Traditional Hoian Festival

Events and Festivals

Full Moon Festival, aka Old Town's Night - held on the 14th of every lunar month, one night before the full moon, when the Old Town becomes even more festive than usual (which is saying something). Usually starts around 6:30PM.

Fisherman's Festival - held on the 16th of the February lunar month to pray for a good crop.

Mid-Autumn Festival - held on the 14th of the August lunar month.

Homestay, Homestay in Bai Huong fishing village Cham Islands. Operated by Karma Waters vegetarian restaurant, Cua Dai, in cooperation with village & local Government.

Lady Thu Bon Festival

This festival falls on the 12th day of the second month of the lunar calendar, and is celebrated in Lady Thu Bon’s Palace in Duy Tan commune, Duy Xuyen district. It is a traditional festival of the ancient Cham Pa people that was inherited and is still kept nowadays.

Lady Thu Bon, also known as Lady Bo Bo, is the woman who had a great contribution to agriculture and fishery in alluvial land. During the festival, the atmosphere is animated and people are excited. Apart from the offerings, the festival includes traditional games and processions such as regatta, vehicle and water processions, dances and festival songs. Boat races are still some of the most interesting activities of the Thu Bon Goddess Festival, though now the competing teams come solely from Quang Nam. Before the race, all contestants attend a worshiping ceremony, offering incense at Thu Bon Temple. Apart from the ceremonies and their legends, festival-goers can also enjoy art performances, fashion shows, a national beach volleyball tournament, photo exhibitions on Quang Nam, and seminars on culture preservation.

During these days, Thu Bon river is sometimes waved by the acclamation and encouragement along two riversides but sometimes is engraved and fond in the memory of the past. Now, the Lady Thu Bon festival is being revived by the Duy Xuyen authorities, with the use of many ancient games from the Central region. Coming to the festival, tourists have a chance to visit My Son Temple and Tower Zone - a famous World cultural heritage.

The elderly villagers usually tell their offspring about the goddess’ supernatural powers. One legend has it that a man came to Thu Bon Temple to beg Thu Bon to help his wife during her difficult delivery. Responding to the man’s prayers, Thu Bon incarnated into the man’s body and quickly rushed across a large field with a lighting candle. When she arrived in the man’s home, she touched the wife’s belly, and the woman gave birth immediately.

Another tale says Thu Bon Village had an extremely bad harvest in the Year of the Dragon 1928, so the villagers gathered to decide how to organize that year’s festival in a simple way. While they were discussing, a cow came and lay down in front of the temple. But it wasn’t just any cow - the villagers could see it had a string of 3,000 coins hunging from its horns. They immediately understood the goddess was giving them money to organise the festival, so they took the coins and released the cow into the forest. A villager who followed the cow later said he saw it going to the My Son, a complex of towers built by the Champa people, where it turned into stone.

Wandering Soul day

The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the Buddhist version of the Christian All Soul’s Day, when the souls of those condemned to suffer in hell for their sins are freed for a day.

The Vu Lan Day in Hoi An is an event associated with the annual wandering of the souls of ancestors; this event has its counterpart in almost all religions across the world. The Vu Lan Day in Hoi An is known in English as the “Wandering Souls Day”, as on this day souls are said to wander about their mortal homes. This event is commemorated in all the pagodas and shrines in Hoi An.

The tradition has very old roots, but it continues unaltered to this day, with families putting out offerings - flowers, fruits, sticky rice cakes, boiled cassava, sweet potatoes and sugarcane - to nurture the souls of their ancestors. The Vu Lan Day is a continiuation of the tradition of seeking forgiveness for the sins of deceased parents, so that they may be spared the tortures of hell and may return home. This day is also a mark of gratitude towards deceased parents. Lights are set afloat on the river to guide the wandering souls to nirvana. Also, on this night food is spread out on an altar within the house to appease the souls' hunger, and false money is burnt as an offering to honor them.

The biggest festival in Vietnam after Tet, The Wandering Sould Day is considered a very sacred event. If you are not just looking for fun and good times, but you want to know more about the Viet culture as well, then a visit to Hoi An during this season is highly recommended.

Mid Auturmn Festival

Tet Trung Thu, as it is known in Vietnam, or the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, is a wonderful ancient festival that revolves around children. The festival, held annually on the 15th of Lunar August in Hoi An, helps create the most charming and picturesque night of the year. It involves the customs of moon contemplation, procession of stars & moon using shaped lanterns, lion dance, as well as parties with moon cakes and fruits. Do you know why we treasure this special festival?

Celebration on animated streets

The festival is very much like a combination of Halloween and Thanksgiving. On the night of Lunar August 15th, the streets are full of people wandering around and buying festival treasures. Children parade on the streets, singing and carrying colorful lanterns of different sizes and shapes. There are fish, rabbits, carps, stars and butterflies spinning away when candles are inserted in the lanterns, representing the Earth circling the Sun.

Besides traditional paper lanterns and toys, plastic and bamboo plates, cakes, candies, toy animlas made of rice dough, dragon heads and faces of the Earth God displayed everywhere in the markets, you can also find a variety of the more modern toys with batteries and remote controls, for the delight and entertainment of the young. In well-off families, the mid-autumn banquet is also an opportunity to show off their nubile girls’ cooking abilities.

Lion dances and moon cake.

One important event before and during Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival is lion dancing. Both non-professional and professional children groups perform dances on the streets or in people's houses. If accepted by the host, "the lion" goes in and starts dancing as a wish of luck. The Lord Earth, called Ong Dia, dances around the dragon, urging it on. Ong Dia has a very round, happy smiling moon-face, and represents the prosperity and wealth of Earth.

Besides the lion dance, it is customary to offer Banh Trung Thu (boxes of moon cakes) to family and special friends. The cakes, which are traditionally very rich in taste, are filled with lotus seeds, ground beans and orange peels and have a bright yoke in the center to represent the moon. “Banh deo” is the white cake, made of sticky rice and filled with a sweet mixture of lotus seeds, pumpkin seeds or green beans. “Banh nuong” is the brown cake and has a salty taste, it is made of a mixture of egg, pork fat, fried onion, peanut and lemon leaves. Both can be in round or square shapes.

Whether the Mid-Autumn Festival is organized in the city or countryside, its preserved tradition is reflected in the preparation of food trays to contemplate the moon, in lantern marching, lion and unicorn dances, and even in the way the children play different games, such as hide-and-seek. In the bright moonlight, clear sky and fresh environment, everybody is relaxed and filled with pure and detached joy.

Not only locals, but also foreign tourists are warmly welcome to join in this special festival. You will definitely have lots of fun wondering in the streets amidst the crowds, seeing children carrying the lanterns, eating cakes and receiving gifts of celebration during the Mid-Autumn festival!