Village market recreated in stadium

The Vietnamese New Year Fair which takes place from February 5 to 7 at My Dinh National Stadium, Hanoi, will re-create a traditional northern village market.
With the intention of honouring Vietnamese traditional values, the fair will be divided into markets to help visitors roam, shop and enjoy traditional cuisine and specialities from different regions.
Lunar New Year favourites will be displayed at the fair including various kinds of fruit and offerings for other ancestors and Kitchen Gods.
The fair also see various cultural activities such as folk games, lucky calligraphy and performances of ca tru (ceremonial singing), xoan (folk songs in springtime of the northern province of Phu Tho), cheo (traditional opera) and quan ho (love duets).
The fair will feature streets and markets devoted to the particular products displayed, including Five-Fruit, Scholar, Gift, Flower, Carp and Speciality streets as well as Good Luck, Pottery and Silk markets.
A Carp Festival will be held for the first time in Vietnam, with images of carp on display.
The fish is very familiar to Vietnamese people. It's considered the method of transport employed by the Kitchen Gods to travel to heaven to give an annual report on all events that have happened in the family home to the King of Heaven. The carp transforms into a powerful dragon, a symbolic meaning of the ability to resist hurdles and achieve success.
During the three-day fair, the Red Drops of Kindness programme will be launched to encourage people to donate blood for transfusions.
The organising board including Thang Long Investment, Technology and Commerce JSC and the Central Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion expects that the fair will see 45,000 visitors.