National festival status urged for Hoang Sa rituals

Authorities in the central province of Quang Ngai have officially asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the "Hoang Sa Tribute Rituals" to be given national festival status.
Sail away: Island residents launch model boats in the second lunar month to commemorate the sailor-soldiers of the Hoang Sa contingent. The island authorities suggested the event should be a national festival.
The rituals, which have been held annually for hundreds of years on the province's island district of Ly Son, is a tribute to sailor-soldiers in the Hoang Sa Contingent who crossed the water to Hoang Sa (Spratly) Archipelago to exploit its natural resources and safeguard the country's sovereignty.
Most of the sailors, many of them native of Ly Son Island, perished. Ly Son's inhabitants commemorate them at Am Linh Buddhist Temple where souls of lost soldiers are worshipped on the 20th day of the second month of the Lunar calendar.
During the rituals, paper boats with effigies of sailors are launched to sea and respects are paid to the lost sailors' empty tombs.
A common saying on the island thang hai khao Ie the linh Hoang Sa, means the island commemorates the soldiers every year in the second lunar month.
During the coming Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, objects related to the the Hoang Sa Contingent have been collected for an exhibition on the island, including soldiers' possessions, the King's order to establish the contingent and old maps of the archipelago.