Yen Tu Spring Festival, one of the largest and longest festival in the north, began in Uong Bi city, Quang Ninh province on February 19, the 10th day of the first lunar month.
The seal opening ceremony at Yen Tu Spring Festival (Photo: VNA)
The opening ceremony features traditional rituals such as drum beating, bell ringing and other spiritual practices.
This year festival will feature a lantern festival, a ceremony to pray for peace for the nation and people, folk games, traditional musical performances, dragon and unicorn dances, and photo exhibitions. Activities to promote the values and majestic, sacred beauty of Yen Tu and showcase of the cuisine of the Dao Thanh Y ethnic group at the foot of Yen Tu mountain will also be held. The festival draws a large number of visitors.
Yen Tu Mountain is closely attached with the name of King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third King of the Tran Dynasty, who defeated Mongol invaders twice during his 15-year reign.
The King abdicated when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain practicing and popularizing Buddhism. He founded the first Vietnamese School of Buddhism called Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen on the 1,068m-high Yen Tu Mountain. The 20,000ha site is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism.
Yen Tu was recognised as a special national relic site in 2013. It is home to dozens of pagodas, hundreds of towers and thousands of ancient relics containing the spiritual values and thoughts of the Truc Lam Zen sect and the glorious culture of the Dai Viet period.
Quang Ninh as well as nearby provinces of Hai Duong and Bac Giang provinces have completed a dossier to submit to the UNESCO to seek the World Heritage title for the Yen Tu - Vinh Nghiem - Con Son, Kiep Bac relic and landscape complex.
In the first nine days of the Lunar New Year, the Yen Tu relic site welcomed 138,000 visitors, up 19% year on year.
The Yen Tu Spring Festival will take place until the end of the third lunar month, or early May.