(VOVworld)- At next month’s Hue Festival 2012, visitors will see replicas of ancient rural markets surrounding the famous Thanh Toan Tile Bridge across the Nhu Y River. Villagers from Thanh Thuy Chanh village are gearing up preparations for these market sessions.

Thanh Thuy Chanh rural market

The “Chợ Quê Ngày Hội” or “rural market on festival days” is a special rural excursion organized by the villagers of Thanh Thuy Chanh during important festivals. For a year, local authorities have been making preparations, hoping to attract a record number of tourists to the market and to Hue Festival 2012. Nguyen Thi Hau owns a private museum of fishing and farming tools next to Thanh Toan Bridge. She says her museum was repaired by the local authorities last year and will be reorganized with the help of young local villagers long before the Hue Festival begins. Ms. Hau said: "We did not attract many visitors to our rural markets during the previous Hue Festival. So this year, the local authorities and the public are doing their best to ensure that everything is well-prepared for visitors. We have begun practicing our performances well ahead of the festival."
This year’s rural market will begin with an incense offering to Tran Thi Dao, a Thanh Thuy villager in the reign of King Le Hien Tong in the 15th century who paid for the building of Thanh Toan Bridge. The bridge has been recognized as a national cultural relic site. After enjoying a sightseeing tour of local relic sites, market visitors can examine the farming tools on display in private museums next to the bridge. The market includes many interesting folk games and cultural activities, such as breaking earthen pots, blind man’s buff, Bai choi singing, cock-fighting, and boat-races. A villager from Thanh Thuy Chanh, Tran Bong, says: "The local authorities have told us in detail how to organize this year’s rural market in a professional way to better promote our unique cultural values. Visitors can get involved in many folk games and agricultural activities at the market. We are working very hard to smoothly link every detail of this year’s plan for the rural market."
The market sessions will take place from April 8th to 14th. Preparations should be complete by the end of this month, according to Tran Duy Khanh, Chairman of the Thuy Thanh communal People’s Committee. Khanh said: "We were given funds to upgrade local infrastructure for the festival at the beginning of the year. We have also mobilized local people to help organize the festival. This is the first time the martyrs’ temple next to the Thanh Toan Bridge is included in the festival tours."
Near the beautiful tile bridge, a bustling rural market recreating the Vietnam of the past has been created. Here buyers can select specialties of the rural Thanh Thuy Commune such as rice, sticky rice, rice wine, handicrafts, bamboo items, enjoy traditional cakes and sweets, bowl-shaped cakes, glutinous rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves, and sweetened corn porridge. 

Ngoc Minh