On the night of March 19, An Giang province held a ceremony to receive the UNESCO certificate of recognition of the Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain (Chau Doc City, An Giang Province) as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy - Vice Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee - it is the tireless efforts of many generations of leaders and people that have taken the wing to bring the local traditional festival to the status of a world heritage.
Since 1980, realizing the importance of the festival, An Giang province has taken part in managing the Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain. Since then, the province has continuously paid attention to leading and directing the work of preserving, protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage and considered this an important task, one of the driving forces creating identity and endogenous strength in the development process of the province. Those outstanding efforts have created a spread of the belief in the Lady of the Rosary and a great influence in the community.
In 2001, the Festival was chosen by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) as one of the typical festivals to organize a national tourism festival. In addition to the traditional ceremony, there is also a festival that is held solemnly.
Since 2002, the Ba Chua Xu Festival program on Sam Mountain has added a ceremony to the image of the Ba (rebuilding the scene of the image of the Ba being carried from the top of Sam Mountain to the temple according to folk legend with 9 young meritorious girls). From there, creating a new nuance for the festival.
However, in response to the development needs of society and to ensure the positivity and proactiveness of local leaders as well as the participation of the community in organizing and implementing, An Giang province has changed festival management when giving all festival organization rights to Chau Doc city. This innovation has created a turning point in investment in improving the quality of both the festival and the festival. Through that, the typical historical and cultural values and community values of the Ba Chua Xu Festival on Sam Mountain are promoted and spread. On that basis, the Festival was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Traditional rituals according to local traditional customs and practices during the Festival are organized solemnly and intensively with activities such as: performing the image of the Lady; the Lady's bathing ceremony; the Tuc yet and Chau building ceremony... At the same time, many cultural nuances of the Chinese, Cham, Khmer ethnic groups are breathed into life... Thereby attracting the participation of the community.
By 2021, An Giang province will continue to implement the dossier of the Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain to submit to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UN UNESCO) to be inscribed in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In 2022, the Government approved the dossier of the Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain to submit to UNESCO for consideration of being included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In 2023, at the Vietnam - India Economic and Cultural Exchange Forum, the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations and the World Council for Trade and Technology of India honored the Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain as "Outstanding Cultural Activity of Asia - Pacific".
On December 4, 2024, in Paraguay, within the framework of the 19th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Vietnam's "Ba Chua Xu Festival on Sam Mountain" was officially recognized by UNESCO as a Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This is an affirmation and appreciation of the heritage by the international community, promoting the diversity, value and identity of Vietnamese culture in general and An Giang province in particular in the common cultural picture of humanity and is also another contribution of Vietnam to the goal of preserving and promoting the heritage values that UNESCO is promoting. The registration will also create more resources for preserving and promoting heritage values, supporting sustainable and inclusive economic and cultural development in the locality and community.
