Celebrating Spring festival

In the North, when spring comes, the weather is cool, and it’s also a leisure time, thus people have time to travel and celebrate the spring festivals. There are countless special and typical festivals such as: Huong Pagoda Festival, Tran Temple Festival (Nam Dinh), Lim Festival (Bac Ninh), Bai Dinh Temple and Trang An Festival… Among these festivals, Huong Pagoda Festival is the largest and longest one in the country, opening on the 6th January of Lunar calendar, and lasts until the end of the third lunar month. The journey to Huong Pagoda is not only the journey to the Buddha land but also a chance to be back with the nature, with the peace and tranquility of the soul. Sitting on the boat along the crystal and dreamy Yen stream in the foggy morning, one can admire the natural scenery which gradually appears like a water painting in front. The image of the mountains that look like ninety-nine elephants turning their heads to the mountain also slowly appears. Going to Huong Pagoda Festival, one can visit a complex of temples and pagodas with bold Asian architecture which are associated with many interesting folk stories such as: Trinh Temple, Tien Son Cave, Injustice Solving Temple, Huong Tich Cave, Hinh Bong Pagoda.

Going to Yen Tu Festival, visitors can explore a place with more than 1.000 years of history. The architectural works imbued with the East Asian imprint, the historical stories of the Ly, Tran, Le dynasties have turned this place into a land that is rich in historical and cultural values. The higher one goes on the journey, the more one can understand the values of Yen Tu Festival with many sacred and lofty meanings, a place to honor the peaceloving spirit of Vietnamese people. Dong Pagoda (also known as Thien Truc Tu), located on the highest peak of Yen Tu with the altitude of more than 1.000m, is the biggest bronze temple on a mountain in Asia, like a fairy realm on Earth. Only here one can see the desire for a peaceful and positive life that is always anchored in the heart of every Vietnamese people.

Going to Lim Festival (Bac Ninh) in the first month of Lunar calendar, one can immerse in the Quan Ho melodies of the male and female singers – a special cultural activity. The beauty in the life of Kinh Bac people are embedded in each Quan Ho melody such as “Moi nuoc moi trau” (Welcome with tea and betel), “Ngoi tua man thuyen” (Sitting alongside the boat), “Nguoi o dung ve” (Darling please don’t go) … and then, even when the festival is over, the melodies still lingers in the participants’ mind.

In this year spring, visitors should not miss a very special place – Ninh Binh. Hosting the National Tourism Year 2020 with the theme “Hoa Lu – A thousand-year-old capital”, in this spring, Ninh Binh is organizing a series of meaningful cultural activities, honoring Vietnamese cultural and heritage values including: Bai Dinh Pagoda Festival, Hoa Lu Festival, Trang An Festival, Tourism Week of “Golden theme in Tam Coc – Trang An” … Especially, the Bai Dinh Pagoda spiritual and cultural tourism area recently has become one of the great destinations for tourists, an intersection of natural scenery and the beauty in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people.

Moving down to the South, with warm sunshine and full blooming of the golden apricot, the spring festival atmosphere is equally exciting. Some typical festivals in the first month of Lunar calendar include: Ba Den Temple Festival (Tay Ninh), Ba Thien Hau Pagoda Festival (Binh Duong), Ba Chua Xu Festival (An Giang). Ba Den Mountain Festival, also known as Linh Son Thanh Mau Temple Festival, is opened around the 4th and lasts until the full moon of the first lunar month. This is a famous festival in the South. Visitors from all places come to the Festival to visit the shrine of Linh Son Thanh Mau to pray for peace and blessing for the new year ahead.

Ba Thien Hau Pagoda Festival (Binh Duong) on the full moon of the first lunar month is a typical cultural festival of the people of Chinese and Kinh ethnicities in the Southern region, a proof for the harmony and cohesion of different ethnicities in the South. The festival begins in the morning of the 14th day in lunar calendar with the procession of Ba Thien Hau being held according to traditional rituals. Following that are traditional activities such as: thurify, dragon dance, lion dance, to pray for blessings and prosperity for a great new year. Going to Ba Thien Hau Pagoda Festival is an opportunity for one to learn about unique cultural characteristics of the Southeast region.