The event, featuring poems about Vietnam ’s first president,celebrated the 100 th anniversary of Uncle Ho leaving the nation in hisquest for national salvation (1911) and the 70 th anniversary of hisreturn to his native land after dozens of years living abroad.
The event opened with a ritual bringing water from Pac Bo spring inthe northern mountainous province of Cao Bang, which sheltered thenational leader during his first days of return, and an earth ritual tobring a handful of soil from his native village in the central provinceof Nghe An to the cultural temple as sacred objects of the event.
The Vietnam Writers’ Association President, Nguyen Huu Thinh, himselfa poet, presented a poetry collection about the late Presidentincluding 30 poems by foreign authors such as Madlain Riffaud.
A similar event with the same topic was also held in Ho Chi Minh Cityon the same day, drawing over 350 members of the municipal writers’club and hundreds of poetry lovers./.