Viet Nam is a festival-loving country with approximately 8000 festivals from all provinces, ethnicities, and religions. Here, we would like to highlight a truly unique and entertaining traditional mud ball wrestling festival that takes place at Chua Van Temple from the 10th to the 14th in the 4th lunar month every 4 years in Van Village, Viet Yen District, Bac Giang Province. The festival traces its origins to about hundreds of years ago but it was interrupted by war for a long time and has been restored since 2002.

A group of women in the village are assigned to carry water from the Duong River to pour it into the playing field.

This festival serves an a special occasion for farmers to show their desire for a year of good weather and bumper harvests.

Before entering the mud wrestling festival, people have a sacrifice ceremony dedicated to Saint Tam Giang (the title that the Vietnamese honour the two generals Truong Hong and Truong Hat). On the spotlight of the festival is a competition played between healthy young men divided into 2 teams to grasp a large ball filled with liquid mud with a diameter of 35cm.

Ahead of the competition, each man drinks 3 bowls of wine, eat watermelon then walk around the playing field, perform a traditional ceremony and greet the audience around the ball placed in the middle of the field. Right at the start of the competition, each team sends their strongest men to wrestle for the right to kick off the match.

This is what the mud ball wrestling festival looks like via lenses of talented photographer Nguyen Huu Thanh during his trip to Bac Giang. (Pictures were taken before the current COVID-19 resurgence.)

Ahead of the competition, each man drinks 3 bowls of wine and eats watermelon at the communal house yard.

The first round opened with fierce fighting from both teams

Participants defence and attack drastically to compete for the ball

When a man grasps the ball, other members of his team do their best to push the ball into the hole.

Move towards the hole in the opposing team's block

Pushing the ball into the hole is not easy on the wet and muddy pitch.

A well-deserved victory for the effort of the whole team.

Reporting by DNO -Translating by T.VY