Literary and Historical Version of Hoang Hoa Tham in the National and Local General Education Program of Bac Giang

Oh, the spirit of Mr. Tham

Witness the love of descendants today, do you know in the afterlife, grandpa?

He returned to the temple for today's festival [53, p.38]

After this prayer, the host reads the prayer for the dead and repents, expressing sincere repentance, abandoning evil and following the right path, and asking the Buddhas of the ten directions to bless the souls of the martyrs to reach the Pure Land. This is a ritual inherited and continued from the Phồn Xương festival and the vegetarian offerings organized by Hoàng Hoa Thám in the past. The act of releasing banana rafts with 100 candles into Gồ stream to pray for the souls of martyrs was also re-established.

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After the prayer and repentance ceremony, the host continues to pray for peace and release animals, combined with the "fish and bird release" ceremony. The release ceremony takes place at the lake in front of The Temple. There are three small bird cages, each holding seven wild birds of various kinds, three fish bowls including tilapia and flag fish, placed neatly in a row. Before the release ceremony, the creatures (birds and fish) are offered at The Temple so that the host can present to the tutelary god and Mr. De about the wishes of the people that will be sent with the mascots. After the temple's keeper reads the release prayer, the bird cages and fish bowls are moved from the temple to the release point by a man and a woman. These two people were selected by the organizing committee: they are moral, have a dignified appearance, and have a complete family; the man wears traditional costume and the woman wears brown clothes. The organizing committee representative and the monk take turns removing the bird cage doors and releasing the fish into the lake/stream. The animal release ceremony expresses the people's wish for a prosperous and peaceful life and their aspiration for peace and freedom [53, pp.33-38].

According to the thesis writer's personal observations during the field survey at Yen The Festival (from March 16 to March 18, 2012 and 2014), the main ritual proceeds as follows:

In 2012, Yen The festival was organized by Yen The District Party Committee. The festival attracted a large number of tourists and local people, in addition to the presence of provincial leaders. The opening ceremony and incense offering took place in the yard at the foot of Hoang Hoa Tham monument. Before the opening ceremony, delegations from communes gathered together.

festival area. Each group prepares a tray of offerings including sticky rice, chicken, pig's head, fruits, cakes, etc. The delegates and people in the group wear traditional costumes, holding flags and flowers. The delegation of the descendants of the Hoang family, in addition to the tray of offerings, also has a wreath of fresh flowers and a banner. The delegation of Phồn Xương commune carries the incense pot from Lèo pagoda, led by four young men carrying a palanquin, on the palanquin is a large incense pot, followed by 10 young men wearing brown clothes, heads wrapped in scarves, holding parasols, following the procession is a lion dance team walking and playing gongs, creating a bustling atmosphere for the ceremony. The opening ceremony begins with a speech reviewing the heroic tradition of the leader and the Yen The insurgents. After that, three gongs and drums resounded throughout the mountains and forests, the Bắc Giang Cheo troupe reenacts the flag-sacrificing ceremony of the De Tham insurgents in the past. The ceremony was vividly and solemnly re-enacted with the performance of Meritorious Artist Thanh Hai - a veteran artist playing the role of De Tham. In front of the flag of righteousness with the words "Hoang Nghia Ky", the audience also clearly felt the patriotism, indomitable will and determination to drive out the enemy of the people of Yen The in the past. After the flag-raising ceremony, the incense offering ceremony to commemorate the national hero Hoang Hoa Tham and the Yen The insurgents took place solemnly and emotionally. Delegations from the province, district, commune, town, descendants of the Hoang family, people and tourists from all over the world, ... all respectfully offered incense to the leader of the insurgents. The performance of the flute song from the Hoang Hoa Tham era called "Phon Xuong Moonlight" performed by artist Trinh Nhu Quan, along with the lion dance and the art performance of more than 100 students from the ethnic boarding school of Cau Go town concluded the opening ceremony.

In Phồn Xương pagoda, representatives of the festival organizing committee, monks, elders and people performed the ceremony to worship the souls of the martyrs and the death anniversary of Hoang Hoa Tham. The offerings and the order of the worshiping rituals were performed exactly like traditional rituals. The "fish release and bird release" ceremony was integrated into the flag offering ceremony scene of the Bắc Giang Cheo troupe. In the performance, the artist playing the role of De Tham simulated his actions of releasing fish and birds when he was alive.

The festival took place right after that, on the strip of land surrounding The Temple, along Phồn Xương Citadel. Folk games are indispensable and are central activities.

The festival's main activities such as traditional wrestling, martial arts, archery, crossbow shooting, beautiful national costume competition, skillful cooking and presentation competition, etc. have recreated the long-standing cultural traditions of Yen The land. The crossbow shooting competition - formerly used by Hoang Hoa Tham as both a form of entertainment in the festival and a way to select talents - is still continued today. The difference is that this competition has the participation of the military in the organizing committee, and there are two forms of awards: for individuals and for groups [53, pp.73-74]. In particular, the powerful and romantic martial arts flute performance from the Yen The uprising period, since 1996, has been included in the national martial arts handbook [53, p.60]; later renamed "Phồn Xương Moon Shadow", staged more elaborately and professionally, and has become a performance that has won many awards for both martial arts and arts at home and abroad [53, p.61]

In addition, the festival also features many modern games such as ball throwing, lucky spin, darts, etc. The winners are rewarded with stuffed animals, beer, soft drinks, etc. Some stalls selling Chinese toys, utensils, clothes, and souvenirs also appear in the festival space. From the evening of March 15 to March 18, the festival also features music and cheo performances by the Bac Giang art troupe, cultural exchanges between communes, and screenings of the film "Brown Shirt Leader". The Yen The festival program is reported by the provincial television station and Yen The district radio station in the news and special reports section.

In 2014, on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the Yen The uprising and the 30th anniversary of the Yen The festival, the Bac Giang provincial Party Committee organized the festival. On March 13, 2014, we interviewed Mr. Thach Van Chung - Vice Chairman of the Yen The District People's Committee, Head of the Yen The Festival Organizing Committee, about the preparations for the festival. To the question: "What is new about the 130th anniversary of the Yen The uprising (1884-2014) this year compared to previous years?", Mr. Thach Van Chung said that the province had given specific instructions in writing, and at the same time invested a large amount of money in the district to organize a festival on a larger scale and more magnificent than previous years.

According to our observations at the festival, the organizers omitted the procession, sacrifice and incense offering ceremonies of Hoang Hoa Tham which were performed after the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The inauguration of the Hoang Hoa Tham statue took place from the afternoon of March 15, 2014 1 . At The Temple, monks, elders, representatives of the organizing committee and people held a ceremony to pray for the souls of the martyrs and the death anniversary of Hoang Hoa Tham. The offerings included 7 trays with all the dishes such as: roast pig, boiled rooster, banh chung, banh day, banh gio, che lam, sticky rice, wine, white salt, ... placed on the main altar. In addition, at the altar of Hoang Hoa Tham, there were also pig's head and a tray of sticky rice cakes, candies, fruits, ... The master of The Temple was chosen to preside over the worship ceremony, first reading the prayer to the local tutelary god, to the saints, to the Buddha. Next, at the Hoang Hoa Tham memorial service, the host reported to Mr. De Tham about the conversion of his statue, then read the De Tham prayer, the content of which expressed the longing, expressed gratitude and remembered the leader's merits, and prayed for Mr. De's soul to bear witness to the people's hearts. At Ba Ba temple, monks and elders also offered offerings including sticky rice, chicken, pork, cakes, fruits, gold coins, etc. to Ba Ba's altar to pray for peace for the people.

On the morning of March 16, 2014, the opening ceremony was broadcast live on national television (VTV2, VTV4, VTV5) and local television. The stage was set up on a large piece of land about 200m from the right side of the new monument (due to the narrow yard at the foot of the monument) and was invested in scenery, LED lighting system, and modern loudspeaker amplifiers. After the opening speech of the provincial leader and the speech of the central leader, the performance depicting the Flag Offering Ceremony was replaced by an art program "Hung ca Yen The and the desire for freedom" with the participation of hundreds of actors from the central art troupe, Bac Giang province art troupe and students in Cau Go town. The fireworks display, bird release ceremony, and balloon release performed by the artists and the organizing committee concluded the program.

After the ceremony, the festival took place in a lively and exciting atmosphere for three days and nights (15th, 16th, 17th). Communal houses, pagodas, relics, forts, and traditional houses were opened to welcome visitors. Teenagers and students camped, competed in human chess, swings, wrestling, volleyball, soccer, and contested to learn about the Yen The uprising and contested beautiful women in traditional costumes.

1 Since 2014, the old Hoang Hoa Tham monument made of concrete has been changed to a bronze monument, made from socialized resources of the government, local people and descendants of the Hoang family.

Ethnic groups, etc. Activities such as wrestling, shooting, archery, and crossbow shooting still play a central role in the festival. However, while in the past, wrestling and archery in the festival tended to be confrontational, now they are mostly of a performance nature.

The trade fair and exhibition of paintings and ornamental plants displayed many unique products. In the evening, mass art troupes performed plays, cheo, and screened the film "The Brown Shirt Leader" about De Tham and the uprising he led, etc. Within the framework of the festival, the uprising exhibition house also organized a photo exhibition, displayed books and many other documents related to leader Hoang Hoa Tham and the Yen The uprising, including the monograph Hoang Hoa Tham (1836-1913) by author Khong Duc Thiem.

Looking back at the process from folk festivals to modern festivals, we can see: 1/ Although the name and characteristics have changed, the "soul" of the ancient Phon Xuong Festival is still preserved by the community and almost fully recreated in the Yen The Festival held until now. These are the main rituals: Buddha worship, God worship, Hoang Hoa Tham's death anniversary, and prayers for the dead, peace, fishing and bird releasing ceremonies, etc.; 2/ In addition, the ceremony of Yen The Festival also has modern rituals such as: Parade (of forces in the whole district such as police, soldiers, workers, civil servants, farmers, students), flag salute ceremony, opening speech and review of local historical traditions, affirming the merits of Hoang Hoa Tham, flag sacrificial ceremony (recreating the flag sacrificial ceremony in De Tham's time), incense offering ceremony in memory of Hoang Hoa Tham in front of his statue - these two rituals are combined with art performances 1 ...; 3/ The festival, in addition to the games initiated by the leader De Tham in the past such as: martial arts competitions, wrestling, archery, crossbow shooting, cooking, performing Cheo, Tuong, etc., is also organized more richly and vividly with new activities such as: opening to visit the Uprising Exhibition House, beauty contest in national costumes, camping, screening of the film The Brown Shirt Leader , performing arts, introducing and promoting eco-tourism, etc.

Thus, after a long process of a century, Yen The Festival has been restored, exploited and developed, following the policy of "preserving and promoting cultural values".

1 As our field observations show, it is the Bac Giang Cheo troupe or the "Phồn Xương Moonlight" flute martial arts performance performed by artists and students.

"traditional culture, harmoniously suited to contemporary life" of the state. Yen The festival has become a comprehensive form of activity including spiritual and material aspects, religious beliefs and cultural arts, spirituality and entertainment. With such outstanding historical, cultural and spiritual values, Yen The festival has been considered a "National Intangible Cultural Heritage" 1 .

Immediately after this decision, many activities were implemented to affirm the importance of the local intangible cultural heritage. In particular, the main activity is to implement the project "Preserving and promoting the value of special national relics of Yen The uprising sites associated with tourism development in Yen The district" 2 . The project emphasizes the task of local institutions: to continue to maintain and organize Yen The Festival on a grand scale, regularly innovate the content and festival program to match the Yen The uprising; improve the quality of festival organization at special national relic sites organized by the commune. Many spiritual tourism routes, or spiritual tourism combined with eco-tourism 3 have attracted many tourists. The local government has advocated strengthening the propaganda and promotion of Yen The Festival in many ways both inside and outside the province: propaganda on the province's website; production and distribution of propaganda materials such as leaflets and brochures; Make documentaries to promote spiritual tourism, print tourist maps of locations

1Pursuant to Decision No. 5079/QD-BVHTTDL signed by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism on December 27, 2012.

2 According to http://vpcp.chinhphu.vn/Home/Chi--dao-dieu-hanh-cua-Chinh-phu-Thu-tuong-Chinh-phu-ngay-692016/20169/19694.vgp

3In which, spiritual tour (1 day) includes:

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Leo Pagoda, Ho Chuoi fort - Dinh Thep communal house, Cau Khoai temple.

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Cau Khoai temple, Quan Lon temple - Don Hom, Dien temple.

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Thong Pagoda, Thien Thai - Dinh cave, Huong Vi pagoda, Nguyet Ho temple.

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Thong Pagoda, Bo Ha communal house, Ben Nhan communal house

- Trung Temple, Thuong Temple, Nguyet Ho Temple, Deo Ca Youth Volunteer Site.

Spiritual, ecological and community tourism tour (2 days) includes:

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Leo Pagoda, Ho Chuoi fort, Hom fort, Quan Lon temple, Cau Khoai temple - Dinh Dinh Thep, Da Ong dam, Cau Re dam.

Central area of Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic, Cau Khoai temple, Don Hom, Song Soi lake, Ngac Hai lake, clean tea production area of Ven village - Thac Nga, Chua Sung dam.

Hoang Hoa Tham historical relic center area, hill chicken farming model, poultry slaughterhouse, wild honey production facility, Thien Thai cave, Suoi Cay dam, communal house, Huong Vi pagoda - Bo Ha communal house, Ben Nhan communal house, Trung temple, Thuong temple, Nguyet Ho temple, Deo Ca Youth Volunteer relic.

Relics of the uprising and Yen The Festival; integrating the introduction of natural landscapes with the introduction to tourists about Hoang Hoa Tham and the Yen The peasant uprising; continuously opening teaching classes, establishing clubs for singing soong hao, singing then, ca tru, traditional vo, and flute martial arts... to preserve traditional culture as well as serve the festival. Regarding finance, using socialized revenue sources and budgets to restore and embellish Phon Xuong and Ho Chuoi forts, reconstructing Tam Mai Communal House, building Hoang Hoa Tham temple,... to perfect the space serving spiritual activities taking place during the festival.

Thus, up to now, Yen The festival still has all the meanings that folklore researchers have determined for a traditional festival:

- Is an important event of a community to commemorate one (or more) gods who have contributed to the community or supported the community.

- At the time of the event, the community performed rituals and customs to express their admiration for the gods and pray for help.

- These rituals are performed with offerings… offered to the gods through sacrificial rituals accompanied by music, dance or singing.

- Besides the rituals, there are also entertainments, eating and drinking… which are occasions for entertainment.

[102, pp.12-13]

4.2. Literary and historical version of Hoang Hoa Tham in the national and local general education program in Bac Giang

To find out this content, we surveyed the education program and learned that: The Ministry of Education and Training has built a general education program that includes core content and mandatory requirements (hardware) but at the same time, it allocates time (about 20%) for localities and schools to apply and supplement specific content about local history, culture and socio-economics and adjust the education plan to suit their conditions. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, starting from 2002, local education content is part of the teaching and learning program of general schools (junior high school and high school) expressed through three subjects: Literature, Geography and History.

We conducted a survey on two issues: (1) the education programs at all levels of the Ministry of Education and Training with the subjects of history and literature; (2) the implementation of the

This program was held in Yen The, Bac Giang, with the following objectives: to find out what education managers, teachers and students know about Hoang Hoa Tham, and what they have done/are doing to promote the image of the hero to the young generation.

The specific survey of the above two issues was conducted by us in Yen The district - a historical place associated with the name Hoang Hoa Tham, and focused on two schools: Hoang Hoa Tham Middle School and Yen The High School, with the reason that these are two representatives of two levels of education using the local education program, and at the same time, the two schools are named after the uprising and the hero who led that movement.

By using sociological investigation method (see Appendix 2), we have obtained specific results about Hoang Hoa Tham in the curriculum of two subjects: literature and history, that is, the version of literature and history in the educational reality of the whole country as well as Bac Giang locality.

4.2.1. Literary version

Surveying the Literature program for junior high schools applied nationwide through two sets of books before and after the reform (2002), including both folk literature and written literature, we found that there were a number of authors who wrote works about Hoang Hoa Tham that were selected to be included in the program, namely:

+ Phan Boi Chau was chosen to teach "Inspiration from Guangdong Prison" and "Breaking Rocks in Con Lon" (poetry), semester 1, grade 8.

+ Thach Lam (pen name Viet Sinh) was chosen to teach "A gift of young rice: Com" (essay), semester 1, grade 7.

+ Ngo Tat To was chosen to teach "Lights Out", excerpt "When the Water Breaks the Bank" (novel), semester 1, grade 8.

+ Nguyen Hong was chosen to teach "Childhood Days", excerpt "In Mother's Heart" (memoir), semester 1 grade 8.

The remaining authors such as Tran Trung Vien, Hoang Khoi Phong, Nguyen Huy Thiep did not have any works selected for lectures. Before and after the textbook reform, the above content was not adjusted.

In the Bac Giang local literature program for middle school level chaired by the Bac Giang provincial Department of Education, author Giap Ngoc Lan is the editor and compiler.

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