Travel Sense Asia - First Lunar Month Offers Wealth of Festive Cheer

Travel Sense Asia collect and update the news of traditional festivals in Vietnam in order to provide their customers the unforgetable time in Spring festival.

Traditional festivals including those at pagodas and temples, are being held throughout the country during the first lunar month attracting large numbers of visitors. Folk games have added to the festive atmosphere at many of these events, attracting both visitors and locals. Popular folk games and competitions include rice cooking competitions, fabric ball throwing competitions, wrestling and cock fighting at Keo Pagoda Festival in Thai Binh Province, Dong Ky and Tram Gian pagoda festivals in Bac Ninh Province, the Soc Temple Festival in Soc Son District (Hanoi), the Dong Da Hill Festival in Hanoi, the Lieu Doi Wrestling Festival in Ha Nam Province, and the Co Loa Temple Festival in Dong Anh District (Hanoi). Held annually on the fifth day of the first lunar month, the Dong Da Hill Festival celebrates King Quang Trung's victory over the invading Chinese Qin at Dong Da Hill. The hill has since become a glorious historical site. At the 2012 festival, delegations from Hanoi and neighboring provinces joined a ceremony to worship King Quang Trung. With a diverse range of cultural activities including martial art performances, dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix dances, Sinh Tien dance, fan dances, human chess, Chinese chess and folk games, the festival attracted thousands of visitors. Folk games attracted a large number of young visitors. The Co Loa Temple Festival this year had traditional games and competitions including human chess, wrestling, crossbow archery, swinging and singing folk songs. Gambling has decreased. Wrestling has attracted large crowds. Local wrestlers of different ages, including young people, entertained the crowds. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi has been for a long time a place to which one can come to learn about folk games and other cultures of ethnic groups throughout Vietnam. This Lunar New Year the museum introduced visitors to Xoan singing and preparing banh tai (ear-shaped dumpling) from Phu Tho Province apart from folk games from regions across Vietnam. The museum also introduced the game of catching grigs in a big jar that can be found in traditional festivals in Tien Du District in Bac Ninh Province and Phu Ninh District in Phu Tho Province, folk dances and throwing chopsticks into a bottle while walking on stilts from the Cao Lan ethnic group in Ngoc Tan Village, Ngoc Quan Commune, Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province, in addition to water puppetry, the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Club's Ca Tru (ceremonial song) performances, mua sap (dancing with bamboo poles) of the Thai people, and the art of calligraphy. The Huong Pagoda Festival, the Yen Tu Festival and the Tran Temple Festival are major events that had different folk games and attracted a large number of visitors. The culture, sports and tourism sector has been doing a good job managing festive activities throughout the country. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh said that continuing Prime Ministerial Official Note 162's implementation, the ministry issued instructions on strengthening festival organization management in 2012 to improve on last year, and that before Tet (Lunar New Year holidays) the ministry had sent delegations to localities that were to host festivals prior to their opening. After Tet, the Minister visited the Huong Pagoda. Deputy Ministers of Culture, Sports and Tourism went to localities hosting festivals to check and remind localities to organizing festivals economically and in compliance with Vietnamese traditions and customs. Thousands of festivals were, are and will be held throughout Vietnam in Spring. They are opportunities for Vietnam to introduce international friends to their cultural features./.