Lim Festival 2008 kicks off
The Lim Festival, where the folk songs Quan Ho are performed, takes place 18km from Hanoi in Lim village every year on 13th day of the 1st lunar month.
The festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors who go to enjoy the dialogue performances between “lien anh” (male singers) and “lien chi” (female singers), the country’s most skilled Quan Ho artists.
The singers are farmers who sing songs in pagodas, on the hills, and in the boats. Also, visitors enjoy the Lim Festival’s weaving competition of the Noi Due girls. They weave and sing Quan Ho songs.
Like other religious festivals, the Lim Festival goes through all the ritual stages, from the procession to the worshipping ceremony, and includes other activities.
The Lim Festival is a special cultural activity in the North. It celebrates the “Quan Ho” folk song which has become a part of the national culture and a typical folk song that is well loved in the Red River Delta region.
The Lim Festival is also celebrated with traditional temple games. In one, teenage girls must mind a stranger’s baby, chew pieces of sugar cane in order to create fuel with which to start and maintain a fire, cook rice, and prevent a frog from jumping out of a circle marked on the ground. If the baby cries, the fire goes out or the frog escapes, the girl is disqualified.
Source Vietnamnet/Three land
