Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival: Potential tourism product

There are many relics worshiping Hai Ba Trung (Trung Sisters) in Hanoi, the largest of which are Hai Ba Trung Temple in Me Linh District, Hat Mon Temple in Phuc Tho District, Hai Ba Trung Temple and Dong Nhan Temple in Hai Ba Trung District. 

Every year, special festivals are held at these sites to honor the merits of Hai Ba Trung, celebrate the role of Vietnamese women in society, and recall the nation's tradition of fighting foreign invaders.

With the vibrant celebrations, Hanoi plans to build an itinerary connecting all the relics venerating Hai Ba Trung to promote the nation's history and culture.

Festival in honor of national heroines

The ancient Hai Ba Trung Temple was located on the banks of the Red River and was built in 1142 under King Le Anh Tong. In the 18th year of King Gia Long's reign (1819), due to frequent erosion of the land in this area, the villagers moved the temple to its current location: 12 Huong Vien Street in Dong Nhan Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi.

Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival is one of the largest in the ancient Thang Long Citadel, held every year from the 4th to the 7th of the second lunar month, with many traditional rituals such as water procession, prayer ceremony, folk games and performances.

One of the unique rituals of the festival is the Water Procession, which takes place early in the morning of the 5th day of the second lunar month. To the lively sound of gongs, drums, flags and fans, the procession starts from Nguyen Cong Tru Street towards the Red River and stops at Hai Ba Trung Temple in Bach Dang Ward.

The water procession team carries two jars onto the boat, then rows it out to the middle of the stream, scoops water, and returns to the temple to perform the statue bathing ceremony and offer water to the goddesses. When the procession arrives at the temple, the female worship team performs the incense offering ceremony and the lamp dance. The worship team consists of 10 girls wearing headscarves, black ao dai (long robes), and red belts. They dance in front of the altar holding lamps in both hands. The leader of the dance team is a "con di danh bong" played by a man dressed as a woman.

Unlike other festivals where sacred rituals are performed only by men, at the Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival in Hai Ba Trung District, virtuous widowed women with good conduct are nominated by the people to perform important ceremonies such as bathing the statues, dressing for statues of Trung sisters, offering tea and wine... This is a unique feature of the Hai Ba Trung Festival, which reflects gender equality in the religious space and shows that the tradition of respecting women in ancient times has been preserved to this day.

On the main day of the festival, people organize a program reenacting the scene of the Trung sisters fighting the enemy from the elephant's back. This is followed by a joint ceremony of four communes and wards worshiping the Trung sisters: Dong Nhan Ward in Hai Ba Trung District, Me Linh Commune in Me Linh District, Hat Mon Commune in Phuc Tho District of Hanoi, and Phung Cong Commune in Van Giang District, Hung Yen Province.

In addition to the solemn rituals, the festival also attracts visitors from all over the country with as quan ho (love duet) singing on boats, chau van (ceremonial singing), rice cooking competitions, cockfighting, and more.

For its inherited and promoted cultural values, Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival in Dong Nhan Ward and Bach Dang Ward in Hai Ba Trung District was included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on February 19, 2025.

Unique tourism offers

Nguyen Tuan Anh, Director of Anh Duong Tour said to make the Hai Ba Trung Temple relics and festival an attractive destination, it is necessary to combine all the Hai Ba Trung Temple relics into a unique spiritual tour package.

In addition to touring relics and taking part in festival events, it is essential to use virtual reality experiences, 3D mapping technology, or souvenir products featuring the Trung sisters on elephants to tell tourists stories about the sisters and enhance their festival experience.

Dang Van Bai, Vice Chairman of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, said: "The unique feature of the temples dedicated to the Trung Sisters in Hanoi is that all three temples organize large inter-regional festivals every year."

The Hanoi government needs to develop an overall plan to promote the value of festivals at Hai Ba Trung temples to create a heritage tourism ecosystem with unique and non-duplicative tourism products, he added.

On the occasion of the Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival and the 1985th anniversary of the Hai Ba Trung Uprising earlier this month, Hanoi organized the program "Hanoi Tourism Welcomes 2025 - Get on Hanoi 2025" and declared the Hai Ba Trung Temple-Pagoda-Communal House Complex in Dong Nhan Ward, Hai Ba Trung District as a tourist destination.

According to Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi Tourism Department, the program is the kick-off event for more than 60 cultural and tourism activities in 2025 citywide to support the city's goal of welcoming 31 million visitors in 2025.

Two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, are famous Vietnamese heroines who led their troops on elephants to fight foreign invaders. They proclaimed themselves the new empresses after gaining independence for the country in the early years of Vietnam (40-43 AD).

In 40 AD, fed up with the brutal oppression and exploitation of China's Eastern Han Dynasty, Trung Trac and her younger sister Trung Nhi raised the banner of resistance, calling on heroes from all over the country to rise up against Han rule.

In a short period of time, the Trung Sisters successfully conquered 65 districts and citadels, reclaiming the entire territory of Vietnam. With the country liberated, Trung Trac was revered by the generals and the people as their ruler, took the title of Trung Queen, and established the capital in Me Linh.

After three years on the throne, the enemy returned in 43 AD. The Trung Sisters led their troops and people in resistance. On the 6th day of the second lunar month, it is said that after a fierce battle, refusing to be captured, the two sisters took their lives by throwing themselves into the Hat River. Their indomitable spirit is said to have turned into stone statues that floated downstream to the Dong Nhan bank.

Recognizing its historical significance and value, the Trung Sisters' Temple-Pagoda-Communal House complex was honored by the prime minister as a Special National Relic Site in 2019.