Residents from Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City and visiting tourists took part in a procession in Tran Bien Ward on the 10th day of the first lunar month.
The procession moves along Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, Tran Bien Ward, Dong Nai Province.
The parade stretched for about 2.2 kilometres along several main streets, featuring performers in traditional costume, lion and dragon dances and cultural displays.
The ritual symbolically escorts folk deities and pioneers who contributed to the founding and development of Bien Hoa and Dong Nai. In previous years the procession included both waterway and road routes, but this year organisers held only the road parade.
The wider festival programme includes don folk song performances, chess competitions, lion and dragon dances, as well as the release of blessing balloons and floating lanterns on the Dong Nai River near Ong Pagoda.
The procession passes through several streets in Tran Bien Ward, Dong Nai Province (Photo: Hoang Binh).
Huynh Huu Nghia, head of the organising committee, said the festival runs from February 25 to March 1, corresponding to the ninth to 13th days of the first lunar month.
The annual event aims to preserve and promote nationally recognised intangible cultural heritage, while fostering spiritual life and cultural bonds between the Chinese and Vietnamese communities through traditional rituals, arts and folk sports.
Residents set up altars along the road to welcome the passing procession (Photo: Hoang Binh).
The traditional Ong Pagoda Festival was inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage list by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in November 2023, becoming the first heritage element in Dong Nai to receive national recognition.
