Published:  00:00 Wednesday - January 21, 2009

The Thang Long Royal Citadel Spring Festival will kick off on January 29, and is expected to be one of a series of cultural festivities hosted by Hanoi to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year Festival (Tet).

During the 11-day event, the city’s residents will have the opportunity to visit the Doan Mon historical site, where archaeologists have discovered brick foundations from the Le dynasty and a wide range of ceramic artifacts dating back to the Ly and Tran dynasties, who ruled Vietnam during the 11th-15th centuries.

Visitors will be able to enjoy a host of outdoor activities, including rituals, exhibitions of handicraft products and bonsai trees, calligraphy writing, dragon dances, folk-song performances and traditional games, reported the Co Loa-Hanoi ancient citadel preservation centre.

The festival will also showcase a number of Dong Son bronze drums and imperial robes, which have been painstakingly restored, as well as pictures painted on traditional Do paper and pottery adorned with designs from the Ly and Tran dynasties.

The centre’s vice director Tran Quang Dung said that, following the “Ancient citadel’s spring charm 2007” and the “Thang Long Royal Citadel Festival 2008,” this year’s event is considered a rehearsal for the Thang Long-Hanoi’s millennial anniversary celebrations in 2010.