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Hanoi hots up with Tet festivals
Hundreds of Hanoians and foreign visitors flocked
to see traditional festivals open in Hanoi early on Friday morning, Feb 19, for
the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.
For the early birds, the Co Loa Festival in Dong Anh district started with a
very formal event carrying incense to Thuong temple to pay tribute to King An
Duong Vuong, the founder of the ancient kingdom of Au Lac and the ancestor of
Vietnamese people. Later, Nguyen The Thao, the Chairman of Hanoi People’s
Committee and guests planted a tree in the 500-hectare Co Loa Vestige Area, to
carry on a Tet tradition that was started by Uncle Ho.
In the neighbouring district of Soc Son, the Giong Festival at Soc Temple also
attracted a crowd. The event was in honour of the God Giong, who used his
supernatural abilities to defeat Vietnam’s enemies and restore the country to
peace.
At the temple, the early morning crowd witnessed one of Tet’s biggest
traditional rituals, offering tributes of six precious gifts from six regional
wards to the God Giong. It was followed by a parade with big bowls of elephant
grass, betel and areca.
On the same morning, in the rural district of Me Linh, officials from Vietnamese
Communist Party and the locals celebrated the Hai Ba Trung Temple Festival. The
festival paid tribute to two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, who rose up the
cruel actions of General To Dinh of the Han Dynasty and won back over 65
citadels in Linh Nam (a part of North Vietnam now).
The Tet spirit was at its greatest at Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Cau Giay
district. The museum was turned into a Vietnamese playground for the Tet
holidays with ethnic minority games including a bamboo swing, tug of war and
stilt walking (Kinh people), throwing a sacred ball through the ring (Tay
people), and gong music festival (Gie-Trieng people).
Other traditional events included Ba Chua Kho Temple Festival in Vu Ninh
District of what used to be the northern province of Bac Ninh, now a part of
Hanoi; the 583rd anniversary of the Xuong Giang victory (a victory by King Le
Loi’s army over the Minh Dynasty in 1427) at Xuong Giang Victory Historical
Monument in the northeastern province of Bac Giang, and the Spring Festival in
Duom Temple which paid tribute to general Duong Tu Minh, who maintained peace at
the country’s border during Ly Dynasty.
Source: VietNamNet/SGGP |
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