Khmer people always prepare for the new year ceremony very carefully. They clean and redecorate their house and buy necessary food for the holidays. They stop all farm work, relax and set free their cattle. The three official festival days are held in a joyful and exciting way.

The first day is for the ceremony to receive the great calendar. Moha Sang-Kran is considered a calendar which gives a detailed account of dates and festivals in a year and a forecast of rainfall so the villagers can foresee if they get a good or bad crop that year. On this day, at a selected hour no matter it is in the morning or afternoon, people take a bath and put on their best clothes in anticipation of the new year. They take incense, lamps, flowers and fruits to a pagoda where they do the great calendar-receiving ceremony. At the pagoda, Moha Sang-Kran, put on a red-lacquered, gilded tray, is placed on a palanquin and carried three times round the main sanctuary. This rite is to welcome the new year and wait for omens for a bad or good new year. Then the official ceremony is carried out inside the sanctuary. After that, every participant prays to the Buddha and chant prayers for a happy new year. Young males and females walk out to the pagoda yard and join in fun activities until late at night.

The second day is for the ceremony to offer boiled rice and heap up a sandy mountain. On this day, every Khmer family cooks rice and offers it to Buddhist monks at the pagoda in early morning and at noon. The monks chant prayers to thank those who make the food and bring it to their pagoda and say good luck to them.

On the afternoon the same day, people start to heap up a sandy mountain in search of happiness and luck. They make small mountains looking to eight directions and one in the middle which represent the universe. This custom originates from an age-old legend. It displays people’s aspirations for rain.

The third day is for the ceremony to wash the Buddha’s statue and Buddhist monks. After giving boiled rice to the monks in the morning, they continue to listen to Buddhist teachings. In the afternoon, they burn incense, offer sacrifices and use scented water to wash the statue in order to pay tribute and gratitude to the Buddha. This is also to get rid of the old year’s misfortunes and wish all the best for the new year. The monks do a ceremony to pray for peace in the dead’s souls. After that, the people return to their house and wash the Buddha’s statue at home. They offer dishes, confectionery and fruits to ask for happiness for their parents and grandparents and being forgiven for their mistakes made in the old year.

During these three days, Khmer people go to visit each other and wish good health, good luck and prosperity to each other. They also join in fun activities.

Chol Chnam Thmay festival shows Khmer people’s aspirations, like many others ethnic groups, to forget about the old year’s misfortunes and look for a better new year.

Time: The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month of the previous year to the3rd day of the first lunar month of the new year.
Place: Nation-wide.
Objects of worship: grandparents and ancestors.

Participator: The biggest national festival that attracts to people through the country.
Characteristics:
- Nice clothes, or traditional costumes.
- Ritual of ancestral worshipping and a rite to see Tao Quan (Kitchen God) off.
- Best wishes for a prosperous New Year and family gathering.

Tet is the biggest and the most sacred festival. It is the most attractive to a majority of the Vietnamese.

Tet falls on a time when the old year is over and the New Year comes by lunar calendar. This is also the time when the cycle of the universe finishes: winter ends and spring, the season of birth of all living things, comes.

Tet is an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. It is a time when one pays respect to his/her ancestors and grandparents who have brought up him/her. It is an occasion when everyone sends each other best wishes for a new year, stops thinking about unhappy things and says good things about each other.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth month by lunar calendar, there is a rite to see Tao Quan (Kitchen God) off. The rite to say goodbye to the old year is held on the 30th or 29th day (if that month has only 29 days) of the twelfth month by lunar calendar. The rite to welcome the New Year is held at midnight that day. The rite to see off ancestral souls to return to the other world is often held on the 3rd day of the first month by lunar calendar when the Tet holidays finish and everybody goes back to work.

There are various customs practiced during Tet such as ancestral worshipping, visiting a person’s house on the first day of the new year, wishing Tet wishes, giving lucky money to young children and old people, wishing longevity to the oldest people, opening rice paddies or opening a shop.

Every march, when the climate is dry and trees lack water, Lo Lo ethnic people in Meo Vac, Ha Giang province rely on a rain praying festival. With typical rituals, the festival, handed down from generation to generation, is also an opportunity to meet one another.

The rain praying festival is often held on lunar March 15, 17 or 19. It is only organised when the weather is harsh or drought appears. Previously, rich people in villages used to pay for the cost of the festival but nowadays each villager contributes an item to the festival. Objects, including a chicken, a dog or a kilogram of rice are taken to the house of a sorcerer or village chief.

To have a successful rain praying festival, the first procedure that cannot be avoided is to organize a ceremony to ask ancestral sorcerers for aid. Mr Lo Si Pao, Sang Pa A village’s chief in Meo Vac town said, that if ancestral sorcerers do not agree, it will not rain even if you pray.

The procedure is quite easy, including a cup of water, incense and bamboo paper (a kind of papers that is used for sacrifices of the Lo Lo people). First of all, the sorcerer burns incense at the family ancestor’s altar and then, the cup of water and the paper are placed at a house corner. After that, the sorcerer starts worshipping. He covers the water cup with the bamboo paper; if the water in the cup is not absorbed or poured out of the cup, “permission is granted” and then, the rain praying festival will be successful. Finally, the sorcerer burns the bamboo paper and the procedure is completed.

The Lo Lo ethnic people believe that after organising the festival within three to nine days, it will rain. Sorcerer Lo Si Pao recalls 20 years ago when they suffered severe drought, maize trees in the whole region died because of the drought. At that time, he was the village chief. He encouraged villagers, even including the Mong ethnic minority people, to contribute offerings to organise a rain praying festival. Initially, the Mong ethnic people did not believe but then they also agreed. Suddenly, when the prayers had only just finished, and the villagers were yet to return home, it poured down. The villagers were very happy, danced, sang and celebrated jubilantly.

Mr Lo Si Pao is now nearly 60 years old. He is the only Lo Lo person in Sang Pa A who can remember all the rituals of a rain praying ceremony.

The place where the festival takes place is often a large and high ground next to a rice field. Praying objects must consist of maize alcohol, a dog, a chicken, a sword, a bowl of water, four cups of alcohol, four bamboo pipes of incense symbolising four haven directions.

Girls prepare make-up and traditional costumes of the Lo Lo and bring musical instruments to the festival. Boys are responsible for preparing the items. Musical instruments for the festival are bronze drums and two-stringed instruments. The bronze drums of the Lo Lo used for the festival are now displayed at the museum so only the two-stringed instrument is used.

The rain pray is divided into two parts: the ritual and the festival. The ritual is made with the participation of villagers. Live objects such as dogs and chicken will be taken to the praying place and worshipped twice. After being used for worshipping for the first time, village’s boys will slaughter them and use the meat for worshipping again.

When the worship finishes, villagers group to drink the alcohol, eat the meat and dance. Beautiful Lo Lo girls dance in their traditional costumes weaved with colourful patterns.

Mr Thao Hong Son, secretary of Meo Vac Party Committee said: “the rain praying festival is a typical cultural activity bearing unique characteristics. The festival is an opportunity for villagers to pray for luck and show their faith in God. Mr Son said, in 2007, Meo Vac district is expected to build a cultural and tourist village to preserve and develop culture of Lo Lo ethnic minority group. The rain praying festival of the Lo Lo people in Sin Cai village with different characteristics from the Lo Lo people in Meo Vac town is expected to be preserved.

Vietnam LanguageVietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ), formerly known under French colonization as Annamese (see Annam), is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of the Vietnamese people (người Việt or người Kinh), who constitute 86%-90% of Vietnam’s population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, most of whom live in the United States. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family, of which it has the most speakers by a significant margin (several times larger than the other Austroasiatic languages put together). Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese, especially words that denote abstract ideas in the same way European languages borrow from Latin and Greek, and it was formerly written using the Chinese writing system, albeit in a modified format and was given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters.

- Vietnamese is the official language.

- Almost tourist guides speak languages: English, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and Japanese.

Vietnamese Currency

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Vietnamese dong (VND) is the official currency in Vietnam.

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Cheques with value as Vietnamese dong include: VND 1,000,000 and 500,000.

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Vivutravel.com

The event, which drew the participation of tens of thousands of local people and tourists, is one of the traditional rites under the Nguyen Dynasty featuring the desire for prosperity and peace to the nation and favourable weather.

Building on the success of previous festivals, the Offering Ritual this year was precisely restored its ceremonial process as it had been in the feudal era of Vietnam .

Nam Giao Esplanade is an open-air monument in the south of ancient Hue Citadel. The model of architecture bears both the religious and political significance of Oriental feudalism. It was built in 1806, based on the dogma of heaven fate of Confucianism. The structure of the terraces also shows the misunderstanding deriving from old thoughts on the Universe of the prior times: circular heavens and square earth.

The esplanade has been restored and recognised by the UNESCO as the world’s heritage since 1993./

The UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee made the recognition at its 34 session in Brazil on July 31, basing on three criteria.

Firstly, relics on the ground and excavated under the ground at the Thang Long Royal Citadel in Hanoi reflect a long-lasting cultural exchange process and show that the citadel was influenced by many different cultures, theories and systems of thought, including Buddhism, Confucianism, the theory of geomancy, and the models of Eastern and Western citadels.

Secondly, the citadel demonstrates an age-old cultural tradition of Vietnamese people in the Red River Delta during the continuous history of 13 centuries. Archaeological cultures, architectural and artistic relics of the heritage show that the area has been a political, economic and cultural centre for over 1,000 years.

Thirdly, the discovered relics also show that the citadel had direct contact with many important historical events of a Southeast Asian country in the relations with other nations in the region and the world as well.

Archaeological excavations were conducted on the 40,000sq.m site at No.18 Hoang Dieu Street in 2002-2003, revealing four distinct periods of activity: the Dai La or pre-Thang Long period from the 7 th -10 th centuries; the Ly-Tran period of the 11 th -14 th centuries, which included some vestiges of the pre Dinh-Le dynasty of the 10 th century; the Le period of the 15 th -18 th centuries; and the Nguyen dynasty of the 19 th century.

Vietnam began taking measures for the preservation of the site back in 2006, said Professor Trinh Sinh from the Archaeological Institute.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism requested the Prime Minister to ratify a plan to preserve some of the excavated lots found to contain the most important, representative and original artefacts, Sinh said. These would be turned into an open museum to display artefacts and replicas.

The remaining lots would be systematically excavated, properly documented and then turned into an historical and cultural park within the complex of the historic Ba Dinh Square , he said.

Other UNESCO-recognised tangible and intangible heritages in Vietnam include the complex of Hue ancient capital relics, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son Sanctuary, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Hue royal court music, the space of Central Highlands gong culture, the space of Quan ho (love duet) culture and Ca tru (ceremonial song)./.

en.hanoi.vietnamplus.vn

“To help residents and visitors count, a giant digital clock will be put in place on January 13, said Pham Quang Long, director of the Ha Noi Department of Culture and Information.

Long on Sunday announced the festival Khoanh Khac Thang Long-Ha Noi (Thang Long-Ha Noi’s Moment), a celebration of the start of the countdown to the anniversary of the capital’s establishment.

“The focus of the festival will be the opening of the count-down clock, marking 1,000 days until the grand ceremony to take place in 2010,” Long said.

The event, taking place at the heart of the capital near Hoan Kiem Lake, will include cultural activities and festivities such as the exhibition Memories of Old Ha Noi.

In addition, a dragon dance and procession will take place at Ba Kieu Temple with more than 2,000 actors and local residents participating. The programme is directed by People’s Artist Le Hung from the Youth Theatre and scripted by writer Nguyen Khac Phuc.

Petro Vietnam Finance Company general director Tong Quoc Truong signed an agreement with the Ha Noi Department of Culture and Information to be the main sponsor of the programme.
Source Vietnamnet

At a press briefing on April 28 in Hanoi, the organising board said that the festival is part of the “Space of Arts” programme developed by the XQ Vietnam Company and the Co Loa-Hanoi Citadel Relics Management Board.

The festival will showcase various kinds of flowers grown in the central highlands city of Dalat with a special emphasis on wild orchids.

There will also be a series of events in a tribute to Vietnamese embroidered art and the artisans in this field.

The organisers plan to set up a hall to exhibit 12 special works which are embroidered with a flower design on both sides, as well as other embroideries using deep-blue and yellow colours.

On October 1, an embroidery work titled “Desire of the 1,000-year-old Thang Long” will be presented to Hanoi during the grand ceremony that will mark the capital city’s 1,000th birthday.

Nine embroiderers are still working on the gift, which is expected to weigh almost 167.5kg and will be 4m long and 3m wide when it is completed in September this year.
Source VNA

The above announcement came from Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ho Van Nien on April 14.

The event will feature over 300 stalls, offering products of both domestic and foreign makers, seminars on the theme of gift-giving and a gift exhibition.

100 unique gifts from 100 craft villages nationwide will be auctioned on the occasion while 50 famous craftmen will showcase their gift collections.
Source VNA

Ngo Hoa, Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee and Head of the festival’s organising board, said that one theatre group from the region of Poitou-Charentes will entertain visitors with installation and street art while the funk band Les Traine-Savates will play at the festival’s opening ceremony and various other open sites in Hue City during the festival.

One of the more bizarre acts comes from the Siphon Cosmique Theatre Group which will perform a show on a special stage made from ploughing machines at Nguyen Trai High School in Thuan An Township and at the tile roofed bridge at Thanh Toan.

During the festival, famous photographer Sébastien Laval will exhibit his photos of ethnic minority groups from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia at the Dien Tho royal palace and in Nam Dong District. Laval will also place huge portraits of ethnic minority people at various sites throughout the city.

French artistes have appeared at the Hue Festivals in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 and France has also helped the province to carry out many other cultural and social projects.
Source VNA