Crowds thrilled by Ponagar Festival in Nha Trang

Thursday, 17:15, 25/04/2019

VOV.VN - The annual Ponagar Festival opened in Nha Trang city on April 25, or the 21st day of the third lunar month. The event is the largest religious festival of its kind in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa and attracted a large crowd of pilgrims from surrounding provinces.

Thousands of pilgrims made their way to the event from across Khanh Hoa province. Due to the popularity of the festival, people even attended from as far as Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, and Thua Thien Hue provinces.

A number of foreign visitors were also in attendance at the festival.

Visitors come to the festival in the hope of learning about the culture of the Cham ethnic people.

From early in the morning of April 25, Khanh Hoa province’s leaders and delegates start to make their way to Ponagar Tower.

The three-day event commemorates the Goddess Ponagar, also known as Thien Y A Na, the Holy Mother of the Cham community in the central region. She is believed to have taught local people how to grow rice, raise silkworms, and weave fabric.

The opening ceremony of the festival features a requiem, the releasing of a lantern, and a ceremony that prays for peace and prosperity throughout the country.

A wide range of cultural activities that honour the spiritual life of the ethnic people of the southern central region are to be held during the festival.