Nam Giao Hill Hue

Nam Giao Hill Hue

Since the monarchy fell in 1945, Hue Festival's Nam Giao procession is the first renewal of the march paying tribute to heaven and earth. The procession had left the raised platform at Nam Giao, a small hill where the King kowtows to heaven and earth in the early hours, led by a car decorated with flowers, flags and the Hue festival banner. A group in white uniforms holding ceremonial flags and walking in a rectangular formation follows the car.

Several local people and visitors woke earlier than usual in Hue on this occasion; many in fact leave their houses by 5am. Most visitors are dressed casually. During this procession women wear ao dai, mainly in the traditional dark violet of Hue, with their hair carefully tied. Middle-aged and elderly men wear a long black and blue dress, some embellished with the Chinese character on behalf of long life, as well as fashionable hats.

In spite of of their attire, locals and visitors share the same wish: to find the best vantage place to observe the Nam Giao festival. A regal procession greets the King on his return to the fortress after he completes his rituals, and today marks the first time this event is seen in Hue since the monarchy was tumbled in 1945.

Hue is indeed a land of religion, privileged in the city's shrines and temples, worshiped on little altars positioned on a pole in the garden, at the foot of a wall or high up under an hanging roof. These feelings are respected for spiritual purposes while others are venerated not just for their heavenly essentials but also for their miraculous properties. Among these are spirit stones which may grow, award favors or cause harm to those who humiliate them, even those who do so unintentionally by standing or sitting on them. Other stones of Hue include obstruction stones that bar the fleeting of evil and border stones that spot the paddy fields of one village from those of its neighbor. Sometimes these stones are not venerated, but more frequently stubs of incense sticks are planted in the ground before them.

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