The Tuy Loan Village Communal House Festival has returned to Da Nang after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The annual event was brought back and was held at Tuy Loan Village on Tuesday. It featured many solemn traditional festive activities and exciting folk games, attracting hundreds of local residents and visitors.

This year's festival featured solemn rituals, including a procession of deities, a royal honour ceremony to confer diplomas, and floating lanterns in the river. In addition, various folk games were organised during the festival, including tug of war, rice paper grilling, and Tet (cylindrical glutinous rice) cake -making competitions, Bai Choi (singing while acting as playing cards) folk singing performance.

In particular, this year's event also featured a number of exciting activities such as human chess competition, “Ho Khoan” (a genre of Vietnamese folk music, boat race, and traditional food contest.

The event aims to meet public demand for cultural enjoyment, as well as attract tourists to the city in addition to promoting the image of the land and people of Hoa Phong Commune, and Hoa Vang District as a whole, to domestic and foreign tourists, contributing to preserving and promoting quintessence of the progressive Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.

The traditional Tuy Loan Village Communal House Festival is held annually on the 9^th and 10^th days of the 1^st lunar month.  The event aims to remind the younger generations of long-lasting traditions, as well as to preserve and promote the village’s cultural identity. This year's festival marks the 24^th anniversary of the Tuy Loan Village Communal House being recognized as a national-level historical and cultural relic.

The Tuy Loan Village Communal House was built in 1889 in the reign of Emperor Thanh Thai, and it was recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Information as a national-level historical and cultural relic in 1999.  Many royal honour-conferring diplomas from the Nguyen dynasty are stored here.

The communal house is the place where many important events took place during the two resistance wars against foreign invaders. Over the past years, the venue has undergone restoration but it still retains its distinct architectural feature with its long-standing history.

Here are some photos, taken by our reporters Xuan Dung and Quoc Cuong, which show the bustling and exciting atmosphere at the festival.

An incense-offering ceremony in commemoration of national heroes and ancestors. Photo: X.D

The Phuc–Loc–Tho (happiness, prosperity, longevity) musical performance. Photo: Q.C

A traditional boat race on the Tuy Loan River.Photo: X.D

Locals and visitors eagerly watching the boat race and cheering up racers. Photo: Q.C

The human chess competition attracted a large number of people to watch. Photo: X.D

Local residents in Tet cake making … Photo: Q.C

… and rice paper grilling competitions. Photo: X.D

Festival participants can also watch and enjoy Tuy Loan's Quang noodles. Photo: Q.C

Reporting by XUAN DUNG – QUOC CUONG – Translating by H.L