Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Vieng Spring Market

SALE “RISK” AND PURCHASE “LUCKINESS” AT VIENG MARKET
Mysteriously, there is a market-day where seller does not need money and buyer does not need goods. It is the Vieng market, only taking place from the afternoon of 7th January to the early afternoon of next day.
Vieng Market

By a chance, Nam Dinh province, having a unique belief, is about the balance of life. The Tran temple represents to Father of God belief; otherwise, Mother of Goddess is a belief, which embodies at Phu Day temple. If a seal opening ceremony to welcome the New Year is being held at the Tan temple, Phu Day closely attach to the Vieng market, which is on one day per year only. It is a pity if you miss a chance to join the Vieng market with various emotions before taking part in the sacred Tran festival. According to Vietnamese tradition, those who live in other provinces, sometimes go to the Vieng Market after burning an incense to show their respect to King Tran and getting something lucky for the coming year.
You will surprise a huge continuous flow of people who come to join the Vieng market from nearby provinces such as Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Hanoi and so on. Melting into a passer-by is everything you need to do so that you entirely enjoy a special ambiance of the unique market and dispel the cold winter.
Products at Vieng Market

Became a tradition of Nam Dinh’ people, the Vieng market was held annually on 8th January at Nam Giang town, Nam Truc and Vu Ban district. This is a unique market. It is the way to show the belief and cultural activities of agricultural communities in Red river delta. Getting luck in the coming year is the special meaning of the market. People come to the market with hoping for health and wealth. Wishing a good weather in the next year is what Vietnamese farmers desire most in their hard life.       
Votive Paper

According to ancient documents, Vieng is not a specific place-name in Nam Dinh province. It was similarly pronounced like “Going Home” in Vietnamese meaning. The name of the market is a tender way to remind anyone who lives out in the country: Going home on the traditional Tet holiday. It is time to reunite people together again after a hard working year. Vieng market-day together with Tet Holiday – the biggest and most important event with Vietnamese people is time for anyone to get luck and take bad things away. Nowadays, because of the huge influence of the sacred Vieng market and people’s demand, it was held with a bigger scale in Trung Thanh commune, Vu Ban district and Goi town, Nam Trực District.
Buy "risk" - sell "luck"

A long time ago, the old, living at Vieng market’s area, said that it used to be held within a small area and near Phu Giay. There were not many people like nowadays also. Everyone came to the Vieng Market to wish luck only.  They did not care about what they gain and lose, even money and treasured things such as antiques, ect. It was said that it would be betrayal and sorrowful in their mind if they couldnot go to the Vieng Market; however, if you got there without either buy or sale, you would be restless the entire year so much.
Nowadays, there are some typical goods in the market namely, beef, seedlings, decorative tress and something relating to the agricultural life in Vietnam. With all that, the Vieng market is the only, we has left since industry development in Vietnam. Moreover, one more thing, you do not forget enjoying the special method, exchanging product each other with overcharging and bargaining at any market in Vietnam, is a thing you easily see in the market nowadays. You can truly feel a colorful and traditional market-day in ancient time that you are so hard to find out another market in the world. In addition to above traditional products, going to the Vieng market, there are various things so that you choose to make up your family even yourself. Appreciated by gourmets and most of tourists,

It is like a habit of Vietnamese people in general and Nam Dinh’s people in particular, flowers and decorative things are all those who go to the market, bring it home as a special gift happily. Driving out the bad things in the bygone years and hoping for good ones in the New Year are the most important and significant value whenever the Vieng market comes!

Unique Nam Dinh

Tran Temple festval in Tet Holiday

Tran temple festival in Tet holiday (Nam Dinh province)

Tran Temple festival in Tet holiday or we can call it the "deliver seal festival" is one of the most meaningful custom in Thien Truong district, Nam Dinh province of Vietnamese people during many years. For a long time of development, this festival is still kept remain and develop. This festival first appeared in the 13th century (1239), under the Tran dynasty, it occurred as a kind of ritual to worship the ancestors. At that time, Thien Truong was not the capital of Vietnam. Because of the Chinese invasion made the whole royal family of Vietnamese move from Thang Long to Thien Truong, therefore, the people call this place "the capital of revolution" to encourage people take part in the fight against Chinese. For some centuries, the festival attracted a lot of people come to worship for luck, health and wealth.
Nowadays, Tran temple festival still attracts many people come, especially in Tet holiday, they come to Tran Temple to ask for the seal. They believe that the seal from this temple can bring them the luck and health for the whole year.

Normally, the ceremony of delivering the seal will have 2 parts: rituals and activities. The main ceremony happens one the full-moon day of the 1st lunar month of Vietnamese calendar. But before the ceremony happens, in the 2nd of this month, the manager board of the temple has to do another ceremony to ask the ancestors’ allowance for being able to deliver the seal to people who come on the full-moon day. At 10p.m of 14th of the 1st lunar month, the main ceremony begins with the ritual of bringing the seal box. Inside the box, there are two seals with different text: one seal will be: “Tran Temple”, the other is the sentence means “Tran dynasty will bring luck and happiness to everyone”.. 
Red seal in Tran temple

The next ritual on full moon day is made by 14 elderly people of Tu Mac village. The people (tourists) come to this festival will bring the offering into the temple and ask for a piece of paper with a red seal inside with the hope of a better year. 
Lucky paper from Tran temple

After the ritual finishes, it’s time for the activities. There are many interesting activities in that festival like: Cock fighting, wrestling, martial art performance, dragon dancing and many other kinds of performance. All the rituals and activities in that festival still remains the unique culture of Vietnam since Tran dynasty.

Some Tips when visiting Tran temple festival in Tet holiday

As the festival happens at night and it will be very crowded, therefore, these tips will be very helpful when you come to Tran Temple festival.
  1. Be careful with your belongings.
  2. Find a suitable place for parking your own vehicle.
  3. Try to go with the group or you will get lost.
  4.  Ask for price before using any kind of services there.
  5. Check carefully about the quality of products before deciding.

Phu Giay Festival

Every year, in the spring, many people together come to Nam Dinh province to join the Phu Giay festival

Phu Giay ceremony

This festival takes place on 3rd of the 3rd lunar month. This is a festival to worship Lieu Hanh Mother, one of the 3 mothers of goddess of Vietnamese people. According to Vietnamese, Hanh Mother is the one who has the power and ability to take care of the sky or we can call her the mother of sky. The habbit of worshipping mother of goddess is very unique and you can only find in Vietnam. Normally, there will be 3 mothers: Mother of Sky, Mother of Mountain and Mother of the Water. And it can be considered that Nam Dinh province is the center of the spiritual life of Northern Vietnam. There are a lot of temples to worship these goddess as well as to worship many Kings in the past of our country. We believe that the third lunar month is time for celebrating the Death ceremony of our national mother, the eight lunar month is the time for celebrating the Death ceremony of our national father. Therefore, on 3rd of 3rd lunar month, many people come to Nam Dinh province, especially Vu Ban district to join in this ceremony.
Offering in Phu Giay festival

According to some legends and stories related to Hanh Mother, she was a fairy in Heaven, named Quynh Hoa Princess, she was the daughter of Jade emperor, because of breaking a cup made from pearl, she was forced to come to the Earth for 21 years to help people who were in troubles. When she came to Earth, wherever she went, she helped the people there to overcome troubles. So, many people decided to build up temples to memorise her contributions. After she died and come back to Heaven, she still tried to help people. That the reason why she was considered to be the national mother as well as one of the 4 immortality gods of Vietnam.
Hanh Mother

This festival lasts for many days. The most attractive activities in Phu Giay is the ceremony of bringing the palaquin of Mother to the main temple.
Palaquin Ceremony

The way is not too far, just about 1 km walk but it is always covered with a lot of people. In the ceremony, there will have traditional singings with the flags performance of 100 teenagers in uniform with red ribbons, yellow coats, green bells white trousers and red socks. Each of them will hold a 2 meter high stick and they will perform due to the drum rhythm.
Flag-men

moreover, tourists still have chances to see many other kinds of activities like dragon dancing, paraquin holding in Tien Huong Mountain. At night, tourists can go out and enjoy a very famous kind of traditional singing: Chau Van singing. Coming to Phu Giay, you can know more about the tradition of Vietnam as well as the spiritual custom in Tet Holiday.

Some Tips in Phu Giay festival:

  1. Bring money with small value as offering
  2. If you  need to exchange money, be careful with Vietnamese fake money use for the death (Votive paper)
  3. Go with your group to avoid getting lost
  4. Check carefully the quality of products you want to buy.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

"Yummy" Halong

Halong, a city is known as for many different kinds of landscapes and sightseeing. Besides, this city is also famous for it tourism. Coming to Halong, tourists can have chance to enjoy the beauty of that city. Many caves, islands and islets is being brought to the light of beauty. If there are any places on Earth that can be considered to be the Heaven on land, it must be Halong. This city is recognized as the World natural heritages for two times. Each time tourists come here, they can find many interesting places even they have come here for many times.  The things that many of tourists like are seafood in Halong. Excellent seafood of Vietnam, you must come to coastal region such as Halong, Nha Trang or Phu Quoc… Come to Halong bay, besides exploring the picturesque beauty of the gulf, should not miss the opportunity to enjoy excellent seafood dishes.  


1.Fried Grilled Squid

One kind of special Halong seafood is Grilled Squid. This kind of dish is not too difficult to make. The Squid meat is grilled until it becomes very small. It is then circled or flattened. After that it is fried in a full-oil pan.
Grilled Squid
After cooking, Fried Grilled Squid has the yellow color. It tastes is very special with the unique smell of seafood, a little bit tough and the flavour of squid.

You can easily find this kind of dish in some cruises and boats in Ha Long Bay.


2. Crabs.

Whenever you visit Ha Long Bay, the food that the people there want to invite you is the crabs. The sea crabs are much bigger than these one in land, so normally, they will boil the crabs with a special kind of soup.
Crabs in HaLong
After the crabs are served to tourists, you can take a cracker to crack the shell of the crabs. For me, I would like to use bare hands to enjoy this kind of food. The smell of the crabs is really attractive that hardly can anyone deny it. And when you taste, you can not forget the flavour of this food as well as the image of Ha Long sea food.


3. Baked snails.

Snails seem to be the kind of seafood that appear popular to tourists. But when you come to Ha Long, they have a unique kind of cooking snails. The snails are chilled with Vietnamese sauce, salt, pepper. After that, they put the snail into the burning coals.


Baked-snails
When being served, you can take a niddle to try this kind of food. It is really tasty and delicious.




4. Quality of seafoods

What people worry about the most when travelling is the quality of the food they eat. Coming to Halong, enjoy the seafood there, you do not need to worry about the quality as well as the personal hygiene as all the food in this city is very fresh and they are always in the best quality.

 Fresh Seafood


All of seafood, including fishes, crabs, shrimps, lobsters, oysters or sea snails… you can find when coming to visit Halong. The only one element that we cannot describe on this section is the fresh and delicious flavor of each dish, which can only be experience during real taste.