Binh Thuy Communal House

Inside the Bình Thủy Communal House, six rows of round columns of precious wood stand tall. The roof frame follows the style called thượng lầu hạ hiên. Higher up, around the roof levels, carved immortals, plants, flowers and leaves appear in fine detail. These carvings are the stories of craftsmen who left no names.

In 1844, the people of Bình Thủy, in a fishing-village region along the Hậu River, built a small house of thatch and bamboo to honor the spirit of their village. The Hậu River is one of the two branches of the Mekong that flow through Vietnam. The villagers had few materials and no skilled builders. They had only sincere hearts and a wish for a place to gather and pray for peace.

Nearly seventy years later, that thatch house had become a spacious wooden communal house. In 1910, it was rebuilt entirely in brick and tile. That is the communal house standing there today.

Its formal name is Long Tuyền Cổ Miếu, tied to the old village of Long Tuyền on the riverbank. The grounds cover more than 4,000 square meters, which makes it one of the largest village communal houses in Cần Thơ.

In 1852, Emperor Tự Đức granted the village of Bình Thủy a royal decree with the title Bổn Cảnh Thành Hoàng. That decree laid the foundation for the name, the rites and the worship space of the communal house through many generations.

In the main hall, the communal house honors the Thành Hoàng Bổn Cảnh. It also honors people the community deeply respects. They are Trần Hưng Đạo and Phan Bội Châu. Then come Bùi Hữu Nghĩa and Đinh Công Chánh. Each altar niche holds dozens of old objects gathered over many centuries.

In 1989, the Ministry of Culture ranked the Bình Thủy Communal House as a National Architectural and Artistic Monument.

Just as valuable is its intangible side, the Kỳ Yên festival. Kỳ Yên is a village festival at the communal house that welcomes the spirits and prays for peace and good fortune. In 2018, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism added the Kỳ Yên Festival of the Bình Thủy Communal House to the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

Every year, the communal house holds two major ceremonies. Thượng điền falls in the fourth lunar month, and Hạ điền in the twelfth lunar month. Each ceremony has a full set of rites. The deity's decree is carried in procession on an outing. Then comes the offering to Thần Nông. Thần Nông means the Divine Farmer, a god honored for teaching people to farm. The main ceremony, Chánh tế, follows. Then come Tôn vương and the offering to Sơn Quân.

A procession carrying the deity's decree passes along village roads beside the river. Ceremonial music rises in the early morning, and incense smoke from the main hall mixes with the breeze that blows in from the Hậu River. For several hundred years, the people of Bình Thủy have never missed this moment.