Festive activities are living museums in which typical cultural values of the nation have been preserved for centuries.

Formation and meaning of traditional festivals

Traditional festivals constitute a form of cultural activities, a spiritual product which the people have created and developed during the course of history. From generation to generation, the Vietnamese people preserve the fine tradition of “remembering the source while drinking water.” Festivals are events which represent this tradition of the community as well as honour the holy figures named as “gods” – the real persons in national history or legendary persons. The images of gods converge the noble characteristics of mankind. They are national heroes who fought against foreign invaders, reclaimed new lands, treated people, fought against natural calamities, or those legendary characters who affect the earthly life. Festivals are events when people pay tribute to divinities that rendered merits to the community and the nation.

Festivals are occasions when people come back to either their natural or national roots, which form a sacred part in their mind.

Festivals represent the strength of the commune or village, the local region or even the whole nation. Worshipping the same god, the people unite in solidarity to overcome difficulties, striving for a happy and wealthy life.

Festivals display the demand for creativity and enjoyment of spiritual and material cultural values of all social strata. Festivals become a form of education under which fine traditional moral values can be handed from one generation to the next in a unique way of combining spiritual characters with competition and entertainment games.

Festivals are also the time people can express their sadness and worries in a wish that gods might bestow favour on them to help them strive for a better life.

Process of festivals

Generally speaking, every festival will include the following three steps:
- Preparation: The preparation work is divided into two phases: prior to the coming festive season and in the immediate time before the festive day. The preparation work for the coming festive season starts right after the previous festival comes to an end. When it is coming to the festive day, people need to check the worshipping objects, attires, decoration, and cleaning of the worshipping place and statues.
- The festive day: Many activities take place, including rituals of procession, incense offering, and rejoicing games, among others. They form the most important and significant part of any festival. These activities also play a decisive role in attracting tourists and deciding the timing of the festival itself.
- The ending of the festival: The organization board expresses their thanks to all festival goers and closes the worshipping place.

Time for festivals

In Vietnam festivals often take place during the three months in spring and in autumn when people have a lot of leisure time. In addition, the climate in spring and autumn is especially suitable for holding festivals and for festivals goers to enjoy.

Festival rituals

Festivals require many compulsory rituals, which are carried out in a strict order from the preparation to the ending of a festival. In general, a festival has the following rituals:

Statue washing rite is performed at mid-night of the day before the festival. This rite is preceded by a ceremony of water procession in some places. A ceremony to inform gods must be held prior to this statue-washing rite.

Next is the rite of wearing hats and costumes for gods’ statues or putting them in their worshipping tablets if gods have no statue. After that, the statues of gods (or worshipping tablets, even costumes) are put in the palanquin, ready for the procession on the opening of the festival.

Procession ritual: A festival often includes the procession of gods, tutelary gods, royal order and water, of which the first and fourth rite are most popular. The content and meaning of the procession ritual vary from festival to festival with regard to the object of procession, its organization and participants. The procession of gods and water processions are usually carried out prior to the opening and closing ceremonies of the festival accordingly.

Festivals, as mentioned above, are to honour holy figures, i.e. gods or divinities to whose temples and shrines are dedicated. Very often a festival takes place in the courtyard of the village’s communal howhich is spacious and convenient for the conduct of liturgical processes and rejoicing activities. As such, the ritual of god procession is held along the route from their places of worship to the place of liturgy. At the end of the festival, another procession will bring gods’ statues back to their temples. After the procession ritual are the ritual of presenting offerings to gods and the opening of the festival. In many festivals, a procession of the oration dedicated to gods is held every day. Each day a different oration is used.

In traditional festivals it is required that participants in the procession ritual must be men above 18 years old who are selected carefully on the basis of their physical strength and good ethics. Women can join the procession group in such festivals as Phu Day or Ha Loi which dedicate to goddesses. Anyone who is chosen to become a member of the procession group must consider it his/her own honour and his/her family.

On its way, each procession bears its own symbol. People beat drums and gongs (formerly firecrackers were used) to signal the departure of the procession.

On the closing day of the festival, a final ritual is held with all processes required. 

TRADITIONAL FESTIVALS

Festivals have long been considered the traditional cultural activity of the Vietnamese people. They are attractive to all social classes and have become a necessary part of people's lives for many centuries. 
Festivals are the crystallization of cultural, spiritual, and physical activities that have been chosen, maintained, and improved over many generations. Festivals are the living cultural museums of the way people live.
Festivals are a place to enjoy and learn about the people's crafts. For example, the Master Pagoda Festival (HaTay) has puppet shows and the Hung Temple Festival (Vinh Phu) has the "Xoan" folk songs. The Phu Giay Festival has "Chau Van" folk songs. The Lim Festival has "Quan Ho" folk songs. The drum beats that are mixed with traditional musical songs and dances create an never ending energy during the festivals.
Festivals are also a place to enjoy interesting games. There are many festival contests such as wrestling, rowing, rice cooking, rope pulling, rope climbing, and chess playing. There are also competitions between trained animals such as cock fights, buffalo fights, and pigeon races.
Festivals are an occasion to remember national heroes, the manifestation of religious freedom, and religious ceremonies.
Festivals are also a place where different people can show their own customs and habits. Festival days are usually days where one can find social encounters, relationships, and love. Many loving relationships have originated from tournaments, competitions, or during a few lines of singing.

Holidays

Saturday and Sunday are holidays.
There are also 8 other holidays in a year

January 1: New Year's Day, one-day holiday
March 10: Hung King anniversary(lunar calendar)
April 30: Saigon Liberation Day, one-day holiday
May 1: International Labour Day, one-day holiday
September 2: National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, one-day holiday
Vietnam traditional Lunar New Year Festival (Tet Nguyen Dan): four days holiday.
  This holiday begins on the Eve and the first three days of a Lunar New Year.

Festivals and Events

Major religious festivals in Vietnam have lunar dates; check against any Vietnamese calendar for the Gregorian dates. If you know when Tet kicks off, simply count from there.

Special prayers are held at Vietnamese and Chinese pagodas when the moon is full or just the thinnest sliver. Many Buddhists eat only vegetarian food on these days, which, according to the Chinese lunar calendar, fall on the 14th and 15th days of the month and from the last day of the month t6 the first day of the next month.
Tet (Tet Nguyen Dan): The Big One! The Vietnamese Lunar New Year is Christmas, New Year and birthdays all rolled into one. Lasting from the first to seventh days of the first moon, the, Tet Festival falls in late January or early February.
Holiday of the Dead (Thanh Minh): It’s time to honour the ancestors with a visit to graves of deceased relatives. Fifth day of the third moon.
Buddha's Birth, Enlightenment and Death: A big celebration at Buddhist temples and pagodas with lively processions. Eighth day of the fourth moon.
Summer Solstice Day (Tiet Doan Ngo): Keep the epidemics at bay with offerings to the spirits, ghosts and the 6od of Death. Fifth day of the fifth moon.
Wandering Souls Day (Trung Nguyen: Second in the pecking order to Tet, offerings are made for the wandering souls of the forgotten dead. Fifteenth day of the seventh moon.
Mid-Autumn Festival (Trung Thu): A fine time for foodies with moon cakes of sticky rice filled with lotus seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, the yolks of duck eggs, raisins and other treats. Fifteenth day of the eighth moon.
Confucius' Birthday: Happy birthday to China's leading philosophical export. Twenty-eighth day of the ninth moon.