UNIT 7 FESTIVALS

GET IDEAS
1 What festivals are there in your province/ hometown?
What other festivals do you know?

Put the correct festivals into the appropriate geographical areas in the Festival Map of
2
Vietnam

1. Lim Festival 10. Hoa Lu ancient capital

2. Sinh Village Wrestling Festival 11. Perfume Pagoda
3. Hung Temple Festival 12. Kate Festival of Cham People
4. Chol Chnam Thmay Festival 13. Ba Den Mountain Festival
5. Yen Tu Festival 14. Lunar New Year
6. Phu Day Festival 15. Tet Nguyen Tieu
7. Mid-Autumn Festival 16. Vieng Market
8. Bai Dinh Pagoda Festival 17. Ra Glai Tribe Festival
9. Elephant Race 18. Village Land Praying Ceremony

Did you know?

Viet Nam is the land of traditional festivals. According to statistics, every year
Vietnam organizes more than 7,000 traditional festivals all over the country.
These festivals occur all year round, but the majority of the festivals happen in
the spring, after Lunar New Year.

Festivals show the history and are exciting community-based activities,

attracting people from different walks of life. Festivals are very important for
Vietnamese people because they satisfy both spiritual and cultural needs.
READING
1 Read the extracts A- E and match the photos (1-5) with the correct
festival.

1
3
2

A Lim Festival

The Lim Festival is a special cultural activity in the North. The festival celebrates the "Quan
Ho" folk song which has become a part of the national culture and is a typical folk song well
loved in the Red River Delta region. The Lim Festival takes place every year on the 13th day of
the first lunar month. Visitors come to enjoy the festival and see the performances of "lien anh"
and "lien chi". These are male and female farmers who sing different types of songs in the
pagodas, on the hills, and in the boats. The Lim Festival takes place on Lim Hill where the Lim
Pagoda is located. This pagoda is where people pay tribute to Mr. Hieu Trung Hau, the man who
created “Quan Ho”.

Visitors can 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.

B Kate Ceremony
Time: 1st day of the 7th month of the Cham calendar (usually sometime in late September or
early October)
This is biggest festival of the Cham people, taking place in Ninh Thuan and Binh
Thuan Province. The ceremony is held at Poklong Garai and other Cham towers to
commemorate national heroes, ancestors, and deities of the Cham, as well as King
Poklong and King Porome.
People from surrounding areas gather at the towers to attend the simple but very
significant ceremony. After reading from Taoist books and an appearance from a holy
man in the courtyard, everyone enters the tower to witness a female medium and a holy
man washing. There are also prayers, singing of traditional folk songs and a ceremony in
honor of the stone statue of King Poklong garai.
After the rituals, there is performances of song and dance on the river and rituals
of worship in front of the main temple

4 5
C Lunar New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan)

Tet is the beginning of the new year in the lunar calendar. This is also the time when the
cycle of the universe finishes: winter ends and spring, the season of birth of all living things,
comes.
Tet is an occasion for pilgrimages and family reunions. It is a time when one pays
respect to ancestors and grandparents. It is an occasion when everyone sends each other best
wishes for a new year, stops thinking about unhappy things and says good things about each
other.
On the 23rd day of the twelfth month in the lunar calendar, there is a rite to see Tao
Quan (Kitchen God) off. The rite to say goodbye to the old year is held on the 30 th day of the
month of the twelfth month by lunar calendar. The rite to welcome the New Year is held at
midnight that day. The rite to see off ancestral souls to return to the other world is often held on
the 3rd day of the first month by lunar calendar after the conclusion of the Tet holidays and
everyone has gone back to work.
There are various customs practiced during Tet such as ancestral worshipping, visiting a
person’s house on the first day of the new year, giving lucky money to young children and old
people, wishing longevity to the oldest people, and opening rice paddies or opening a shop.

D Hung Kings’ Temple Festival

The death anniversary of the Hung Kings, or the Hung Kings’ Temple Festival has
become one of the greatest national festivals in Viet Nam. Every year, during the third lunar
month, many Vietnamese people head for Nghia Linh Mountain, Phu Tho Province in
commemoration of the Hung Kings whose regime helped establish Viet Nam as a sovereign
nation.
The Hung Kings’ Temple festival is held annually from the 8th to the 11th of the third
month in the lunar calendar with the main festival day falling on 10 th. Like other festivals in the
northern part of Viet Nam, this festival includes two parts: an incense-offering ceremony and
recreational activities.
The former, an important part of the festival, is held at the Upper temple to express
respect and gratitude from the “Dragon and Fairy descendants” to their ancestors. Offerings to
the ancestors consist of many things such as pigs, goats, cows, Chung cake, Day cake and even
a five-fruit feast. After hearing the sound of an old bronze drum, the state representatives,
followed by elders and pilgrims will conduct an incense-offering rite.
These activities occur around the temples with a mixture of both traditional and modern
activities. However, the most interesting activities are the procession marches, the Xoan
singing performance in the Upper temple, and the Ca Tru singing performance in the Lower
temple. The performances were recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity. Cross-bow shooting, rice cooking, swinging contests, cock fighting, and dragon
dancing also attract many tourists’ attention.
 E Chol Chnam Thmay Festival
Chol Chnam Thmay is the name of the New Year festival of the Khmer people in Southern
Vietnam. It takes place from the 1st to the 3rd in the fourth month of the Khmer calendar. It usually
lasts three days in a normal year and four days in leap year. The Khmer people believe that every
year the heavens send a God called Tevoda to the earth to look after human beings and their lives.
At the end of the year, one Tevoda returns to heaven and another is sent to replace him. Therefore,
on New Year’s eve, most families prepare a party, burn incense and light color lamps to see off the
old Tedova and greet the new one. They visit each other, pray for good luck and participate in
traditional festivities like Ghe Ngo racing, lantern release, and folk dances.
The first day is called Chol sangkran Chmay. On this day, at a selected hour, people take a
bath and put on their best clothes in anticipation of the New Year. They take incense, lamps,
flowers and fruits to a pagoda where they pray for a happy new year.
On the second day, known as Wonbof, Khmer families cooks rice and offers it to Buddhist
monks at the pagoda in the early morning and at noon. This is to show their hopes for rain and
happiness.
On the third day, Lom Sak, statues of Buddha and Buddhist monks are washed in perfumed
water. After that, people return to their houses and wash any statues of Buddha they may have at
home. They offer dishes, confectionery and fruits to ask for happiness for their parents and
grandparents and to be forgiven for mistakes made in the old year.

 (Adapted from Vietnam tourist Guidebook)

2 Match the statements (1-6) with the festivals (A-E)

This festival
1. _____ is for family reunion
2. _____ is/are for pilgrim
3. _____ is for children
4. _____ has/ have marching and singing performances
5. _____ is taken place both in pagodas and houses
6. _____ commemorate national heroes, ancestors, and deities of the
Cham
7. _____ is for the ceremony to wash the Buddha statue in perfumed
water
8. _____ includes the incense-offering ceremony and recreational
activities.
9. _____ has the performances of folk songs
10._____ witness the female medium and the holy man washing
3 Find words in the texts that match these meanings
1. a song originating among a region, passed by oral tradition from one
generation to the next. (Test A)
2. a religious practice to show reverence and adoration for a deity. (Text
A)
 3. a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons. (text C)
4. a religious or other solemn ceremony or act. (Text C)
5. a god or goddess. (Text B)
6. a formal religious or public occasion, especially one celebrating a
particular event. (Text B)
7. a ceremony or celebration in which a person or event is remembered.
(Text D)
8. a gum, spice, or other substance that is burned for the sweet smell it
produces. (Text D)
9. a year, occurring once every four years, which has 366 days. (Text E)
10. activities or events celebrating a special occasion. (Text E)

4
Summaries
Choose 2 festivals from the Reading and summarize the main ideas
about the festivals
_____________________ _______________________
_ _

Time:

Place:

Ethnic:

Origin:

Celebration
:

Summarise

In your own words, describe:

The entertainment at each festivals
At Lim festival, …
The best thing about each festival
I think the best thing about the …is…
VOCABULARY
1 Festive Vocabulary

Noun Verb Adjective

1 There are big celebrations The festival It was a public holiday

on New Year’s Day. ___________ and everyone was in a
the New Year. ______________ mood.
2 The festival is a time of Each year, the The celebration brought
____________ festival renews _____________ hope to
the national the villagers.
spirit of the
people.
3 The festival is held in There was a _________
March. mood in the village.
4 The parade in the town The parade is always very
square was a very colorful spectacular.
________.
5 Many customs have their A __________ procession
origin in pagan is held through the streets
ceremonies. of the city.

2 Common collocations used when talking about festivals 

rich heritage
cultural back
festive season
date tradition

Match the two halves of collocations and complete the following sentences.

1. There is a _______________ of music and dance in Sweden.

2. Jazz is part of the ______________ of the southern United States.
3. The event marks the beginning of the _________________.
4. The tradition ______________ to the Middle Ages.

LISTENING
1. Watch the video about a tradition festival in Vietnam and answer the
following questions
 a. What is the festival?
b. Where is it taken place?
c. What is the legendary story behind it?
d. What do people do in the ceremonial part?
e. What do they do in the festive part?
2. Discuss with your partner
- What is the festival’s meaning?
- What can we learn from the traditional festivals of a country?

SPEAKING
Work in groups. Talk about one of the Vietnamese festivals that you are
interested in. Try to include the following details:
1. Its origin and meanings
2. Time and place that the festival is held
3. Cultural activities and spiritual products
4. The symbols of the festival
5. Process of the festival: preparation, the festive day and the ending
WRITING – Create a festival brochure

1
5 What is the best festival you’ve been to?
Why? What type of entertainment have you seen at festivals? Plan
ahead
2 Think of ONE festival. Complete the missing information about the festivals.

Festival 1
Type of event
Where?
What’s it like?
Food?
How long is it?
Extra
information

3 What you need

 An assortment of travel brochures
  Various reference materials, print and online, if desired
 Things to Include in a Travel Brochure Handout
 Paper and Art Supplies
4
What to do
1. Choose a festival you would like to go.
2. Collect travel brochures and examine them together.
 Are there maps? photos? diagrams? other illustrations?
 What kind of language and vocabulary is used?
 How is text presented? paragraphs? bulleted lists?
 Are there specific places highlighted? What kind?
3. Learn about what makes a successful travel brochure
 What additional information do they need to make a useful travel
brochure? 
 Who is your audience for this brochure? 
 What qualities of a brochure (maps, diagrams, photos, bulleted lists, etc.)
would help you create a brochure that will be useful for your audience?
4. Make your own festival brochure

Things to Include in a Travel Brochure

F e s t iv a l
• Brief summary of the setting, with highlights of important Br och u r e
places
• Location, including a map
• Geography
• Historic Sites and Landmarks
• Recreation and Outdoor Activities—parks, sports, water
• Climate and overall weather conditions
• Transportation
• Arts and Culture, including museums, theaters, places to
visit
• Languages and Local Dialect
• Food that the area is known for
• Pictures/Graphics
• Additional Information