HUONG PAGODA FESTIVAL

Huong Pagoda Festival is considered the biggest and longest festival of the year. Every year, on the sixth day of the lunar January, when apricot flowers are white in forest, Huong Pagoda Festival is opened again. The festival usually lasts until the last week of the lunar March. On the occasion of the festival, millions of Buddhists and tourists from all over the four countries all revel in Huong Pagoda Festival. The journey to a land of Buddha - where Bo Tat Quan The Am practiced.

The main activities of the festival are from the full moon of lunar January to the 18th of the lunar February. This day, which is the Khai Son feast (the forest opening ceremony) of the locality. Up to now the "forest opening ceremony" implying a new meaning - opening the pagoda. Huong Pagoda Festival in the ceremony is very simple. One day before the festival, all temples, pagodas, communal houses and shrines are covered with incense.

In Trong pagoda, there is an incense offering ceremony, which includes incense, flowers, lamps, candles, fruits and vegetarian food. At the time of worship, two monks and nuns wore robes and brought them to the altar, then proceeded to put them on the altar. From the opening of the festival to the end of the festival, only occasionally there are monks from the above temples coming to recite the Buddhist scriptures for about half an hour at the pagodas, shrines and temples. And the incense and smoke never end. As for the ceremony, there is a inclination to meditation. But Ngoai pagoda worships the superior gods with the colors of Taoism. Cua Vong Temple is Chan Long Linh Tu worshiping Mother Goddess Thuong Ngan, who is the ruler of the surrounding mountains and forests of the supreme mountain gods. Bac Dai pagoda, Tuyet Son pagoda, Ca pagoda and Quan communal house worshiping five tigers and god of fish.

Thus, the ceremony at Huong Pagoda festival is the sum of beliefs, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. During the festival, there is ceremony procession and oration procession. The villagers came to the house of the man who composes the oration, receive the oration to the temple to conduct the rituals, read the oration and burn it to offer to the village deities.

Huong Pagoda Festival is a convergence of unique ethnic cultural activities such as boating, climbing and cheo singing, van singing, etc. On the days of the festival, Huong pagoda bustles into hundreds of boats. The unique feature of Huong Pagoda festival is the pleasure of sitting on a boat and sightseeing, straying into the immortal Buddha realm.

Especially, if coming to Huong Pagoda Festival in February, Buddhists will be able to attend the famous birth celebration of Quan The Am.

Quan The Am is a symbol of a Bo Tat who transcended time and space since Thich Ca Buddha manifested in Ta Ba realm until Di Lac Buddha was born and more. That will become the basis for the eternal faith in the minds of Buddhists, so Quan Am means the whole value of wisdom, enlightenment always presenting in every being. In the sufferings and obstacles of life, people often ask for the help and protection of Duc Quan Am, because they feel that she always watches and listens to every beat of their hearts like mothers look after their babies. That's why he became a gentle mother Quan The Am, also known as Phat Ba (female Buddha).

Quan The Am Festival of Huong Pagoda takes place in the period from the afternoon of February 18th to the morning of February 19 of the lunar calendar. On this day, Huong Son cave chief joined the monks and nuns and Buddhists to set up a altar of Mong Son to donate food in the yard of Thien Tru Pagoda in order to worship the spirits with no refuge. This Mong Son altar is usually held on the occasion of the Buddha's Birthday. On the evening of February 18 of the lunar calendar, the birth anniversary of Quan The Am was held at two locations: Thien Tru yard and in the heart of Huong Tich cave (in front of the Buddha worshiping altar). At the yard of Thien Tru pagoda in previous years, there were cheo performances to tell about Legend of Quan The Am, there were five organizations of Buddhist music and dance shows for people and Buddhists to watch. In the Three Refuges of Thien Tru Pagoda and Huong Tich Cave, monks and Buddhists chant Buddhist recitations, colorful flower lamps are throughout the cave and many other temples on Huong Tich route. Buddhists offer vegetarian food and attend the ceremony.

Huong Son is a quintessential land of heaven and earth, with the flow of time, many people have crossed the enchanted land of enlightenment. Bầu trời, cảnh Bụt, thú Hương Sơn ao ước bấy lâu nay. Kìa, non non, nước nước, mây mây. Đệ nhất động hỏi rằng nơi này có phải (The sky, the Buddha landscape, and Huong Son have long been desired. The mountains, the water, the cloud. Is this the most beautiful cave?)… From the noble to the most ordinary people, all are amazed at the "magical" beauty of Huong Son, the scene depends on the mind to "depend on the destiny to be enlightened".