The tray of the Mid-year Festival
The activity aims to create more tourism products to serve tourists so that visitors who do not have the conditions to visit the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long can still access useful display content, learn the unique customs in the royal family, the experience preventing pandemic in folklore. The exhibition will introduce the traditional culture and unique customs of our ancestors during the Mid-year Festival.
Doan Ngo (Doan Duong) is the traditional Tet of Vietnam and some East Asian countries, taking place on the 5th day of May, Lunar calendar. In the day of the Mid-year Festival in feudal dynasties, in the royal court and in folklore, there were different rituals and customs.
In the royal court, under the Le dynasty, the king and the court solemnly held ancestral sacrifice ceremonies, regular court ceremonies, and bestowed banquets, giving fans to the mandarins, demonstrating the authority of the heavenly son and carrying deep human values.
In addition to the special features of the royal rituals, in folklore, the Mid-year Festival also has very unique customs, including the custom of wearing five-color amulets.
The ancients believed that when herbs were picked at the hour of the Horse (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) on the Day, the crystallized aroma and color would increase their medicinal properties.
This year’s exhibition has many new features such as: for the first time displaying and introducing a royal fan with a size of 2.4m with a poem by King Le Hien Tong written on the fan in 1503; display several fan models for kings, queens and mandarins based on various sources; The five-color amulets were restored based on the artifacts kept at the Quai Branly Museum (France) and the colorful space of a shop on the old Hang Mun street. In addition, the customs of the Mid-year Festival such as: picking Southern medicinal leaves, washing hair with fragrant leaf juice, relaxing incense, etc. are also introduced along with buffalo-shaped wormwood leaves corresponding to the year of the Ox.
Nguyen Yen