Quang Ninh (VNA) – The Dao Thanh Phan ethnic community in DongVan commune, Binh Lieu district, the northern province of Quang Ninh,jubilantly celebrate their annual Ngay Kieng gio festival (Mi seeng phay heydao in Dao language, meaning avoiding wind) on May 18.

Dao Thanh Phan is a sub-group of the Dao ethnic group, who mainly residein the northern mountainous region.

The annual festival, also known as Dong Van Love Market, was earlier alocal event with the participation of only Dao ethnic people in the commune.However, in order to preserve the unique cultural tradition of the Dao ethnicgroup, the Dong Van communal authorities made it a cultural festival for alllocal ethnic groups.

This year is the first time the festival has been held at districtlevel, in the framework of the 2018 National Tourism Year hosted by Quang Ninhprovince, said To Dinh Hieu, Vice Director of Binh Lieu district’s culturalcommunication centre.

He emphasized that all activities during the festival are centred aroundthe culture of Dao Thanh Phan group, adding that it is a good opportunity forvisitors to get an insight into the unique Dao culture which has been preservedalmost intact.  

According to the Dao tradition, the Ngay Kieng gio festival is held onthe fourth day of the fourth lunar month (which falls on May 18 this year). AllDao ethnics in Binh Lieu leave home very early in the morning and only returnhome after sunset. They gather in groups, usually at shady and windy placeslike near a stream or a water fall. They talk to each other, sing traditionalmelodies or discuss crops in the next season.

An interesting thing about the festival is that the Dao people will notdo any production activity such as going to the field or hoeing during the daydue to the belief that the god of wind will cause failure of any work duringthe day. However, the women keep sewing or embroidering during the day.

Besides the traditional activities of the local Dao community, this year’sfestival had many more events such as tug-of-war and stick pushing competitions,and demonstrations of hand-made embroidering by Dao women. The Binh Lieudistrict also ran booths introducing Dao handicrafts at Dong Van market andpromoting tours to local destinations to visitors.

Quang Ninh province is hosting the National Tourism Year 2018, which waslaunched at a grand ceremony on April 28.

A total of 100 events will be held throughout the year, with more than50 in Quang Ninh alone, which promise to bring impressive and interestingexperience for visitors.

Last year, Quang Ninh welcomed more than 10 million tourists, 4 millionof who came from other countries. The province aims to attract over 12 millionvisitors this year, including 5 million foreigners.

The province is focusing on four types of tourism products, namely seaand island tourism, cultural and spiritual tourism, community-based tourism, andborder tourism.-VNA