Opening of Doi Son Tich Dien festival, recreating the legend of King Le Dai Hanh plowing

The festival is held at Tich Dien yard and the Tan te Than Nong area (Tien Son ward), with the participation of processions, ceremonial teams, festival drums, lion and dragon dances, and a large number of local people and tourists from all over.

Important rituals such as the procession of King Le Dai Hanh's spirit, the procession of the tutelary god palanquin, the ancestor palanquin drum, incense offering, reading the report and the Tich Dien plowing ritual are performed in the correct order, ensuring solemnity, safety and preserving traditional identity.

Doi Son Tich Dien Festival is a traditional festival restored in 2009 on a large scale to recreate the legend of King Le Dai Hanh going to the foot of Doi mountain to plow fields to encourage agricultural development.

2026 is the first year the festival is organized in the context of Tien Son ward being merged from 3 new communes and Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh provinces being merged into Ninh Binh province.

According to representatives of Tien Son ward leaders, the preparation for this year's Tich Dien festival is directed to be implemented synchronously, from the ritual script, traffic diversion plan, ensuring security and order to environmental sanitation and preventive medicine.

Doi Son Tich Dien Festival is a typical spiritual cultural activity of Ninh Binh province. The festival is organized to recreate the ritual of the king going to the fields to plow fields at the beginning of spring, encouraging agricultural production, and praying for national peace and prosperity, and good harvests.

Ancient stories tell that in the spring of 987, King Le Dai Hanh and civil and military mandarins plowed fields in Doi Son for the first time and caught a gold jar. The following year, the king plowed in Ban Hai and caught a silver jar, so these fields were also called "kim ngan dien" (golden fields).

Since then, every year at the beginning of spring, the king personally goes to the fields to plow fields, perform the Tich Dien ceremony, praying for a bumper crop and a prosperous and happy life for all people. According to this custom, later dynasties all maintained the Tich Dien festival in different forms.

After a long period of being lost, in 2009, the Doi Son Tich Dien festival was officially restored. Since then, the Tich Dien festival has been held once a year at the local level and once every 5 years at the national scale.

Over the centuries, the festival has been preserved, becoming a highlight in community cultural life every beginning of the new year. With historical significance and value, in 2017, the Tich Dien festival was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.

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