroines," he said.

This year's festival is expected to attract the participation of people from 11 villages in the locality.

The Trung Sisters in Dong Ho folk painting. File photo

Le Tien Hai, head of Phuc Tho District's Culture and Information Office, said the detailed plan for the floating cake procession and incense-burning ceremony of Hat Mon Temple's traditional festival had been completed.

"Some folk art performances and games such as human chess, tug-of-war, and others will be organized during the three-day festival to entertain festival-goers," he told The Hanoi Times.

According to Doan Trung Tuan, chairman of the Phuc Tho District People's Committee, the Phuc Tho Temple Traditional Festival is an important annual cultural event. It reaffirms the significance of the Trung Sisters' uprising, thus helping to educate and instill pride in the Vietnamese tradition of fighting foreign invaders for national sovereignty among local people, especially the youth.

The space of Hat Mon Temple in Hat Mon Commune of Phuc Tho District, Hanoi. Photo: Trong Tung

The Trung Sisters, also known as Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, were heroines of Vietnam's first independence movement, leading an uprising against the Chinese Han Dynasty overlords and briefly establishing an autonomous state.

Trung Trac took the throne as queen after driving out the invaders. Three years later, the sisters committed suicide by jumping into the Hat Giang River after being defeated by the Chinese Han army.

The uprising has gone down in Vietnamese history as a demonstration of the nation's strength and patriotism and the crucial role of Vietnamese women in national construction and defense.