(Photo: Backyard Travel)

As a multi-ethnic and multicultural country, Tet festivals in Vietnam are very diverse and colorful. It is cultural differences that motivate people to learn about these interesting holidays. In the early spring days, our country is bustling with traditional festivals. Let's explore with Vntrip now!

1. Tet Day Festivals in Northern Vietnam

On New Year's Day, the North will welcome the following festivals:

Perfume Pagoda Festival

The Huong Pagoda Festival takes place in My Duc, Hanoi from January 6th to the end of the 3rd lunar month. The venue is Huong Son scenic area. This festival is considered a journey to a Buddhist land – where the Bodhisattva Guanyin practiced. Every year, thousands of people from all over the country gather here to participate in this meaningful festival.

The opening ceremony on the morning of January 27 (Photo: Vietnamnet Global)

Perfume Pagoda is a collection of many cave temples associated with mountains. There is harmony between majestic nature and gentle people. Not only can visitors worship the Buddha, but visitors here can also participate in activities such as boating, climbing, cave play, and cave games.

Go Dong Da Festival

The festival takes place on the 5th of Tet. Since the liberation of the Capital (10/10/1954), Go Dong Da festival has become a national holiday. This day is celebrated to commemorate the illustrious feat of King Quang Trung. Therefore, visitors will have the opportunity to play fun games, clearly showing the spirit of martial arts. The most prominent is the Thang Long Fire Dragon procession which is the most unique. 

Photo: printerset.com

In addition, Go Dong Da festival also has very meaningful activities such as the prayer ceremony, offering incense to commemorate the merits of heroes and cemeteries who have served for the people and for water.

Tran Temple Sealing Festival

The opening ceremony of Tran temple took place in the middle of the night of January 14 and the beginning of January 15, at the Tran temple ruins of Loc Vuong ward, Ho Chi Minh City. Nam Dinh, Nam Dinh province. The festival takes place over three days, usually from January 13 to 15 every year. This festival expresses gratitude to the merits of the Chen kings.

Photo: Collected

Yen Tu Festival

The Yen Tu Festival is celebrated from the 10th day of the 10th month of the first lunar month and lasts for 3 months of spring. Yen Tu is not only famous for its beautiful scenery, ancient towers, pagodas but also the place where the Truc Lam Yen Tu meditation sect was formed. The road to the top of Yen Tzu winds, sheltered under the shadow of great trees. The difficult path is a test of faith, a test of loyalty to the Buddha.

Photo: luhanhvietnam

Hung Kings Commemoration

Hung Kings Commemoration Day is held on the 10th day of the 3rd month of the lunar calendar at Hung Temple, Viet Tri city, Phu Tho province. This is how Vietnamese people commemorate Hung King's water building merits. The ritual consists of two main parts: the king procession and the incense offering.

Photo: Zing News

2. Tet Day Festivals in Central Vietnam

Central Vietnam is also famous for its variety of spiritual festivals in the early spring days. The beginning of a year, so people often come to pay tribute to the ancestral gods as well as wish for a peaceful year.

King Mai Temple Festival

The festival takes place from the 3rd to the 5th of Tet in Van Dien commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An. On this day, people organize activities to commemorate King Mai Hac Emperor.

Photo: visitnghean.com

Sình Village Wrestling Association

This is a traditional festival of Hue that takes place on January 9 to 10. The festival is both spiritual and encourages the spirit of movement of the people.

Photo: thuathienhue.gov.vn

Fisher Bridge Festival

The Fishing Bridge Festival (also known as the Ong Fish Festival) held in January is a cultural beauty of fishermen in South Central coastal fishing villages. The festival vividly recreates the traditional custom of worshiping Fish Ong according to legends imbued with folklore. People often pray for a good fishing season, shrimp fish full of boats.

Fishing Festival in Van Thuy Tu (Photo: Binh Thuan Museum)

3. Tet Day Festivals in South Vietnam

People in the southern provinces usually celebrate the following holidays around Tet and early spring:

Ba Den Mountain Festival

This is a festival of Tay Ninh people, which takes place from the 4th of Tet. Tourists flock to pilgrimage, worship and visit a lot here. On the way to climb, visitors can stop at Linh Son Holy Mother Temple or Son Than Temple.

A Khmer dance performance on the top of Ba Den Mountain with the Bodhisattva statue - the tallest bronze Bodhisattva statue on a mountain in Asia (Photo: VNA)

Thien Hau Pagoda Festival

Ba Thien Hau Pagoda Festival (Ba Pagoda Festival) takes place over 3 days from 13 to the full moon of January in Binh Duong. The festival is imbued with typical culture of the Southeast region. People often set up tables in front of their homes for sacrifices on the night of January 13 in preparation for her procession the next day. The procession of Mrs. Thien Hau is held according to traditional rites, the procession is carried throughout the streets with the lion dance, lion dance, dragon, flag ...

Photo: VnExpress

Holy Tran Temple Festival

Taking place from January 8 to 10 every year, the Holy Tran Temple Festival in Ho Chi Minh City. The festival days are a tribute to the merits of Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan, and at the same time educate traditions and calendars for the young generation.

Photo: Bao Ha Nam Online

Tet to spring is the time to enter the new year for Vietnamese people. Therefore, this time often has spiritual festivals for people to wish good things for the New Year. Besides, these festivals are also an opportunity for people to thank and remember the merits of ancestors and heroes in history.

Photo: Bao Dan Toc

On the evening of April 28, at Binh Thuy District Square (Can Tho City), the People's Committee of Can Tho City held the opening ceremony of the 10th Southern Folk Cakes Festival in 2023, with the theme "Preserving and promoting the value of Southern traditional cakes".

The opening ceremony of the Southern Folk Cakes Festival and culture program to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and reunification of the country (April 30), International Labor Day (May 1), and 133 years of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19) took place on a grand and unique scale, making an impression on thousands of audiences. In addition to the main activities, the Festival also has many activities such as the program "Folk Games", the program "Folk Cakes and our Childhood", and fashion and art performance nights to serve visitors.

Mr. Nguyen Thuc Hien - Vice Chairman of City People's Committee. Can Tho, Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2023 Southern Folk Cake Festival gave the opening speech

Speaking at the Opening Ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Thuc Hien - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee. Can Tho, said: Southern folk cakes are a typical type of culture and cuisine of Southern people. During the process of production and exchange between ethnic groups, people have creatively utilized ingredients from sticky rice to process into folk cakes, containing profound and familiar cultural values, engraving in the minds of Southern people and tourists from near and far. “The Southern Folk Cakes Festival has become an important tourism event to preserve and promote the value of Vietnamese culinary culture in general and Southern folk values ​​in particular, honoring the labor and creative process of folk cake artisans, promoting the processing and production of folk cakes to become a Southern specialty, gradually building a brand, promoting the city's increasingly developed tourism and international integration," Mr. Hien said.

Mr. Le Quang Manh - Secretary of Can Tho City Party Committee (standing in the middle left) and Mr. Pham Van Hieu - Permanent Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Council. Can Tho (standing in the middle right), awarded souvenir flags to units participating in the Festival

This is a large-scale event held annually in Can Tho, actively contributing to preserving and promoting the city's traditional cultural values ​​and culinary culture in particular and the Mekong Delta in general.

Mr. Tran Viet Truong - Chairman of the City People's Committee. Can Tho (6th person on the left) and Mr. Nguyen Trung Nhan (4th person on the right) - Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Can Tho, giving flowers to express gratitude to sponsors of the Festival

According to the Organizing Committee, there will be about 300 booths and 100 types of folk cakes introduced at the 10th Southern Folk Cakes Festival in 2023. The contest not only creates opportunities for artisans to create and improve their skills potential, but also an opportunity to introduce the quintessence of folk cuisine with a variety of cakes from the Kinh, Chinese, Khmer, and Cham ethnic groups.

A variety of cakes are displayed at the 2023 Folk Cake Festival

The festival is divided into zones: Southern folk cakes, OCOP products, area displaying folk baking tools, cuisine, crafts, and souvenirs.

Traditional Cham cakes are prepared at the Festival to serve visitors

In 2023, the contest has 27 participating teams, and 73 types of cake, gathering 168 artisans (47 main artisans and 121 supporting artisans) from 11 provinces: Can Tho, Hau Giang, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Ben Tre, An Giang, Dong Thap, and Binh Thuan.

The artisans have carefully prepared a variety of folk cakes for the contest and many new, unique, and creative cakes such as jackfruit flower pancakes, rice snail-filled khot cakes, pandan leaf coconut cookies filled with salted eggs, luffa leaf cake, dried Thoi Long silkworm cake, and durian cake. Many artisans participated with cakes named after fruits such as custard apple cake, mangosteen cake, tomato cake, and eggplant cake. Especially, there were many types of folk cakes of the Khmer and Cham ethnic groups on display and cooked at the Festival.

Coming from An Giang, artisans bring to the Festival traditional folk cakes of the Khmer people

The Folk Cakes Festival aims to enhance cultural exchanges between provinces and cities within the country with international friends, and is an opportunity to promote and develop tourism, contributing to the socio-economic development of Can Tho. The festival takes place from April 28 to May 2, with the closing ceremony at 7:00 p.m. on May 2, at the Festival Square in Binh Thuy district.

References: baodantoc.vn

Photo: Collected

(VTC News) - Dien Bien Airport reopened with the first test flight using the modern Airbus A321 aircraft of Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines has announced that from December 2, 2023, Vietnam Airlines will operate regular flights Hanoi - Dien Bien with a frequency of 7 flights/week on all days of the week.

The flight departs from Hanoi at 13:05 and arrives in Dien Bien at 14:05. The return trip departs from Dien Bien at 2:45 p.m. and lands in Hanoi at 3:35 p.m.

From December 2, 2023, Vietnam Airlines will operate regular flights Hanoi - Dien Bien with a frequency of 7 flights/week on all days of the week.

Dien Bien Airport is about to come back into operation with a 2,400m long runway, meeting technical standards for modern aircraft. Vietnam Airlines will operate the Dien Bien route with Airbus A321 aircraft. This is the aircraft line used by the airline to operate on Asian routes and domestic routes. Vietnam Airlines' A321 fleet has 3 configurations: 178 seats, 184 seats and 203 seats.

Thus, after many months of closure for upgrading and expansion, Dien Bien airport officially reopened.

The Dien Bien airport expansion project started in January 2022, officially closing the airport for repairs from April. The project has a total investment of 1,467.7 billion VND, funded by Airports Corporation of Vietnam. Site clearance costs have a total investment of 1,555 billion VND from the budget of Dien Bien province.

The investment and construction project to expand Dien Bien airport has been approved by the Prime Minister for investment policy in Decision No. 470/QD-TTg dated March 27, 2021 with the investment in construction and expansion of runways meeting technical standards for modern aircraft such as A320 and A321.

At the same time, the airport's passenger terminal is designed with two floors, increasing capacity from 300,000 passengers/year to 500,000 passengers/year.

The runway is 2,400 m long, 45 m wide, the edge is 7.5 m wide on each side, the brake strip at both ends of the runway is 100 m long, 60 m wide, and the turning yard is at both ends of the runway. In addition, new complementary infrastructure and civil aviation areas were renovated and built to ensure synchronous operation of A320, A321 and equivalent aircraft.

Dien Bien Airport is located in Thanh Truong ward, Dien Bien Phu city, which was restored from Muong Thanh airport built by the French in 1939.

In its early days, the airport had a runway measuring only 1,200 x 25m with gravel ground, able to withstand the load of fighter aircraft and light transports such as Morane, Potez... In the early days, there was almost nothing except a runway, a small apron and drainage ditches.

In 1984, on the 30th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory, the Hanoi - Dien Bien route used airplanes AN24, AK40. Due to unfavorable technical conditions, after only 10 months of operation, the flight path was cut to repair the runway. After repairs, the airport resumed operations and the aircraft was an ATR72.

From 1990 to 2004, Dien Bien airport invested tens of billions of dong in new construction and repair of works such as taxiways, aircraft aprons, passenger terminals, car parks, and other works such as flight management and command tower.

Perspective of Dien Bien Phu airport (Illustration).

Until 2021, Dien Bien airport still had a small scale with 1 runway 1,830m long, 30m wide, simple equipment system, aircraft apron with 3 parking positions, passenger terminal with the capacity of 300,000 visitors/year.

Due to limitations in clearance heights at both ends of the takeoff and landing runway, Dien Bien airport only ensures the operation of ATR72 aircraft and equivalent during the day (in favorable weather conditions).

Previously, this airport could only operate the Hanoi - Dien Bien flight. By 2021, Bamboo Airways was able to exploit the Ho Chi Minh City - Dien Bien flight thanks to the use of the Embraer 190 small jet line.

In order to develop the Dien Bien economy in particular and the Northwest region's economy in general, on March 27, 2021, the Prime Minister approved the investment policy of the Dien Bien airport expansion construction investment project.

Until now, Dien Bien is the only province among the 6 Northwest border provinces of Vietnam to have an airport.

On October 27, the Vietnam Aviation Administration issued a document on reopening flights to and from Dien Bien airport. Accordingly, the project will be completed and allowed to be put back into operation by the Ministry of Transport from December 2.

Reference: vtc.vn

Photo: Bac Giang newspaper

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Giang province has just issued a plan to organize Culture - Tourism Week activities in 2024 to introduce domestic and international tourists to the image of the typical and unique cultural heritage of Bac Giang’s land, people, and values.

Accordingly, the 2024 Culture - Tourism Week event will take place in 6 days, from February 20, 2024, to February 25, 2024 (January 11 to 16, Year of the Dragon) at Tay Yen Tu spiritual - ecological tourist area of Son Dong district, Vinh Nghiem pagoda of Yen Dung district, and some districts and cities in the province.

Bac Giang Province Culture - Tourism Week 2024 will take place for 6 days, from February 20, 2024 to February 25, 2024 (ie from January 11 to January 16, Year of the Dragon).

At Culture - Tourism Week 2024, many activities will take place such as organizing the Forest Opening Festival; displaying typical antiques of the Ly - Tran dynasties in Bac Giang province; launching ceremony of planting Giap Thin spring trees in 2024; writing and displaying calligraphy with the theme "Ly - Tran poetry through calligraphy"; the 2nd Hat Then - Dan Tinh Festival of Bac Giang province; Transfering of the Truc Lam Patriarch Trinity Divine from Vinh Nghiem pagoda, Yen Dung district to Thuong Tay Yen Tu pagoda, Son Dong district; Opening Ceremony of Culture - Tourism Week 2024; Opening the Spring Newspaper Festival and displaying beautiful photos of the economic and social achievements of Bac Giang province; Provincial planting New Year tree activity; Sloong hao singing festival and spring market in Tan Son highland, Luc Ngan district; Tug-of-war tournament in Bac Giang province; Bac Giang Provincial Stick Push Championship; Non Vua mountain climbing; Opening the Spring Festival at Bat Nha Pagoda; Spring Festival opening ceremony at Than Nong Temple.

The organization of Culture - Tourism Week activities aims to preserve, honor, and promote the unique cultural values ​​and heritage of Truc Lam Yen Tu Buddhism, with the purpose of propagating Truc Lam Yen Tu Buddhism. The Culture - Tourism Week affirms its important role and significance in building and developing typical tourism products, strengthening advertising and promotion of tourism development, and contributing to innovation, integration, and development of the province.

Source: Baobacgiang.com.vn