Published:  16:00 Friday - February 10, 2017

The 2017 Tran Temple festival opened on the evening of February 9 in Hung Ha district, Thai Binh province to commemorate the Kings of the Tran dynasty (1225-1400), the most brilliant reigning monarch in Vietnamese history.

The festival is annually observed on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month as an event to hail merits of the Tran dynasty, which repelled the Yuan-Mongols on three separate occasions, in the country’s history of construction and defence, thus raising public awareness on the nation’s finest traditions.

   Water taken from the Red river as an offering to the Tran Kings at the Tran Temple Festival in Thai Binh 

The opening ceremony featured a drum performance and a cheo (traditional opera) play by artists from the Military Cheo Theatre.

The five-day event features traditional rituals, a competition to make dishes from fish, and folk games.

Earlier, a water procession was held in the afternoon in which water was taken from the Red river and carried for nearly 20 kilometres as an offering to the Tran Kings.

The Tran Temple Festival was recognised as a national intangible heritage in 2014. The historical complex of the Tran Kings’ shrines and tombs received special national relic status last year.

NDO