Participants at the opening ceremony of the festival (Source: VNA)
The Vietnam Culinary Culture Association (VCCA) and the municipal Department of Tourism are jointly organising the festival, which covers five major activities: Tet rituals, food, games and performances, and a Tet market.
Visitors to the event will be offered a chance to learn how to make "Banh Chung" (square glutinous rice cake) and “Banh tet” (round glutinous rice cake) - the traditional cakes of Vietnamese people during Tet holidays, and enjoy various specialties from many localities nationwide.
Festive activities during the three-day event focus on telling in an easy-to-understand and engaging way stories of the Vietnamese traditional Tet holiday through exhibitions and games.
According to Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the VCCA, a series of agricultural products certified under the One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme are being exhibited at the event, which features nearly 100 booths from many enterprises and localities.
Travel agencies take the opportunity to introduce their services at the festival, offering visitors many options of products, especially promotional tours during Tet holidays.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Trung Khanh, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said the event aims to promote unique values of the Vietnamese Tet festival to domestic and foreign visitors, especially as Vietnam is said to be an attractive destination for international holiday-makers.
The festival is hoped to become an annual event, contributing to attracting more tourists to HCM City in particular and to Vietnam in general, he added.
The festival will runs through January 5th./.