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Bac Ninh is a famous cultural tourist destination in the North of Vietnam because it not only has 7 ancient pagodas and is known as the cradle of Buddhism but also has unique and interesting traditional festivals.
The most famous of these is probably the Lim Festival - the festival of ancient villages located around Lim Mountain and the banks of the Tieu Tuong River. It represents most deeply the artistic culture and spiritual beliefs of the people of Kinh Bac.
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The Origin
Lim Festival has a very long history and has grown to the scale of a regional festival.
Based on the traditional festivals of the villages in Noi Due district (including six communes: Noi Due, Noi Due Khanh, Noi Due Nam, Lung Giang, Xuan O, and Tien Du) with many processions, sacrifices, and extremely rich folk art activities, such as drum singing, cheo singing, ca tru singing, tuong singing and quan ho singing, etc... The district official Do Nguyen Thuy from Dinh Ca village, Noi Due, Kinh Bac region donated many fields and money to restore communal houses and pagodas, expand festivals, and preserve fine customs and traditions. He stipulated ceremony to pray for blessings takes place in January every year. The district official Do Nguyen Thuy is the person who has contributed to the development of the festival that worships gods and prays for blessings of villages in the Lim region in the autumn.
In the 18th century, the governor of Thanh Hoa Nguyen Dinh Dien (also from Dinh Ca village), who made many contributions to the court, donated a lot of assets to restore temples and pagodas, expand festivals, preserve fine customs and traditions, and innovate the Lim Festival. He changed the autumn festival to the spring festival.
From then on, the Lim association was maintained throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. During the resistance war against the French Colonialists and the American Empire, the Lim Festival was not held for many decades. Today, the Lim festival is held on the 13th day of the first lunar month every year.
General Information
Lim festival is a festival honoring people who have made great contributions to the region and the country such as Mr. Hieu Trung Hau - the founder of the Quan Ho singing tradition (recognized by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity on September 30, 2009), Mr. Nguyen Dinh Dien, heroes and heroines, the Buddha, folk goddess, etc.
Lim Festival usually lasts for about 3 days (from the 12th to 14th of the first lunar month every year), of which the 13th day is the main festival with many activities. That's why tourists should focus on traveling to Bac Ninh on the 13th to enjoy the festival.
How does the Lim festival take place?
Lim Festival begins with a procession. The members of the procession are people dressed in ancient costumes with colorful and elaborate designs. During the main holiday, people will carry out processions and sacrifice rituals to folk gods and heroes.
After the ceremony part, people will move to the celebration part, where many folk games such as martial arts, wrestling, chess fighting, fairy swinging, weaving competitions, rice cooking... and most importantly, the singing festival takes place.
Quan Ho singing
The cultural activities of singing Quan Ho folk songs - a type of folk song that has become a common cultural asset of the Vietnamese are also one of the main activities during the Lim Festival.
People sing Quan Ho everywhere: in the house, in the courtyard, in front of the temple, or floating on basket boats in the middle of ponds and lakes, etc., and the singing contest took place around noon.
Quan Ho men wore a turban and an ao dai, while Quan Ho women wore a layered long-sleeved shirt, a crow turban and three layered hat with straps. They meet, greet each other cordially and elegantly according to the manners of Quan Ho singers. Quan Ho Folk songs reached a high artistic level with a smooth and passionate combination of poetry and music to express pure love, wholeheartedly for the lovers. If you have the opportunity to enjoy the songs sung by the artists of Kinh Bac Land, it will surely be an experience that you will never forget.
The evening of the 12th will be the night of the Quan Ho poetry singing festival among Quan Ho villages. Each Quan Ho village built a camp in the large yard of Lim Hill. This is the best part of the entire Hoi Lim festival.
NOTES:
For first-time visitors to Lim festival, don't forget the following experiences to make the trip more interesting and complete:
You should come to Lim festival 2-3 days in advance because the main festival day is usually very crowded.
If traveling by bus/taxi, you should book 1 week in advance to avoid running out of tickets or trips.
When going to the Lim festival, you should wear comfortable, simple, and weather-appropriate clothes.
Families with young children need to follow the regulations in the festival area to ensure their children's safety.
Do not approach restricted areas without permission from Lim association management.
Maintain general hygiene and avoid jostling and jostling to ensure security within the festival grounds.
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