The late President Ho Chi Minh was in the spotlight at Vietnam Poetry Day, held at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi on February 17, an annual event to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The event, featuring poems about Vietnam ’s first president, celebrated the 100 th anniversary of Uncle Ho leaving the nation in his quest for national salvation (1911) and the 70 th anniversary of his return to his native land after dozens of years living abroad.

The event opened with a ritual bringing water from Pac Bo spring in the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang, which sheltered the national leader during his first days of return, and an earth ritual to bring a handful of soil from his native village in the central province of Nghe An to the cultural temple as sacred objects of the event.

The Vietnam Writers’ Association President, Nguyen Huu Thinh, himself a poet, presented a poetry collection about the late President including 30 poems by foreign authors such as Madlain Riffaud.

A similar event with the same topic was also held in Ho Chi Minh City on the same day, drawing over 350 members of the municipal writers’ club and hundreds of poetry lovers./.