Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, our weekly feature dedicated to listeners throughout the world. We are Mai Phuong and Ngoc Huyen.
A: First on our show today, we’d like to welcome 29-year old Yuki Kishibe of Japan to our program. Yuki Kishibe first listened to our broadcast on February 2 from 13:30 to 14:00 UTC on the frequency of 9840 khz. He rated SINPO at all 3s.
B: Thank you Yuki Kishibe for tuning in to our broadcasts. We’ll send you a QSL card, a frequency list and a program schedule. We hope to hear from you again soon.
A: This week, we received a number of letters from Roger Rousel of Canada. He reported listening to our broadcasts on February 4th, 10th, 16th, and 18th on the frequency of 6175 khz with SINPO rated at all 5s. Roger wrote: “I am always happy to listen to your very interesting and well prepared radio broadcasts. Keep up the great job. Receive from Canada my best regards”.
B: Roger Rousel, we highly appreciate your detailed reception reports. Your feedback is very useful to us. Thank you.
A: Sending us a beautiful postcard with warm greetings, Joseph Mulvihill of Ireland wrote: “Greetings to you all at the Voice of Vietnam. Thank you all for the beautiful New Year card, pocket calendar 2015, and program guide. First of all, may I wish you all at VOV a very happy New Year 2015. I have no internet. I have a shortwave radio. Could you send me a radio report form so I can report my reception to VOV?”
B: Thank you, Joseph Mulvihill for tuning in to VOV. We don’t have a radio report form, so if you want to send a reception report to VOV, please report the time and the date of listening, the frequency, your SINPO rating and the details of the program. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your report.
A: Eddy Prabowo of Indonesia sent a reception report for both English and Indonesian programs. He listened to our English Program on 14 March from 23.30 to 23.57 UTC on the frequency of 9840 kHz with SINPO at 54344 and on the frequency of 12020 kHz with SINPO at 45444.
B: We are very impressed with his photos of souvenirs, letters and postcards that VOV has sent him over the years. They show Eddy’s interests and loyalty to VOV. Thank you very much.
A: In his letter to VOV this week Fumito Hokamura of Japan drew Vietnamese and Japanese national flags and sent a report on VOV’s broadcast of February 26. He listened to the program from 11:30 to 11:57 UTC on the frequency of 12020. Fumito wants to know more about spring festivals in Vietnam.
B: Spring is the season of festivals in Vietnam. One of the earliest, biggest and longest festivals is the Huong pagoda festival. The festival begins on the 6th day of the first lunar month and lasts for three months.
A: The Perfume Pagoda, 70 km south of Hanoi, is Vietnam's most famous Buddhist pilgrimage site, welcoming hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who come to the site to pray for a happy and prosperous year. This stream of pilgrims reaches its peak during the Perfume Pagoda Festival. Devotees travel through a picturesque gauntlet to the sacred caves, first boarding boats that pass a landscape of rice paddies and limestone mountains, then going by foot past historical shrines and up hundreds of stone steps.
Huong (Perfume) pagoda festival |
B: The Lim Festival is organized in Lim village, located 18 km from Hanoi, where Quan Ho, a special form of folk song is performed. The festival takes place every year on the 13th day of the 1st lunar month. Tens of thousands of visitors come here to enjoy duet performances between "lien anh" (male singers) and "lien chi" (female singers), Vietnam’s most skilled Quan Ho singers. These are male and female farmers who sing different types of songs in the pagodas, on the hills, and in the boats.
A: Visitors also come to the Lim Festival to enjoy the weaving competition of the Noi Due girls. They weave and sing Quan Ho songs at the same time. Like other religious festivals, the Lim Festival goes through all the ritual stages, from the procession to the worshipping ceremony, and includes other activities.
Performance of Quan Ho folk songs at Lim festival |
B: The Lim Festival is a special cultural activity of northern Vietnam. The festival celebrates "Quan Ho" which has become 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 folk games.
A: The Cau Ngu festival of lower Thai Duong Village in Huong Hai Commune, Huong Dien District, is held annually on the 12th day of the 1st lunar month in memory of the village’s tutelary genie Truong Quy Cong. His alias is Truong Thieu, and he was a native of the north who came to the village to settle, teach the locals how to fish, and trade junks.
B: On the eve of the festival, the entire village begins making offerings. Both parts of the village, the upper and lower parts, worship Truong Quy Cong. Late at night, the "fish worshipping ceremony" occurs, where people pray for peace and the future abundance of fish. Every three years, games representing sea fishing activities are organized, such as the "fish catching" game and the "net-casting" game.
A: After these games, people go to watch skiff rowing. The "net-casting" game is a form of entertainment that is characterized by rituals to commemorate the merits of the village tutelary genie.
B: The Nui Ba festival is a popular festival for southerners. If you go to Tay Ninh province, you should visit Nui Ba, a beautiful mountain located in the middle of the Mekong Delta, 11km from downtown Tay Ninh. Nui Ba is sometimes called Ms. Den Mountain. According to a legend, the mountain was named after a young woman named Denh, but who was referred to as Den. She was the devout daughter of a guard officer of the Mien ethnic minority group.
A: Den left her house to enter a monastery in the mountains. She became a nun due to family pressure to marry a guard officer's son from the Trang Bang Area. She remained at the monastery until she died. After her death, the Nguyen Dynasty ordered that a mould of her be cast in black bronze in her honour as the Sacred Saint of the Mountain.
Nui Ba festival |
B: During the spring until the afternoon of the 30th day of the 1st lunar month, and especially on the day of the full moon of the first month, tourists from Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces pilgrimage to worship and sightseeing. Starting at the bottom of the mountain, tourists climb half way up the mountain to Saint Linh Son's communal house and then follow a path that leads to a pagoda. This pagoda offers vegetarian meals. Tourists can eat as much as they want, but should donate some money to the pagoda; the amount depending on the tourists’ budget.
A: Those are just a few of the festivals that take place in Vietnam in the first lunar month. Vietnam has a lot of festivals, especially in the spring. In our next program, we’ll introduce a few more of the spring festivals in Vietnam.
A: Before we close today’s program, we’d like to urge you to continue sending in entries to our contest “What do you know about Vietnam?” We really hope a listener to VOV’s English program will win the contest. Good luck to you all.
B: We’d like to acknowledge letters and emails from John Andres of the US, Roberto Guiso of Italy, Ratan Kumar Paul, SB Sharma and Mohammad Shamim of India Ian Pillar of Australia, Idriss Bououdina of the US, and Klaus Huber of Germany. We’ll send you QSL cards and the souvenirs you requested soon.
B: We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.