Vice Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thi Le presents to the organisation of Hoa people at the event (Photo: VNA). HCM City (VNA) – The customs of the Hoa ethnic group in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 in celebrating the annual Nguyen Tieu festival (spring lantern festival) have been recognised as a national intangible heritage.
The festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar calendar to mark the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations.
The Hoa group (Vietnamese of Chinese origin) in Ho Chi Minh City number around 500,000. They live mainly in Cho Lon (District 5, District 6, District 10 and District 11), which is seen as a local Chinatown.
To receive the recognition, the district People’s Committee, on July 5, organised a special programme that re-enacted part of the festival, which have been preserved by the local group over the past three decades. The event also included musical and art performances, a film screening, a parade and an exhibition on lanterns and ink wash painting.
At the event, the authorities hounoured three Hoa artisans, namely Truong Han Minh, Chu Loi and Luu Kiem Xuong, who have made significant contribution to the festival.
Also on the occasion, an exhibition was opened at the district’s cultural centre at No 131 Trieu Quang Phuc road in Ward 11. It is introducing the history of the festival and 6,000 editions of a book on the Nguyen Tieu festival and related customs of the Hoa people in District 5.
According to Permanent Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem, Hoa people’s organisations have long practised and passed on their traditional values in harmonisation with Vietnamese cultural identities./.
VNA
