The Lim Festival is a major early spring festival in the Kinh Bac region (Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces in the old-time), held from January 12 to 14 every year in Tien Du district, Bac Ninh province.
This major festival of the region shows the most profoundly the cultural, artistic, and spiritual beliefs of the people of the Kinh Bac region. It’s the festival of “Quan Ho” singing, which has become one of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2009.
Some pictures of the Lim Festival:
The origin of the Lim festival
There is a theory that: Lim festival originated from the pagoda and singing festival, related to the singing of Truong Chi, which was left behind by the traces of the Tieu Tuong river in the villages of the Lim area.
This hypothesis is based on the legend of Truong Chi – My Nuong and the nature and characteristics of the Lim festival is the festival of cultural activities and singing Quan Ho.
Meaning of Lim festival
For many generations now, in addition to the symbolic meaning of the cultural and spiritual spirit of the Tonkin people, the Lim festival also reminded later generations of the need to remember the merits of their predecessors and to educate them about preserving the traditional beauty of the nation.
What is special about this festival?
Taking place in 2 -3 days 12 to 14 of the lunar calendar, Lim Festival is always one of the most outstanding festivals in the Kinh Bac area, characterized by folk songs and folk games.
Traditionally, the Lim festival consists of 2 parts: The first part is ceremony and the second part is the festival. The distinctive feature of the Lim festival compared to other festivals is that because this is a festival of 6 villages together, the procession will parade and perform the Citadel rituals of all villages along the Tieu Tuong river.
The festival space is centered on Lim hill, with Lim pagoda – the place of worshiping Sir. Hieu Trung Hau – the founder of the custom of singing coffin and taking place in 3 surrounding localities: Noi Due commune, Lien Bao commune and town Lim. The Lim Festival usually lasts from 3 to 4 days (from 12 to 14 lunar January every year), in which the 13th is the main festival with many activities including ceremony and festivals.
Besides, Lim Festival is also space for various folk games such as “danh du” (bamboo swings), wrestling, cocks fighting, tugging war, blindman’sbuff, human chess, pot beating, etc. Especially, visitors can know more about culture of Vietnamese people in Red River Delta region with the competition of weaving.
Over 300 years in existence, Lim Festival has become an indispensable part of Vietnamese culture and pride of Vietnamese people.
