Host
Theresa Barnes
Podcast Content
Each festival has its own meaning and way of celebrating, it is a point of attraction for tourists when they visit Vietnam. By joining a Vietnam tour package at the beginning of the year, we highly recommend attending the Vietnam Spring Festivals as these events will give you new and interesting things about the country's culture.
During this Spring Festival in Vietnam, big vibrant cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are not so crowded because many people return to their hometowns to celebrate with their families.
In Vietnam, locals celebrate two main traditional holidays: Tet and Mid-Autumn Festival. Tet , short for Tet Nguyen Dan (Spring Festival, Lunar New Year or Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is the most important celebration of Vietnamese culture. Tet Nguyen Dan should not be confused with Tet Chung Thu , which is also known as the Children's Festival in Vietnam. Tet itself only means festival, but in Vietnamese it is often used nominally as "Lunar New Year Festival" as it is often referred to as the most popular a festival of importance among the Vietnamese diaspora, and the Children's Festival is often considered the second most important.
Tet is usually celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year , unless the two-hour difference between Vietnam and China causes the new moon to appear on a different day. Although the Vietnamese New Year is celebrated for 15 days, the Spring Festival is usually celebrated for three days, and some traditions are observed for up to a week. The first day of the Spring Festival is usually spent with family, the second day to visit friends, and the third day to visit teachers and temples. Since the Spring Festival is the most important holiday for the Vietnamese, preparations for the celebration started very early.
They make offerings and pray in temples about two weeks before and immediately after Tet, because temple visits are considered a good omen. People burn incense for ancestors, go to temples to pray for good luck, and clean their homes before the big day. During the Spring Festival, people wear holiday costumes, eat reunion dinners, light fireworks and cannons, sacrifice ancestors, visit temples, and visit family and friends to celebrate each other.
From north to south, in the countryside, spring festivals are held almost every year in villages as a long-standing cultural tradition of the Vietnamese people. Inspired by the Chinese lunar calendar, most cultural events and festivals in Vietnam are celebrated at specific times of the year. Throughout the country, the month of holidays is the first month of the lunar year.
The Huong Pagoda Festival, along with the Bai Dinh Festival and the Yen Tu Pagodas, is one of the largest Buddhist festivals in northern Vietnam. It is believed that the Huong Pagoda Festival is one of the most impressive Buddhist festivals in northern Vietnam, plays a key role in the spiritual life of Vietnamese Buddhists and is of great importance for Vietnamese culture in general. The Huong Pagoda Festival is the longest running and most important spiritual event in North Vietnam and well worth a visit when traveling in Vietnam. The Pagoda of the Spirits is the most famous pilgrimage site in the country, welcoming thousands of pilgrims who head to the sacred caves to pray for a happy and prosperous year.
Cau Ngu Festival is one of the traditional festivals in many of Vietnam's coastal villages such as Haiphong, Hue, Da Nang and Phan Thiet. Moving to the center of Vietnam near the ancient capital of Hue, on January 12, fishermen from Thua Thien Hue province are organizing the Cau Ngu festival to wish a year of peaceful sea, gentle push and return with lots of fruit. Seas.
The main day of this festival is January 13th, when you can watch flocks of people gather to enjoy the traditional Quan Ho folk song sung by Bac Ninin. The festival, one of the largest annual spring festivals in Vietnam, is held from the 14th of the first lunar month of each year at Tran Kings National Historical Complex of Tombs and Tombs in Tien Duc Municipality, Hung Ha District.
The Yen Tu Festival, which takes place from the tenth day of the first lunar month, lasts three months due to a religious request from Vietnamese Buddhists. The Yen Tu festival opens from January 10 to the end of March according to the lunar calendar in the mountainous Yen Tu region of Thuong Yen Kong municipality, Wong Bi, Quang Ninh province. Yen Tu is one of the most important religious sites in northern Vietnam, attracting thousands of local and international pilgrims every year.
This religion is worshipped in many provinces in Vietnam, but it is the largest and most primitive Phu Day festival. Unlike the festivals in the northern delta, this mountainous northern festival is mainly for Lu people . 54 ethnic minorities in Vietnam) in Lai Chau Province, mainly on March 3. In this event, the Lu people offered sacrifices to their gods, hoping for a good harvest, and stopped working for a few days to eat together and play traditional outdoor games.
During the festival, many performances will be organized for tourists. The festival lasts from the sixth day of the first month of the lunar calendar to the second day of the third month of the lunar calendar, that is, from February 17 to May 11 this year. The festival is usually held on the 11th to 16th of the first lunar month after the celebration of the Chinese New Year, in mid-February. It is one of the biggest annual festivals in southern Vietnam.
The Ba Den Mountains Festival , which takes place on the 15th day of the first lunar month, is an exceptional event after the traditional Tet Festival in Vietnam. Ba Den Mountain Festival is one of the most famous sacred spring festivals for the inhabitants of the North, which usually takes place from 18 to 19 until the end of lunar January with traditional revolutionary events and festivals as well as religious events. Tet Nguyen Dan, Vietnam's Spring Festival, is the largest festival in Vietnam and the most important traditional holiday for the Vietnamese people.