DOUBLE FIFTH FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL GREETINGS

Doan Ngo festival is an occasion to visit relatives such as parents and grandparents to grateful people such as teachers, doctors... Especially, Doan Ngo festival has the rules that menengaged but not married yet to visit future parents-in-law. The presents are often a dozen of turtle birds, double gooses, sticky rice, green beans, black beans, black sugar and fruits...

Fan in its origins and to the present

Fans are delicate products of human thinking in the daily life. First, the fan makes hot air cool; then, the fan becomes anaspect of the cultural and spiritual life of the Vietnamese people, containing unique ethnic values. In the ancient royal court, fans played a special role, as a gift for the emperor granted to mandarins or used in the diplomatic activities. Aristocrats and mandarins used precious fans made of ivory, tortoise, horn or wood, showing their power and social status. Contrary to the extravagance of imperial palace, in common families, fans made of sheath, palm leaf, and paper... very familiar in daily life. Through the ups and downs of history, trade villages have no longer making fans (Dao Xa, Ta Nhat) but there are still some such as: Vac Village (Thanh Oai, Hanoi); Chang Son Village (Thach That, Hanoi); Binh Xa Village (Thach That, Hanoi), Xuan Tien Village (Xuan Truong, Nam Dinh)... The persistent and long-term existence of the making fans proves the value of the fan despite changes of modern society.

DOUBLE FIFTH FESTIVAL

The ceremony of the king-bestowed fan at the Thang Long Court of the Le Dynasty

In the feudal dynasties, Kinh was a son of the Heaven, considered heaven and earth as his parents, taking the ritual to rule the country, so yearly the rituals in the royal became a very solemn. On Doan Ngo Tet's day, the royal palace was decorated with magnificent lanterns and flags, and imperial equipage was displayedunder the royal court, the mandarin were their formaldressesto have an audience with the king. From the early morning, the king in the royal robecame to offer incense at Imperial Temple and Chi Kinh, then changed his clothes to meet his parents. After the ceremony, the king returned to the main hall to receive the congratulatory petitions from the mandarins and “write poems by the king on the fans that giving the mandarins". In particular, the king organized the Banquet and the king- bestowed Fan. The form of grace by fans during the Lunar New Year festival shows the emperor's care to the mandarins but above all this is the season of heaven-earth transition from spring to summer, so the fan ritual becomes even more meaningful is the "Blessing" from the King.