Hanoi enforces stricter management at 2026 Giong Festival opening

THE HANOI TIMES — Hanoi opened the Giong Festival 2026 on February 22 at Soc Temple in Soc Son Commune, with enhanced management measures in place to ensure safety, order and cultural integrity at one of northern Vietnam’s largest traditional events.

The opening ceremony, held on the sixth day of the first lunar month, drew thousands of visitors to the National Special Monument. The festival will run through the eighth day of the lunar month, February 24.

The event honors Saint Giong, one of Vietnam’s “Four Immortals” and a central figure in national folklore. According to legend, the boy from Phu Dong Village repelled foreign invaders before riding an iron horse to the foot of Soc Mountain, where he shed his armor and ascended to heaven - an image that has become emblematic of heroism in Vietnamese mythology.

Local authorities opened this year’s festival with a ceremonial drum performance led by Pham Quang Ngoc, Chairman of the Soc Son Commune People’s Committee.

Ritual processions followed as villages in Soc Son and neighboring Da Phuc presented eight traditional offerings to Saint Giong, including symbolic items such as a divine horse, a war elephant, betel nuts and a bamboo floral display.

Organizers said this year’s festival is the first to be jointly staged by Soc Son and Da Phuc communes under a new two-tier local governance model, with tighter control over commercial activities and free parking arranged to improve crowd management and preserve the event’s solemn character.

Recognized by UNESCO in 2010 as part of humanity’s representative intangible cultural heritage, the Giong Festival is one of Hanoi’s largest traditional events, serving both spiritual life and the promotion of local cultural and tourism potential.

For residents, it remains a centuries-old fixture of the lunar calendar, blending ritual, legend and civic identity in the capital’s northern outskirts.