Phu Day Festival gets underway in Nam Dinh Province

Thousands of visitors and pilgrims have flocked to the Phu Day Festival 2016 which officially kicked off on April 9 (the third day of the third lunar month) in Kim Thai Commune, Vu Ban District, the northern province of Nam Dinh.
The six-day festival features numerous traditional rituals including an incense offering ceremony at the main (Tien Huong) temple, recitals of Buddhist scriptures at Van Cat Temple and torchlight procession at Tien Huong Temple.
The highlight of the festival will be a Chau Van (ceremonial singing) competition which is scheduled at Tien Huong and Van Cat temples on April 10. It aims to honour, preserve and promote the value of this intangible cultural heritage.
In addition, a wide variety of cultural and artistic events as well as folk games will be organised on the occasion, such as lion and dragon dances, arts performances at Cay Da Bong Temple, a ‘co nguoi’ (human chess) competition, wrestling, tug-of-war and keo chu, in which a team of 32 boys under 15 years old arrange a formation to create phrases in Han (Chinese characters) and Nom (former Vietnamese system) scripts.
The festival is one of the unique folk cultural activities, contributing to enriching traditional culture of the country.
It is held annually to honour Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh, one of the four immortals in Vietnamese folklore.
The Phu Day historical and cultural relic site comprises nearly 20 pagodas, temples and palaces. In addition to performing spiritual activities to pray for a better life, visitors to the festival have a chance to enjoy unique architecture of this relic site which is considered the birthplace of Chau Van.