This year’s festival coincides with the 50th anniversary of Uncle Ho’s visit to Con Son and the 681st death anniversary of Venerable Huyen Quang.
Con Son - Kiep Bac Festival in 2014 Giap Ngo spring. Photo: Thanh Tung - VNA
The 2015 Con Son – Kiep Bac Spring Festival is to be held from March 4 to 7 (i.e. from the 14th to the 17th day of the first month of the Year of the Goat) by the Hai Duong provincial People’s Committee.
This year’s festival coincides with the 50th anniversary of Uncle Ho’s visit to Con Son and the 681st death anniversary of Venerable Huyen Quang, the Tertiary Patriarch of Truc Lam Zen, (1334 – 2015) to honor Truc Lam Zen’s great merits to the cause of religious unity and national defense.
The traditional Con Son – Kiep Bac festival is a special and diverse cultural feature reflecting the creativity and inner wishes of millions of compatriots coming there from all over the country to together respectfully express their desire to deepen patriotism, self-help for self-improvement, and will to defend the national independence descending from forefathers, typically the national heroes of Tran Hung Dao and Nguyen Trai, the Tertiary Patriarch of Truc Lam Zen, Teacher Chu Van An, etc.
The festival includes the traditional ritual of incense and sacrifice offering on Ngu Nhac mountain, the death anniversary of Venerable Huyen Quang, the Tertiary Patriarch of Truc Lam Zen, the ground breaking ceremony for construction of a nine-storeyed lotus-shaped tower in Con Son pagoda, the opening of the 2015 Con Son – Kiep Bac Spring Festival and the 50th anniversary of Uncle Ho’s visit to Con Son, the requiem for forsaken spirits, etc. along with many cultural and art activities and folk games to take place throughout the festive days, such as the contests of banh chung (square glutinous rice cakes) and banh day (round glutinous rice cakes) making, clay firecrackers, national wrestling, and cockfighting, calligraphy, quan ho (love duet) singing, etc.
The Relic Management Unit has coordinated with Chi Linh provincial town Police to work out a plan to ensure security, order, and traffic safety for pilgrims to Con Son – Kiep Bac.
In addition to traffic police forces at all spots and routes prone to congestion, Chi Linh provincial town Police will also arrange mobile traffic police groups ready for lane and route division and promptly present for traffic regulation in case of congestion.
The management unit will organize households to sign commitments to ensure food hygiene and safety; not to raise prices during the festival, let the exchange of small change to enjoy differences occur in the relic and festival areas, stick and scatter money randomly and offensively; logically arrange donation tables to serve the people’s contributions to relic repair, etc.
The management unit will collaborate with functional forces to enhance inspections and strictly handle cases of superstitious practice, price raising, and pilgrim invitation with insistence.
(According to MANH TU - VNA)
