Firecracker Festival

Firecracker Festival

January-FebruaryFirecrackers are a traditional element of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year celebration, and one town really takes its firecrackers seriously. Each year 16 families are selected to compete in producing the most spectacular display for the town of Dong Ky in Vietnam's Ha Bac Province. These are no ordinary firecrackers, but huge, elaborately decorated affairs that may require two dozen men to carry and up to $500—more than an average family's annual earnings—to create. Each firecracker is paraded through town and set up on a special tripod for firing. After all the firecrackers have been set off, a panel of judges determines the winning family.
CONTACTS:
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism
80 Quan Su Rd.
Hanoi, Vietnam
84-4-942-1061; fax: 84-4-826-3956
www.vietnamtourism.com/e_pages/news/index.a
SOURCES:
FestWrld: Viet-1997, p. 12