Verses resonated across the moss-covered brick courtyard, blending with festival drums and spring colors, evoking aspirations for creativity, integration and “reaching out to the open sea” in the capital’s poetry.

In the spring of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, the event was organized in response to the 24th Vietnam Poetry Day under the common theme “Before the Open Sea,” while selecting “Reaching out to the Open Sea” as its own theme, reflecting a spirit of renewal and aspirations for integration in literature and the arts in the new era.

The program was organized by the Hanoi Literature and Arts Union (HLAU) and the Hanoi Writers’ Association, reaffirming Hanoi’s position as a major cultural center where poetry is honored as a traditional value and renewed to accompany national development.

The space of Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam became a symbolic stage. Under ancient tiled roofs, poetry recitations blended with festival drums, creating an atmosphere that was solemn yet warm. Poems about the nation, the sea and islands, and thousand-year-old Hanoi were attentively received by the public, affirming poetry as a lasting spiritual source in cultural life.

Poet Tran Gia Thai, Chairman of the Hanoi Writers’ Association, said the image of the sea represents not only vast natural space but also an era undergoing strong transformation. From the challenges of war and hardship, Vietnam has steadily risen, increasingly affirming its position in the international arena.

He emphasized that amid the era’s aspiration to reach the open sea, Hanoi,the thousand-year-old capital and the country’s political, economic, cultural and creative center, is undergoing strong transformation to become a locomotive of development.

Literature and the arts are regarded as important spiritual resources, while artists play a pioneering role in creativity and in spreading Thang Long-Hanoi cultural values during the period of integration.

Associate Professor, Dr. and musician Do Hong Quan, Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations, said Poetry Day has long become a festival for literature lovers, as spring is also the season of poetry.

In modern life marked by rapid change, poetry and literature continue to nurture spiritual life, cultivate love for the homeland and connect people with enduring values.

The opening ceremony began solemnly with President Ho Chi Minh’s poem “Nguyen Tieu,” performed in recitation form by Meritorious Artist Quoc Phong, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Cheo Theatre. The program was structured in three parts-“Nguyen Tieu Verses,” “Love for the Sea and Islands,” and “Spring Sensibilities of Hanoi”, creating an artistic flow linking tradition, the present and aspirations for the future.

Poems were presented through diverse artistic forms including musical adaptations, cheo reinterpretations (a traditional Vietnamese musical theatre form), ca tru singing (a traditional chamber music genre) and recitation, highlighting the vitality of poetry in contemporary life.

Hanoi Poetry Day 2026 was therefore not only an annual cultural event but also a meeting space between tradition and aspiration. From the thousand-year heritage setting of Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam, verses rose as a reminder that in the journey of integration and development, culture remains a sustainable foundation, and poetry is the spiritual sail that carries people and the nation toward the open sea.

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