Vietnamese villagers dressed in traditional attires carrying carriage enshrining sacred objects representing the village tutelary deities during a festival procession.
The worship of Thành Hoàng (Tutelary god/goddess of a village/town) has an ancient root as a part of Vietnamese folk religion and culture. Each village would have a shrine dedicated to a specific patron deity. In earlier days, In addition to worship, the shrine was also a place for social gatherings of the village as well as a place where imperial decrees were posted.
Originally, Thành Hoàng deities were usually various gods and goddesses of mountains, rivers, natural phenomena, or from the origin myths and legends of the Vietnamese people. Later on, these deities included national heroes who were deified after their death which includes a number of great emperors or military leaders such as the Trưng Sisters. When the worship of Thành Hoàng was made official by the imperial court, the imperial official record categorized these deities into three different classes.
The highest category of the deities were the ancient gods and goddesses from origin myth as well as various national heroes.
The second categories were of local deities or deified person in which very little background was known of, though they were usually local magistrates who were well-loved by the people.
Lastly, the lowest of the three were deities in which little to none is known of them other than names or titles. This is usually a case in which a local deity or deified person was worshipped for so long after so many generations, the locals no longer knew much about the deity other than his or her role as a Thành Hoàng.
In addition to these three categories, there are also other various minor deities/spirits deemed as unofficial within imperial documents. These deities may have small shrines dedicated to them, usually on the side of the roads to protect and watch over travelers.
In the modern world, this form of worship is more common in small countryside villages and towns and not so much, if at all, in big cities other than for the sake of custom. Every year, the elders and the villagers still hold festivals to honor the Thành Hoàng of the old still watching over the towns and their people.
