Thanks to good preparation, the Lady Thien Hau Temple Festival 2011 of Binh Duong province took place safely and healthily.

 Visitors flocking to Binh Duong

 This year’s Binh Duong Lady Thien Hau Temple Festival did not fall at weekend, but Binh Duong welcomed a large number of visitors, especially on Jan.14 and 15 of lunar calendar.

 

 On Jan.14 and 15 of lunar calendar, the Lady Thien Hau temple and other many pagodas in the center area of TDM town become crowded with visitors. They came here to burn incense and pray for a new year full of happiness, health and success…

 Festival going healthily, safely

 Possibly speaking, visitors felt comfortable when watching this year’s Lady Thien Hau welcoming ceremony, due to favorable weather.

 Head of the Fujian group Ly Lai Phat, who is also head of the Organizing Board of the Lady Thien Hau Temple Festival 2011 said that like the previous years, the Lady Thien Hau welcoming ceremony took place on Jan.15 of lunar calendar with traditional rituals. This year, the Lady Thien Hau palanquin was also carried throughout the streets of Nguyen Du, Yersin, six-way crossroads, Tran Hung Dao, Nguyen Thai Hoc and CMT8, with representatives of TDM town’s 4 Chinese groups, 22 unicorn-lion-dragon troupes, 6 floral carts together with hundreds of beautiful girls carrying colorful flower baskets…

 During the annual festival, there was a lantern auction or called the “Thanh Dang” ceremony at 9am of Jan.15 of lunar calendar. According to the organizing board of the annual festival, all the money collected at the previous auctions was used for social charity activities, including building charity-gratitude houses, offering help to Agent Orange victims…

 It is known that all the money from this year’s lantern auction will be used to fund the construction of the new Lady Thien Hau temple in the Binh Duong new city, the learning and teaching of Chinese at Le Van Tam primary school in TDM town…

 In general, this year’s Lady Thien Hau Temple Festival of Binh Duong took place safely and healthily. Along with the Lady Thien Hau temple in TDM town, the Lady Thien Hau temples in Thuan An and Bung Cau were also attractive destinations for visitors, helping them know more about Binh Duong’s land and people.

 Reported by Thu Thao-Binh Minh-Translated by K.T