A memorial ceremony dedicated to those who died protecting Vietnam ’s archipelagos over 300 years ago, took place on April 28 on Ly Son Island, in the central province of Quang Ngai.

Monks, nuns and residents on the island gathered at the An Vinh communal house, praying for the soldiers and sailors fallen in defence of 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 will be held on Ly Son island with the participation of all the community of the island.

This year's ceremony was organised on a 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.

Elderly people will float thousands of candles, which represent the soldiers who died while guarding the Paracels. Then a shaman will pray to 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 objects of the former soldiers that guarded the archipelagos.

Vu also added that the ceremony stems from a local traditional religious custom, which had been proposed to be organised at the national level.

He said the authorities would seek approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organise a Sea and Islands Festival in the province in 2012, the centre 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 generations for hundreds of years.

He added that every year, local elderly people chose a fine day to 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 seafaring men to be used in the worshipping ceremony.

Vu, who has a PhD on sea and island culture, said more than 400 years ago, when Lord Nguyen started his reign in the south of the country, around 70 local men had been chosen to travel to the Paracels to search for valuable sea products for the royal and local army generals controlling 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 daily departures to and from the island from one to two per day to meet the increased demand.

Source: Vietnam+