The festival is the biggest and longest annual festival in Vietnam that lasts through three spring months, welcoming more than 1 million pilgrims and tourists each year.

On the first day of the festival, an art programme was held and an art exhibition opened at the pagoda’s museum.

Highlights of the festival will be a poetry night and a night of flower garlands and coloured lanterns in the Yen Stream. The poetry night will be held on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The festival organising board and local authorities have invested in expanding the wharf and put a total of 4,600 boats into service during this year’s festival.

Sightseeing trips to pagodas, temples and caves are the main attractions at the Huong Pagoda Festival, as well as ceremonies to ask favours from Lord Buddha.

Built in the late 17th century, Huong Pagoda is located in My Duc District at a historic site that has a large number of pagodas, temples and caverns filled with marvelous kinds of stalactiles, about 60km from downtown Hanoi. The Huong Tich Cavern has the autograph of Lord Trinh Sam in 1770, describing the cavern as the most beautiful cave in the country.