The festival aimed to promote traditional values, provide a chance for pilgrims and tourists to offer incense and pay tribute to King Tran Nhan Tong who made great contributions to the nation, as well as to honor values of the thoughts of the Truc Lam Zen sect, and pray for a prosperous year.

Visitors can also participate in many folk games such as cock fighting, tug of war, “con” (cloth ball) throwing and chess.

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A performance at the opening ceremony for the Yen Tu Spring festival

* The Long Tong (starting a new crop season) Festival 2019 was also held in Dinh Hoa district, Thai Nguyen province. The festival is a religious ritual of the ethnic minority groups in the North to pray for bumper crops and prosperity throughout the year. The festival was named as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2017.

* The Quan ho (love duet) singing contest, the Culture - Tourism Week, the Spring Newspaper Festival, and the Bonsai Exhibition took place on February 14 at the Kinh Bac Cultural Center in Bac Ninh province.

These activities were parts of the “Returning to the land of Quan ho 2019” festival to mark a decade since the folk duel singing genre won UNESCO’s recognition as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity (2009 - 2019).

Translated by Lam Anh