The Vietnam Culinary Culture Association (VCCA) and the municipal Departmentof Tourism are jointly organising the festival, which covers five majoractivities: Tet rituals, food, games and performances, and a Tet market.

Visitors to the event will be offered a chance to learn how to make "Banh Chung" (square glutinous rice cake) and “Banhtet” (round glutinous rice cake) - the traditional cakes of Vietnamese peopleduring Tet holidays,and enjoy various specialties from many localities nationwide.

Festive activities during the three-day event focus on telling in aneasy-to-understand and engaging way stories of the Vietnamese traditional Tetholiday through exhibitions and games.

According to Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the VCCA, a series of agricultural productscertified under the One Commune One Product (OCOP) programmeare being exhibited at the event, which features nearly 100 booths from manyenterprises and localities.

Travel agencies take the opportunity to introduce their services at the festival,offering visitors many options of products, especially promotional tours duringTet holidays.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Trung Khanh, General Director of theVietnam National Administration of Tourism, said the event aims to promote uniquevalues of the Vietnamese Tet festival to domestic and foreign visitors, especiallyas Vietnam is said to be an attractive destination for internationalholiday-makers.

The festival is hoped to become an annual event, contributing toattracting more tourists to HCM City in particular and to Vietnam in general,he added.

The festival will runs through January 5./. VNA