Buying luck at Vieng market

Happy Vietnam

Stalls selling antiques and replica antiques attract visitors browsing and making purchases at Vieng Market. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA
Visitors select ornamental plants at Vieng Market. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA
Visitors’ joy after finding items they like at Vieng Market during the early days of the Lunar New Year. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA
Crowds of locals and tourists flock to Vieng Market to “buy luck, sell misfortune,” praying for prosperity and peace in the early days of the new year. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA
Tourists browse and purchase handicrafts at Vieng Market. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA
Buying luck at Vieng market
Vieng market, a spring festival deeply imbued with folk beliefs and culture of northern delta inhabitants, opens annually at midnight of the 7th till dawn of the 8th of the first lunar month. A large crowd of locals and tourists flocked to Vieng Market in Vu Ban commune, Ninh Binh district since the afternoon of February 23 (the seventh day of the first lunar month). Everyone went there to buy goods to pray for fortune and happiness. The market, typical to an agricultural countryside rich in natural specialties, is an open-air fair displaying a wide variety of goods, from local farm produce, especially speciality crops and ornamental plants, to sophisticated craft articles, ranging from daily utensils, bronze and steel tools, worship articles, antiques and imitation antiques, to jewellery and toys. Photo: Cong Luat – VNA