Huong Pagoda Festival opens

The annual Huong (Perfume) Pagoda Festival opened in Hanoi ’s
outskirts district of My Duc on February 8 or the sixth day of the first
lunar month.

The festival is the biggest and longest annual festival in
Vietnam that lasts through three spring months, welcoming more than 1
million pilgrims and tourists each year.

On the first day of the festival, an art programme was held and an art exhibition opened at the pagoda’s museum.

Highlights
of the festival will be a poetry night and a night of flower garlands
and coloured lanterns in the Yen stream. The poetry night will be held
on the 15 th day of the first lunar month.

The festival organising board and local authorities have invested in
expanding the wharf and put a total of 4,600 boats into service during
this year’s festival.

Sightseeing trips to
pagodas, temples and caves are the main attractions at the Huong pagoda
festival, as well as ceremonies to ask favours from Lord Buddha.

Built in the late 17th century, Huong Pagoda is located in My Duc
District at a historic site that has a large number of pagodas, temples
and caverns filled with marvelous kinds of stalactiles, about 60km from
downtown Hanoi. The Huong Tich cavern has the autograph of Lord Trinh
Sam in 1770, describing the cavern as the most beautiful cave in the
country./.

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Vietnamese flock to pagodas for New Year

Ngoc Dung’s family from Van Chuong alley on Kham Thien street in
Hanoi’s Dong Da district often goes to the pagoda on the first day of
the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday. While most business households visit
large and well-known pagodas, Dung’s family chose one nearest their
house for traffic convenience and to avoid the hustle.

“Apart from praying for happiness, prosperity and good health for
family, visiting pagodas gives us a chance to enjoy the peaceful
atmosphere at religious places,” the 40-years-old Hanoian said.

Visiting pagodas at the beginning of Lunar New Year has become an age-old tradition of Vietnamese people.

While streets in Hanoi are deserted in the first day of New Year, a
stream of people goes on a pilgrimage at Tay Ho, Tran Quoc pagodas or
Ngoc Son and Quan Thanh temples.

Among the religious
destinations, Tay Ho pagoda attracts the largest number of visitors
from both in and outside Hanoi with several thousand each day during
Tet holiday.

Fruit and offering shops in the entrance leading to the pagoda are overcrowded with visitors on the occasion.

Thanh, 70 who is also from Kham Thien street, said he often goes
to Tay Ho pagoda with his old friend on the first day of new year.

“We can go to the pagoda anytime but the first day is a special time
of a year to pray for good things for our family”, he explained.

Meanwhile, many citizens, especially students, chose to visit the Temple of Literature in the new year.

Nguyen Thu Phuong from Quan Su street in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem
district said she visited on the first day of Lunar New Year to pray to
become a good learner.

“This year, I pray for good
health for my family and wish that I will enter Teachers Training
University,” Phuong said.

The first half of the
first lunar month is the best time for a pilgrimage. Joining the flow of
devotees in the spring’s wonderful atmosphere you may feel the harmony
of the sky and the ground, she said./.

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Major works celebrating Hanoi’s birthday inaugurated

The inaugural ceremony for the upgraded Tung Van Pagoda in Vinh Phuc
province’s Vinh Tuong district and its two gemstone Buddha statues was
held on October 1 as one of the cultural events celebrating the 1,000 th
anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The statues of
the Buddha Shakyamuni and the Buddhist Bodhisattva were made from a
20-tonne blue stone block found in Van Chan district of the northern
mountainous Yen Bai province.

To celebrate the
event, many significant programmes have been implemented at the pagoda,
including exhibitions of Buddhist cultural calligraphy, village
paintings, a talk on the art of drinking tea and practices of Buddhist
rituals.

On the October 1 night, 5,000 candles
will be lighted up in the surrounding of the pagoda to worship for peace
world and happy people.

The Tung Van Pagoda is
the largest ancient pagoda in Vinh Tuong district which was built 327
years ago under the reign of Kinh Le Huy Tong. The pagoda was recognised
as a national cultural heritage in 1964.

Earlier
on September 30, the People’s Committees of Hanoi and Ninh Binh province
jointly held an art programme entitled “Hoa Lu-Thang Long-Hanoi” to
celebrate the capital city’s millennium anniversary./.

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