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Phu Tho: Dao Xa Communal House Traditional Elephant Procession Festival 2025

Phu Tho’s Dao Xa Commune held its Traditional Elephant Procession Festival on February 25, 2025, honoring Hung Hai Cong for his contributions to the nation’s founding and defense. The three-day festival features rituals, folk performances, and traditional games, attracting locals and tourists despite cold, rainy weather.

Dao Xa Communal House, built during King Le Gia Tong’s reign (1674-1675), enshrines Hung Hai Cong, who helped villagers manage floods, cultivate crops, and build prosperous communities. In gratitude, villagers built the communal house and hold annual elephant processions from the 27th to the 29th day of the first lunar month, with the 28th as the main day, preserving traditional ceremonies and folk games.

This year’s festival maintained rituals including elephant procession, incense offerings, and tutelary god worship, alongside folk games such as tug of war, chicken snatching, water fetching, rice pounding, fire making, and cooking competitions. Recognized for its historical and cultural value, Dao Xa Communal House received the National Historical and Cultural Relic Certificate in 1990 and was designated a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.