Whale worship festival is a form of cultural and religious activities commonly practiced by fishing communities either along the seaside areas or on offshore islands in Quang Ngai.

This festival is usually held in spring and autumn. Most typical of the kind are those held in Dong Yen temple, Binh Duong commune on 8 January and 16 July of  Lunar Calendar, in Cu Lao – My Tan temple on 10 March and 25 June of  Lunar Calendar (both in Binh Son district), and in Thach Bi temple (Duc Pho) on the Fish Beseeching festival on the 3^-th day of New Year.

There are in Quang Ngai province many whale-worshiping temples along the seaside and on Ly Son island which bear the architectural styles as old as hundreds of years.

On the festval day, there usually a procession with sedan chairs, performance by orchestra of drums and gongs, ba trao singing in ceremonial manner, which draw attention of thousands of people.

Also on the whale worship festival there take place other activities such as boat race, lion head dance, sac bua singing, hat ho singing, hat boi singing, etc.

In some temples, there still store giant whale skelethons and royal conferments by Nguyen dynasty. Such temples are Thanh Thuy (Binh Son), Con, Tan and Chanh temples (Ly Son), Thach Bi (Duc Pho), An Chuan (Mo Duc), Chanh (Tinh Ky, Son Tinh), some still worship Hoang Sa whale’s bones.

Whale, commonly and respectfully called “Lord Fish” by fishing communities in Quang Ngai, has been deeprooted in the mind of generations of local fisherpeople as a sacred Sea Protector or Sea Knight.

Similar festival of cultural and religious activities are said to be annually practiced by fishing communities along the coast of Vietnam from Quang Binh to Kien Giang Provinces.

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