On the afternoon of December 29, a representative of the Management Board of Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem relic site said that this year's Trang Trinh Temple Festival will take place over 3 days (December 27-29). In addition to traditional rituals such as bathing, reporting, and procession, there will also be many cultural, artistic, and sports activities such as traditional wrestling, traditional boat racing; clay cannon, chess, and Vinh Bao district volleyball tournaments. There will be diverse cultural activities such as a poetry and music program about Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem with the participation of poetry clubs inside and outside the district; a cultural festival program of Ly Hoc commune's cultural villages; and a folk dance competition.
Within the framework of the festival, Vinh Bao District People's Committee held a ceremony to commemorate the 439th death anniversary of Cultural Celebrity Nguyen Binh Khiem.
The festival is an opportunity to promote, commemorate, and introduce the life, career, and contributions of the cultural celebrity Nguyen Binh Khiem, to arouse national pride, to promote traditional cultural values, and the values of the special national relic site of Nguyen Binh Khiem Temple. Thereby, it also contributes to arousing the spirit of learning for generations of students.
After 3 days of organization, the festival attracted more than 50,000 visitors to visit, worship, and learn about the life and career of Cultural Celebrity Nguyen Binh Khiem. Also according to the Relic Management Board, in 2024, the relic attracted 1.5 million visitors, reaching the largest number of visitors ever.
According to historical records, Nguyen Binh Khiem was born in 1491 in Trung Am village, Vinh Lai district, Ha Hong prefecture, Hai Duong town, now Ly Hoc commune, Vinh Bao district, Hai Phong.
Born and raised in a noble family, he was a very good student as a child. However, due to the many changes in society at that time, it was not until he was 45 that he took the exams. In three consecutive exams, Huong, Hoi, and Dinh, he passed all exams first, won the highest degree - Trang Nguyen and was appointed by King Mac as a Secretary at the Academy, then transferred to the position of Dai Hoc Si of the Dong Cac Court, then promoted to Ta Thi Lang of the Ministry of Justice and Ta Thi Lang of the Ministry of Personnel, with the title Trinh Quoc Cong.
After serving as an official for 8 years, the Mac Dynasty was unstable. He submitted a petition denouncing the crimes of 18 corrupt officials but was not approved by the king. In the fall of the year Nham Dan (1542), he resigned from office and returned to his hometown to build Bach Van Hermitage and open a school.
From then until he was over 90 years old, he continued to teach, building people for the survival of the nation. Until the winter of At Dau year (1585), he fell seriously ill and died, at the age of 95.
Nguyen Binh Khiem's students all became famous generals and famous scholars in history, such as Phung Khac Khoan, Luong Huu Khanh, Nguyen Quyen, etc. Nguyen Binh Khiem was also a great philosopher of Vietnam. He was also proficient in numerology, and was popularly known and revered as the number one "prophet" of Vietnam with a series of prophecies for posterity that people called "Trang Trinh's Prophecies".
