MAI BANG TEMPLE - CUA LO TOWN

Mai Bang Temple (Nghi Thuy ward, Cua Lo town) was built to worship the famous General Le Khoi, Che Thang, Lady Nguyen Thi Bich Chau, Lady Thuy Tinh and 06 founders of the village, who created the village, these people had created a life and blessed the residents with marine and agricultural occupations, encouraged their studies, expanded people's knowledge, prosperity, and happiness. The characteristic of residents of marine and agricultural occupations was that they always encouraged learning to expand people's knowledge, prosperity, and happiness..

Based on the genealogy of the Tran family-clan in Nghi Thuy commune, the inventory documents in 1964 kept at the Management Board of Nghe An Monuments and Landscapes said that, Mai Bang Temple was built in 1780, at it was just a thatched roof at that time. By the Nguyen Dynasty, Mai Bang Temple was embellished on a large scale, including the upper, middle and lower halls, the layout of the premises in the style of the letter “Tam”, the land area was about 2,500m2,  there were many objects and attentive guards in the temple. Over time, the climate impacts, the temple is degraded. In 2004, the People contributed to the restoration and restoration of the lower hall. In 2007, it was restored and embellished the sightseeing gate and the upper hall with the support of People's Committee of Nghi Thuy ward combined with the source of merit. Since then, cultural activities at the temple have been restored. Currently, the temple has a large and airy campus, which is a good basis for traditional ceremonies. The temple also preserves the original central hall and many valuable ancient sacrifices such as incense, altar, couplets, great letters, thrones, tablets, incense burners, copper platters, etc., meticulously carved by ancient artisans, their technique reached a high level, creating beautiful and vivid paintings.

Worshiped characters, artifacts, couplets, great letters, ordinations, tablets, especially the 13 original religious documents are very precious, a valuable source of documents to help posterity study about historical periods of the country and locality.

Every year, there are two big festivals held on February 12 and May 3 of the lunar calendar at Mai Bang Temple. The festival on February 12 is held to celebrate the founding day of the village, at the same time as the fishing day of Cua Lo sea fishermen, and the death anniversary of Madame Che Thang. On this day, all the people in village gather to organize exciting activities with rituals such as Sacrifice ceremony, God procession, omen ceremony. Before that, people prepared sacrifices to contribute to the death anniversary, the formation of a palanquin procession, a formation to beat drums, and a team of festival chess.,…

The Procession and Sacrifice ceremony were held in a very dignified manner. The main occupation of Nghi Thuy people is fishing, so it determines their beliefs in fishing and bears the distinctive imprint of the region. People can express their wishes and desires for good things in life.

Every year on May 3 (lunar calendar) is the anniversary of Chieu Trung Vuong Le Khoi's death, and all people of Cua Lo town organize a procession of the god palanquin and sacrifice to the gods. Through festivals, the people here review the good traditions of their ancestors, and educate their descendants in the spirit of solidarity, patriotism, and love for the homeland,…

In addition to spiritual and cultural activities, the festival also organizes folk games and new games. It is this combination that creates the richness and excitement of the fisherman culture in Cua Lo sea area.

With the values of the monument, Mai Bang Temple was ranked as a provincial historical relic in 2012 by People's Committee of Nghe An province. Mai Bang temple relic was ranked as a national historical relic in 2016 by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.