The Con Son-Kiep Bac 2016 Spring Festival will officially open in the northern province of Hai Duong on February 23 (the 16th day of the first lunar month).

Tourists at Kiep Bac temple.

Taking place from February 21 to March 1, the festival aims to commemorate the 682th anniversary of the death of monk Huyen Quang, the third founder of the Truc Lam Zen sect.

It will also feature a ceremony to award a certificate recognising Thanh Hu Dong stele at Con Son pagoda as a national treasure.

The festival will include a broad range of cultural and sporting activities such as incense offering rituals, worshipping rituals on Ngu Nhac Mountain, a Chung cake (square glutinous rice cake) and Giay cake (round glutinous rice cake) making contest, a mud banger festival, wrestling and calligraphy.

The Con Son-Kiep Bac management board is collaborating with relevant agencies to set up plans to ensure social order and traffic safety for tourists during the festival.

Covering a total area of eight hectares in Chi Linh district, the Con Son-Kiep Bac historical site is entwined with the lives and causes of general Tran Hung Dao, the Supreme Commander of Vietnam during the Tran Dynasty, and UNESCO’s Great Man of Culture of the World, Nguyen Trai.

The site was a defence line built at the end of the 13th century to protect the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. It witnessed important battles between the Tran Dynasty army and the Yuan-Mongol invaders in the 13th century.

Con Son, surrounded by pine trees, saw the pure and upright life of Nguyen Trai (1380-1442), one of Vietnam ’s most famous poets and writers.

Con Son-Kiep Bac was recognised as a national heritage site in 1962 and a special national heritage site in 2012. The same year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism named the Spring Festival a national intangible cultural heritage.

VNA