Published:  00:00 Tuesday - January 20, 2009

A calligraphy festival opened on January 19 in the capital city of Hanoi on Van Mieu Street where the country’s first university – the Temple of Literature – is located.

Wearing traditional dresses and turbans, some 50 male calligraphers of different ages demonstrate their calligraphic skills on stone, paper, bamboo, wood and silk.

A large number of calligraphy lovers as well as city residents and foreign tourists have flocked to the festival to welcome the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday from January 25-28.

Another festival that showcases drinks, flowers, and parallel sentences (the fun art of creating parallel sentences along a giant floor-canvas), is going at the city-based Vietnam Culture and Arts Exhibition Centre.

The annual festival is entertaining visitors with traditional and modern festivities, aimed at reviving the nation’s cultural beauties as well as becoming an entertainment hot-spot for the locals.

Many well-known Vietnamese wine-merchants joined forces with organisers to bring the very best of the country’s prestigious wine for visitors to enjoy.

More than a thousand parallel sentences were sent to the organising committee this year, celebrating the country’s development and honouring its personalities.

Competitive contests organised by wine producers, calligraphers and parallel sentence writers are heating up the festival. The finest wines will be picked up by a panel of connoisseurs for awards on January 20 – the last of the six-day event.

The organisers have arranged gong show performances and wine tasting evenings to spice up the beverage festival.