Overseas Vietnamese in Russia hold Vu Lan festival

Buddhist followers attend the Vu Lan festival in Moscow, Russia. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Dang Minh Khoi emphasised the importance of maintaining national culture and traditions. It helps educate and guide people, particularly young generation to goodness, and to unite the entire community.

Maintaining religious activities has affirmed the connection between the Vietnam Buddhist Association and the Vietnamese community in Russia with the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, and the homeland, proving them as an inseparable part of the Vietnamese Buddhist community in particular, and the great national unity bloc in general, he said.

This year, the Vu Lan festival celebration in Russia is more meaningful as it marks the 10th anniversary of the construction of the worshipping place for Three Treasures - the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha - at the Incentra Moscow Buddhist Hall, which, together with the Hanoi-Moscow Multifunctional Centre and the One Pillar Pagoda, has become a popular spiritual and cultural destination for Buddhist followers in particular and the entire Vietnamese community in Russia.

Buddhism is not only a religion, but also a traditional cultural identity of Vietnam. Buddhist rituals have become a way of life for the majority of Vietnamese people, including overseas Vietnamese in Russia. Therefore, maintaining Buddhist activities is also maintaining the cultural traditions of the Vietnamese people./.