The annual festival honouring ‘Mau Thoai’ (Mother Goddess of Water), which took place in Hoa Xuan Ward, Cam Le District, Da Nang from 5 and 7 April, attracted a great deal of attention from locals and followers.

A scene from the festival honouring ‘Mau Thoai’

‘Mau Thoai’ is amongst the Mother Goddesses of the Three Realms who represent deities from heaven, water, and mountains and forests, and have been closely associated with historical and mythical figures.

Viet Nam’s traditional religious practice of worshipping mother goddesses has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

One of the 3-day festival’s highlights was the practice of ‘Len dong’, otherwise known as ‘hau dong’ or ‘hau bong’ (‘to mount the medium’ or ‘to go into a trance’), a spirit ritual in which practitioners become mediums for 36 different deities who take over their bodies and carry out actions in the human world.

The process is normally aided by musicians and singers of ‘chau van’, or invocation singing, who perform invocation songs to induce a trance in the practitioner, preparing them for incarnation.

Besides traditional rituals, there were a wide range of exciting cultural activities during the festival, including a display of traditional dishes, ‘bai choi’ (singing while acting as playing cards), painting and Chinese chess competitions.