The Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara) Festival 2023 has been upgraded to a municipal-level one with a larger scale and more activities than previous years'.

A procession of worshiping Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara during the Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara) Festival

The statement was made by Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairwoman Ngo Thi Kim Yen during her Friday meeting to check the preparatory works for the Quan The Am Festival in 2023.

Vice Chairwoman Yen said that this year marks the return of the annual Quan The Am Festival after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recognition of a national intangible cultural heritage in February 2021. She, therefore, stressed the need for relevant agencies to prepare for the event methodically and thoughtfully, aiming at leaving deep impression on invited delegates, tourists and people from all walks of life.

Mrs. Yen basically agreed on the draft festival programme reported by the organisers, and at the same time, asked the organisers to continue to review, supplement and complete the programme on February 20 and hold a press conference on February 22.

She underlined a necessity for the organisers to ensure security and order, environmental sanitation, food safety, information and communications, and the quality of cultural and arts programmes before, during and after the festival.

This year's Quan The Am Festival is scheduled to take place from March 8 - 10 (on the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th days of the second lunar month) at the campus of the Quan The Am Pagoda and along Su Van Hanh and Le Van Hien roads.

The event will have a total of 29 ritual, belief, religious, cultural, sports and arts activities. In which, there will be a performance of calligraphy and a masquerade ceremony.

It will include many activities, in which ritual, belief and religious activities will have a calligraphy performance, a costume ceremony of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, a procession of worshiping Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara at the Marble Tourist Area and the planting of Bodhi trees.

During the festival, there will be many cultural, artistic and sports activities such as art kite flying and Non Nuoc stone carving contest, a vegetarian cooking show, an exhibition of painting - calligraphy - ornamental stones, a boat race on the Co Co River and a village-scale chess festival, thereby developing local tourism products and meeting the needs of spiritual life and community beliefs.

On the occasion, Vice Chairman Ngo Thi Kim Yen paid inspection visits to some locations and routes where activities in the Quan The Am Festival 2023 will be organised.

Reporting by X.D - Translating by M.DUNG