Con Son – Kiep Bac Festival to be further honored, promoted

The Con Son – Kiep Bac Spring Festival this year will take place from 13 to 16 February (i.e. 14th – 17th day of the first month of the Lunar Year of the Horse).

Main rituals of the festival will continue to be maintained, including the incense offering at Tran Nguyen Dan and Nguyen Trai temples, the incense offering to commemorate the 680th death anniversary of Venerable Tertiary Ancestor Huyen Quang, the le dan Mong Son thi thuc (requiem for forsaken spirits), and the ceremony of offering to heaven and earth on Ngu Nhac mountain.

The festival will also feature contests of chung cakes (square glutinous rice cakes), day cakes (round sticky rice cakes), earthen firecrackers, national wrestling, etc.

Mr. Nguyen Van Que, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, Head of the Festival Organizing Board, required the Con Son – Kiep Bac Festival this year to be held safely, jubilantly, and healthily, honoring and promoting the relic widely to people in and outside the country.

Sub-boards should early work out plans and assign specific tasks to each individual; well ensure traffic safety, security, order, hygiene, and food safety; determinedly and strictly tackle theft, pick-pocketing, tourist overcharging, and superstitious practice.

The Management Unit of the Con Son – Kiep Bac relic must check and replace torn and damaged panels causing aesthetic flaws with new ones; intensify propaganda so that people will not offer small change for exchange to benefit from differences; and complete sanitary facilities before 25 January.

NGOC HUNG