January 16 is the 23rd day of lunar December and is Kitchen Gods’ Day when families across Vietnam bid farewell to the Kitchen Gods to thank them for watching over their house for the year.
In Hanoi, people flocked to local rivers and lakes for the ritual.
Lots of people released the fish and ash from burning votive papers into Hoang Cau Lake in Dong Da, worsening the lake’s pollution. As a result, lots of fish died as soon as they hit the water.
Environmental workers said they had to work harder as more people threw votive paper ash and some worshipping objects into the lake. They also had to gather the dead fish.
The same situation was also seen at Nhue River. Volunteers advised people not to set free the fish there due to the pollution, but they did not care.
Nguyen Thi Thu who lives near the river said that it is easy to see massive amounts of dead fish right after being released into the river on the Kitchen Gods’ Day.
