VietNamNet Bridge – A ceremony was held in the central province of Quang Ngai yesterday, April 5, to pay tributes to sailor-soldiers of the Hoang Sa Flotilla who sacrificed their lives to guard the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Island centuries ago.

Ly Son Island. (Photo: QDND)
The ceremony has been held annually for hundreds of years at the An Vinh communal house on Ly Son Island on the fifteenth and the sixteenth days of the third lunar month which this year fell on April 5 – 6. Thousands of the island's residents and tourists attended the ceremony.

During the rituals, paper boats with effigies of sailors were launched in the sea in homage to troop, of the past that headed out to sea to exploit its natural resources and safeguard Hoang Sa.

A requiem for the souls of the sailors, most of whom were natives of Ly Son Island, was held on yesterday morning.

The Hoang Sa Flotilla was founded under the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century to protect territorial waters of the country.

* HCM City exhibition presents UK eco-designs

An eco-design exhibition that showcases some of the new approaches and innovations in sustainable design by contemporary designers and architects from the UK is now open at HCM City Exhibition House.

Called Everything Forever Now, the exhibition is organised by the British Council and British Embassy in Ha Noi.

An embassy press release noted that in recent years, there has been a shift in the way that designers approach the idea of sustainable design.

"Now they view it less as a problem, and more as a fact of life, and certainly as an opportunity to rethink what and how we make things, and how we might go about our lives in a more effective and positive way," the release said.

"Through intelligent design and by utilising new technologies and materials, we can develop sustainable solutions that naturally give back what they take out," it said.

The exhibition presents the work of a new generation of designers who are able to "pioneer technologies and techniques that promise to change our environment for the better".

The exhibition will remain open until April 20, from 9am to 7pm at 92 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, HCM City.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News