The first festival dated back from the time of King Ly Thanh Tong (1054-1072). Accordingly, Prince Linh Lang, the fourth son of King Ly Thanh Tong, often organized the festival in spring to keep his troops fit. Therefore, the festival is held annually to commemorate Prince Linh Lang and demonstrate the sportsmanship as well as preserve traditional cultural identities of residents in the Red River Delta.

The PANO would like introduce photos of the Thuy Linh ball scrambling festival in the Lunar New Year 2017.

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 People of different ages joining the game
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The golden ball are made from jackfruit wood with a diameter of 35cm and 25kg in weight.
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 The game has four teams with two players each.
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The teams compete to bring the ball to their respective flag-hole. They receive a small score each time they bring the ball to their flag, and a big score for bringing it back three consecutive times.
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A game held on Thuy Linh Temple's yard 
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Thousands of locals watching the games 
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 Score for the red belt team
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 Young, strong men compete in a game.
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The elderly in villages, wearing "Ao the" (Vietnamese traditional long dress for men) and "Khan xep" (a turban, usually in black or brown made of cotton or silk), watching a match.
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Players of each team score a point when bringing the ball to the hole.
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A player in the yellow belt team celebrating his score
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The purple belt team wins after 40 minutes of competition.

 

Translated by Lam Anh