Local monks, nuns and residents gathered at the An Vinh communal house to pray for the soldiers and sailors who fell while defending the Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands.

On April 29, a grand ceremony to commemorate the soldiers and sailors of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Flotilla was also held on Ly Son island.

This year's ceremony was organised on a much larger scale than usual as all the families living on the island gathered together for it, said Nguyen Dang Vu, director of Quang Ngai Culture, Sports and Tourism Department.

In previous years, each family organised their own ceremony separately on the 15th and 16th day of the third lunar month, which fall on April 28 and 29 this year.

Local elderly people will float thousands of candles, which represent the soldiers who died while guarding the Paracels. A shaman will then pray to a number of human effigies, with the intention of turning any bad luck upon them, rather than the soldiers guarding the archipelago.

The procession will then float the effigies and boats out to sea.

At the same event this year, the province will open an exhibit of images and artefacts that belonged to the soldiers that guarded the archipelagos.

Vu added that the ceremony stems from a local traditional religious custom and a proposal has been put forward for it to be held at national level.

He said the authorities would seek approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to hold a Sea and Islands Festival in the province in 2012, the focal point of which would be the ceremony.

A local resident, 80-year-old Vo Hien Dat, confirmed that the worshipping ceremony had been handed down through the generations for hundreds of years.

He added that every year, the local elderly people choose a nice day then gather at An Vinh Village's communal house to make small models of real equipment for fishermen, including boats, saucepans, water bottles and other personal things for seafarers men to be used in the worshipping ceremony.

Vu, who has a PhD on sea and island cultures, said that more than 400 years ago, when Lord Nguyen started his reign in the south of the country, around 70 local men were chosen to travel to the Paracels to search for valuable sea produce for the royal family and local army generals who controlled  the East Sea.

On this occasion, thousands of visitors from across the country attended the ceremonies.
The Management Board of Ly Son Port increased the number of ferry departures to and from the island from one to two per day to meet the increased demand.