Visit Mong Cai for the Tra Co Festival – a National Intangible Cultural Heritage

1 The legend behind the origins of the Tra Co Festival

Tra Co Communal House, located in the Nam Tho area of Tra Co Ward, Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province, dates back to the Later Le Dynasty. Through many ups and downs in history, the communal house has stood tall and proud, like a marker of national sovereignty and Vietnamese culture on the borderlands.

According to historical records, Tra Co Communal House is associated with the legend “The people of Tra Co, descendants of Do Son.” According to the legend, in 1461, fishing families from Do Son (in present-day Hai Phong) often traveled far across the seas with their families to earn a living, reaching coastal estuaries, including the area that is now Tra Co, Mong Cai. During a storm, twelve families were swept onto a desolate peninsula covered only with mangroves and reeds. Unable to endure the hardship, six families returned to their old home, while the other six resolved to settle there and build a new community. At first, there were only six simple houses, but over time they grew into a prosperous village. Like many other villages, Tra Co Communal House was built through the villagers’ collective labor and contributions. Later, local people returned to their ancestral homeland to bring incense from the village guardian deities to worship at the communal house (Khong Lo, Giac Hai, Nhan Minh, Huyen Quoc, and Quang Trach). The site is also dedicated to six pioneers who reclaimed and settled the old Tra Co area.

Since then, Tra Co Communal House has undergone several major renovations, the most recent in 2012. Today, it stands on a plot of more than 1000m2, facing south. Built in the traditional “đinh”-shaped layout, it consists of 05 bays and 02 side chambers in the main worship hall, plus 03 bays in the rear sanctuary, all featuring traditional timber construction. The entire structure is held together by a wooden framework and mortise-and-tenon joints. This imposing ancient building has a tiled roof with upturned corners that resemble a boat cutting through the waves out to sea. Particularly noteworthy are the sturdy, finely detailed and lifelike carvings on the trusses. The motifs are varied, including dragons among waves, flying phoenixes, and tigers stalking prey beside flowering branches. Each carved panel is a distinctive work of art. The communal house is considered one of the grandest and most architecturally distinctive in the Red River Delta.

The communal house also preserves many valuable artifacts, including 03 bronze incense burners, 2 red-lacquered and gilded wooden cranes mounted on turtles, 8 wooden thrones from the Nguyen Dynasty, and 12 royal decrees on paper.

Read more: Cua Ong Temple Complex, a 700-year-old heritage site in Quang Ninh

2 Main activities at the Tra Co Festival

2.1 When the Tra Co Festival takes place

Every year, from the 1st to the 3rd day of the sixth lunar month, the people of Tra Co hold a festival at the communal house to honor the village guardian deities. Tra Co Communal House is not only a place of spiritual worship but also a distinctive architectural landmark and a cultural and spiritual marker at the nation’s northeastern frontier. After being interrupted by war, the Tra Co Festival was revived in 1993 and remains a cultural highlight and a source of pride for local residents.

This traditional festival preserves distinctive customs rooted in the Red River’s wet-rice civilization, with strict rules governing its rituals—particularly the selection of the festival stewards and the care of the pigs prepared for the ceremonies, which people respectfully call “Mr. Elephant.”

2.2 Festival activities

Typically, before the main festival day, a boat procession travels from Tra Co to the ancestral homeland of Do Son on the 25th day of the fifth lunar month. On the 30th, the boats return from Do Son to Tra Co. The festival begins on the 1st day of the sixth lunar month with the “King’s procession to the sea” (also known as the procession to the shrine). It features a troop carrying weapons, sacred flags, a traditional eight-instrument ensemble, and ceremonial objects. They are followed by flag bearers, who must be strong, young, good-looking, and morally upright; they are selected at the end of the previous year’s festival, along with the palanquin bearers.

After the procession comes a competition featuring livestock and agricultural produce, focused primarily on the pigs known as “Mr. Elephants.” The festival stewards and villagers carefully look after the “Mr. Elephants” for months before the festival. Another distinctive feature of the Tra Co Festival is its feast-preparation and cooking competitions, where anyone who cooks well earns recognition throughout the village. 

The 6th day marks the end of the festival, with a flower dance performance. On this day, people pray for the support of heaven, earth, and the deities, hoping for plentiful catches of fish and shrimp, prosperous trade, flourishing livestock and crops, and a peaceful, happy life.

2.3 The “Mr. Elephant” competition: a highlight of the Tra Co Festival

The “Mr. Elephant” competition pits 12 pigs, raised and cared for by 12 festival stewards, against one another. Each represents one of the 12 pioneers credited with discovering and settling old Tra Co. According to tradition, before the festival begins, the people of Tra Co select 12 villagers, known as “festival stewards,” to raise pigs for the following year’s festival.

The festival stewards must be middle-aged, healthy, hardworking, and morally upright, with a wholesome lifestyle and a harmonious family, and must not be in mourning. Those chosen by the village feel deeply honored and proud. According to local belief, a family that performs its duties as festival stewards well will be blessed with good fortune and health and will prosper.

At the beginning of the year, each festival steward raises a pig. Once brought home, the pig is no longer called a pig but “Mr. Elephant,” regarded as a sacred creature of the household and village. Each “Mr. Elephant” receives meticulous care and sleeps and eats in a separate, clean pen. Fans keep it cool in hot weather, and a mosquito net is hung over its sleeping area. 

On the afternoon of the 30th day of the fifth lunar month, after the ancestral offering, the festival stewards bathe their “Mr. Elephants” and place them in red-painted cages covered with curtains. The 12 “Mr. Elephants” are then carried by their stewards to the communal house courtyard and arranged in two rows to pay homage to the deities. They are lined up in order, with the head steward at the front on the right and the deputy head steward at the front on the left. Six stand on each side in a single file before the communal house to pay homage to the deities.

According to tradition, the “Mr. Elephants” must pay homage to the deities at the communal house for one night. The festival stewards must remain at the communal house and help the organizers with offerings, incense, and other preparations until the festival is over. Each man may serve as a festival steward only once in his life, so those selected feel honored and understand the responsibility they bear from the outset.

After the offering ceremony to inform the deities, the festival organizers judge the entries. The “Mr. Elephant” with the longest body, the largest and most attractive neck, and the greatest weight wins first prize. Immediately after judging, the “Mr. Elephants” return to being ordinary pigs. The steward’s family can sell its pig to traders at the communal house gate or take it home to butcher and share with relatives. The first-prize winner alone is kept for a sacrificial offering to the deities. The award ceremony for the steward whose “Mr. Elephant” wins the top prize takes place on the morning of the main festival day.

In addition to the pig’s head, the sacrificial tray must include a tuft of hair from the “Mr. Elephant’s” shoulder. After the offering, this tuft is placed at the foot of the banyan tree beside the courtyard of Tra Co Communal House. This is a highly sacred and important ritual in the Tra Co communal house festival.

Read more: Tra Co Beach – one of the most beautiful beaches in Ha Long

The Tra Co Festival not only expresses people’s gratitude and remembrance of the village guardian deities, but also reflects the community’s awareness of and responsibility for protecting and developing a prosperous border region. In addition to the Tra Co Festival, visitors to Quang Ninh can enjoy many other fascinating events, including the Ba Vang Pagoda Festival, Ha Long Carnival, and Bach Dang Festival. Rich in tradition, these celebrations are a beautiful expression of Vietnamese culture.