The river is in turmoil:
Lesson 3 - Heroic Spirit Passed On

Every time the Con Son-Kiep Bac Autumn Festival occurs, Mr. Ngo Quang Tuan, from Binh Han Ward (Hai Duong City) goes to the festival. One of the rituals he cannot miss is the Army Festival on Luc Dau River (the area outside the river in front of Kiep Bac Temple). "Attending the Army Festival, we feel like we are living in the glorious past of our ancestors, especially the great victories on Luc Dau River in the resistance war against the brutal Yuan-Mongol army that invaded our country," said Mr. Tuan.

The Kiep Bac Autumn Festival takes place from the 10th to the 20th of the 8th lunar month every year to show respect and gratitude for the great contributions of Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan in the three sacred resistance wars against the Yuan-Mongol invaders. The military festival on Luc Dau River is always an important ceremony of the festival season.

There is no official information about when the military festival started. According to some elderly people in Hung Dao commune (Chi Linh), when they were young, they saw that every time the Kiep Bac festival took place, the local government and people would organize the military festival on Luc Dau river (also known as the water procession). Fishing villages around the area brought brightly decorated boats to attend the festival. People dressed up as Tran dynasty soldiers and Yuan Mongol soldiers to fight on the river. The military festival aims to recreate the "Dong A spirit" in the battles on Luc Dau river between the Tran army and Yuan Mongol soldiers. Especially the parade to show off the forces preparing for resistance in Dong Bo in early August of the year Giap Than (1284) and the reunion of 200,000 troops in Van Kiep in 1285 with the strength of the three armies burning with fighting spirit and determination to "kill the Mongols" surpassing the star Nguu, showing the majestic "Dong A spirit" right on the Van Kiep wharf in the past.

Since 2006, when Hai Duong began implementing the Project to Upgrade the Con Son-Kiep Bac Traditional Festival for the period 2006-2010, the Army Festival as well as a series of other festivals were successively restored as they are today.

The military festival was restored with the main space being under Luc Dau River and on the shore. In the first years of restoration, the Con Son-Kiep Bac relic management board invited fishermen from several fishing villages inside and outside the province such as Yet Kieu (Gia Loc), Thanh Hai (Thanh Ha), Kenh Giang (Chi Linh), Tra Co, Mong Cai (Quang Ninh), Cat Ba, Cat Hai, Thuy Nguyen (Hai Phong City) to bring dozens of large and small boats to attend the festival. Particularly, the two villages of Van Yen and Duoc Son (Hung Dao commune, Chi Linh), each village prepared 2 boats to carry offerings to the Saint. Currently, due to a number of reasons, the boats attending the military festival are mainly from Kenh Giang village.

Dozens of boats were divided into two groups. The boats were decorated with red wavy cloth on both sides. Each boat had 10 people dressed as Tran Dynasty sailors standing around. The big boats hung large banners, each banner was a large Chinese character, the boats without banners hung large festival flags. The first group from the Nam Tao temple with the boat owner named "Nhac Doc Chung Linh" departed from Con Kiem. The second group gathered in front of Bac Dau temple, the boat owner named "Am Duong Hop Duc", 5 boats had the signs Thanh Long, Bach Ho and the following boats had the signs of the parallel sentences: "Van Kiep huu son giai kiem khi/Luc Dau vo thuy bat thu thanh". The two groups of boats were ready to wait for the order to join forces. When the signal flare sounded, the two boats from the starting position moved towards the river section in the middle of the stage and intersected three times with three themes: "Dong A's heroic spirit", "Luc Dau's heroic spirit", and "Triumphing song".

Under the water, the atmosphere was majestic, on the shore, the atmosphere was equally vibrant and brilliant. The festival organizers planted hundreds of red flags, standing flags and thousands of people cheered each time the boats crossed each other. On the riverbank, dragon and unicorn dance teams, hundreds of martial artists from Nhat Nam martial arts school, and stick fighting teams from Hoi Xuyen (Gia Loc) - the hometown of famous general Nguyen Che Nghia, a talented general of Tran Hung Dao, performed martial arts. The atmosphere under the river and on the shore combined at the same time, making visitors excited, nostalgic and feeling like they were witnessing the gathering of the Tran Dynasty's army and people more than 700 years ago.

Dr. Le Duy Manh, Deputy Head of the Con Son - Kiep Bac Relic Management Board, said: "In the martial arts performance, the Organizing Committee recreated the battle formation that Hung Dao Dai Vuong set up to capture General Pham Nhan of the Yuan-Mongol army on the Luc Dau River."

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