CHOONG TEMPLE FESTIVAL

Choong Temple is a sacred temple located on Pu Den mountain in the old Muong Choong center, now Chau Ly commune, Quy Hop district, Nghe An province. The temple was built in the Later Le Dynasty, in a prime location, surrounded by Nam Choong, protected by the Pha Con mountain range, with fresh air, simple customs, and an extremely rich spiritual life.

Previously, every year at Choong temple, there were two main festivals: the Dam Luc Ngoat festival and the New Year's Eve ceremony. Dam Luc Ngoat festival is held on the June 15^th and 16^th of the lunar month every year. The New Year's Eve ceremony is held on December 25^th every year at the temple, not holding a procession of board of names to the communal house like Dam Luc Ngoat festival.

Today, the Dam Luc Ngoat festival and the New Year's Eve ceremony have been restored. However, the ceremonies are held more simply. After the ceremony, Muong Choong boys and girls and the neighboring hamlets coming to attend the ceremony will officially enter the talent competition such as: stick pushing, Con fruit throwing, crossbow shooting, tug of war, walking on stilts, etc. On the full moon days, 01^st and other holidays of the year, many people of Muong Choong and surrounding areas come to offer incense at the temple.

Over hundreds of years of existence, Choong Temple has become the address of cultural and spiritual activities of the people of Muong Choong in the past and Chau Ly in the present, expressing the gratitude of posterity to the ancestors, and praying for the fortune from the gods. In particular, this is also a relic showing the cultural interference of Kinh - Thai, the emotional bond between the army and the people, the affection between the rear and the front lines, the solidarity between the ethnic brothers. The temple was ranked as a provincial historical relic by the People's Committee of Nghe An province according to Decision No. 3051/QD.UBND, dated July 16^th, 2015.