Preserving the soul of villages

Binh Duong has 125 communal houses. To keep the soul of these communal houses, most houses have one person to guards, clean up, and welcome visitors. Besides, village elders in wards and communes also regularly organize worshiping ceremonies to commemorate and honor gods and ancestors; and pray for peace and good weather.

Nguyen Van Xe, called "Mr. Tu", is cleaning altars at Phu Cuong temple.

 "Mr. Tu" and “Ms. Tu”

To preserve the national traditional culture, the image of "Mr./Ms. Tu" keeping the house is indispensable. "Mr. Tu" are mostly old people, consider the care, preservation of communal houses is the joy in life.

Phu Cuong communal house has been kept by "Mr. Tu" Nguyen Van Xe (71 years old). Mr. Xe said he had taken over this house for 26 years. He is a Binh Duong native, but his life was difficult, so he was allowed to live in the old house. Currently, he and his two sons built a small house on the left side of the communal house as their settlement place. Mr. Xe said: "In my old age, every day I stay close to gods so that I could forget all worries."

There is not only "Mr. Tu" but also "Ms. Tu" at communal houses. For example, "Ms. Tu" Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, is preserving Phu Thuan communal house (TDM City). Not just due to her difficult circumstance, she came to the house to with her determination to preserve local cultural traditions. She has been here for nearly 3 years, her daily routine began very early at 5am by waking up, cleaning, burning incenses, and then watering flowers garden inside the temple. According to Ms. Chi, her duties are taking care of, cleaning the house, and welcoming visitors. It sounds easy, but not everyone can do it without faith and patience, because this job does not have wage or allowances.

According to leaders of Provincial Museum, communal houses, temples have a management board in charge, and the board selects a person with appropriate conditions of personalities, living near the house... Mr/Ms Tus are enthusiastic about the preservation of historical and cultural relics to serve the needs of people’s spiritual life.

Preservation of traditions

To preserve the soul of villages, worship ritual has also been kept in communal houses in the province. Every year, on the 15th day of lunar April, management board of Tan Trach temple (Bach Dang commune, Tan Uyen town) hosted Ky Yen Festival. The festival was organized carefully. Not only worship the temple, since 2005, on annual July 27, local people also come to the house to worship heroic martyrs.

Worship ritual of communal houses has contributed to preserving and promoting national cultural identity and building the cultural life of people. The worship is performed by the seniors, who are knowledgeable about traditional ritual. No matter how worship rituals were conveyed, by word of mouth, father to son, or from the knower to unknown people, the next generation retains the most essence of these rituals. Particularly, funeral orations have been transmitted from one generation to the next by Sino Vietnamese and are now translated into national language.

Some temples in the province also celebrate Hung King’s death anniversary on lunar March 10, such as Bung Cu temple (Tan Uyen). The Hung King's death anniversary ceremony at Bung Cu temple has two parts... Each communal house has its own worshipping way, but they all praise merits of gods, pray for peace and prosperity, good weather... In addition, worshiping is also a cultural tradition of Vietnamese people to bring people to temples to understand more about Binh Duong ancient land and people, to remember teachings of the ancestors to work harder and develop Binh Duong province.

Reported by To Tam – Translated by Ngoc Huynh