Raising level of Whale Worshipping Festival

The demonstration of the activities of Whale Worshipping Festival has become a typical cultural feature in Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa sea festivals, capturing the attention and interest of many locals and tourists. This event should become an annual street festival in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa to help introduce and promote the cultural activities of people in the coastal region to people from other places.

From cultural activity in fishing villages…

Whale Worshipping Festival originated from the folk beliefs of the people in fishing villages, has been maintained and practiced by many generations. Fishing villages in Khanh Hoa holds Whale Worshipping Festival in 1 to 3 days with many ritual acts, including “Nghinh Ong” ceremony. The ceremony takes place with a ritual procession at sea and “ba trao” singing. “Nghinh Ong” ceremony features many elements of community festivals, which is the basis for demonstration of Whale Worshipping Festival in Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa sea festivals. According to Dang Quoc Van, deputy director of the Department of Culture and Sports, the demonstration of the typical and outstanding features of Whale Worshipping Festival will contribute effectively to the preservation of the typical cultural and religious activities of Khanh Hoa fishermen.

Ba Trao singing of fishermen in Vinh Truong Ward

Whale Worshipping Festival in Khanh Hoa still preserves many typical and unique customs and rituals of the festival. Every year, people in many coastal villages in Khanh Hoa still hold this festival with full traditional rituals. Whale Worshipping Festival of Khanh Hoa was recognized  as a national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2014. “Every year, we raise funds to organize Whale Worshipping Festival to pray for favorable weather and good harvest of seafood and express our gratitude to the gods, who protect and keep fishermen safe while working at sea," said artisan Nguyen Sy Huynh (Vinh Nguyen Ward).

A ritual act of Whale Worshipping Festival

…to street festival

The demonstration of Whale Worshipping Festival in the sea festivals includes Ba Trao singing and some ritual acts performed on streets. In Sea Festival 2023, the ritual performances of Whale Worshipping Festival created a lively atmosphere on Tran Phu Street, from Phu Dong Park to Tran Quang Khai Street. Two processions of Vinh Truong and Vinh Nguyen wards approached the main venue in the stage area opposite Tue Tinh Street from two directions.

Each group of more than 180 people wore beautiful colorful traditional costumes, carrying props, performing ritual acts and singing Ba Trao during the parade. Performances of unicorn-lion-dragon dances also helped the atmosphere livelier. Gildas Treguier (from Lorient, France) said, “This is the first time I have seen such a unique traditional art performance on streets in Nha Trang. The festival is vibrant, attractive and colorful. In my city, there are also traditional festival parades, which get a lot of attention from local people and tourists."

Demonstration of Whale Worshipping Festival attracts many locals and tourists

The demonstration of Whale Worshipping Festival in the sea festivals has left many good impressions on the public and promoted effectively a typical festival of Khanh Hoa. However, after many editions of sea festival, this activity has still remained its first scale. Reportedly, the demonstration of Whale Worshipping Festival in Sea Festival 2023 had been planned to take place both at sea and on streets. Due to some reasons, it could only be held on streets with a narrower space compared to Sea Festival 2019. Artisan Tran Van Manh (Vinh Truong Ward) and the other fishermen are always happy when being invited to take part in the activity. Manh said that this activity is still small in scale compared to the festivals held in communal houses. Therefore, they hope that the province will increase its scale and make it an annual activity instead of only organizing it in sea festivals.

According to folk culture researcher Nguyen Tu Hai, the traditional Whale worshipping festivals is often held very solemnly at the communal houses of fishing villages and bear many traditional cultural colors, characteristics, beliefs and gratitude of fishermen. It requires much consideration to feature the main parts of the festival in a way that is not too much like stage performances. Whale Worshipping Festival is a cultural activity with high community value, so it can be organized as an independent event and a typical street festival of Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa.

At review conference of Sea Festival 2023, Nguyen Tan Tuan, Deputy Secretary of Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, suggested the cultural sector to research to raise the scale of Whale Worshipping Festival to improve its publicity and make it become a typical cultural and tourist product of Khanh Hoa.

Giang Dinh

Translated by H.N