The Spring Festival is an annual cultural event held during the traditional Lunar New Year, contributing to the introduction and promotion of the nation’s traditional cultural values, while creating a joyful and vibrant space for the public and visitors to visit, shop, and experience cultural activities during the early days of the New Year. This year, Spring Festival 2026 has become a meeting point and a platform for friendly exchange with the participation of representatives from ASEAN embassies and foreign cultural centers in Viet Nam, thereby enhancing cultural dialogue and mutual understanding between Viet Nam and international friends.
Delivering the opening speech, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong emphasized that this year’s Spring Festival is held in a special context, as the entire Party, people, and armed forces have just successfully organized the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, ushering in a new term with long-term strategic orientations and strongly continuing the cause of renewal, rapid and sustainable national development. The issuance of Politburo Resolution No. 80-NQ/TW on the development of Vietnamese culture is of great significance, reaffirming the Party’s consistent viewpoint that culture and people are the foundation, an important endogenous resource, a powerful driving force, a pillar, and a regulatory system for rapid and sustainable national development. The Spring Festival is also a meaningful activity celebrating the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Viet Nam - the Party of Spring, of faith and national aspiration.
Spring Festival 2026 brings together a wide range of cultural, artistic, and experiential spaces, vividly reflecting the traditional cultural life of the nation in interaction with the contemporary spirit. A highlight is the thematic exhibition “Spring with the Party,” featuring 120 images depicting the glorious journey of the Communist Party of Viet Nam through its Congresses, from the Spring of 1930 to the 14th National Party Congress.
Alongside this is a traditional Tet space rich in national identity, featuring the ceremonial bamboo pole, red parallel sentences, the symbolic animal of the Year of the Horse, decorative scenes with peach blossoms, kumquat trees, apricot blossoms, chrysanthemums, marigolds, and vibrant flower stalls, evoking memories of the traditional Lunar New Year, fostering a sense of returning to cultural roots and contributing to the preservation of enduring cultural values.
Bridging tradition with the spirit of the times are creative and contemporary interactive spaces. Notably, an exhibition of horse paintings themed “Net Zero – Spring Festival 2026” on recycled cardboard materials conveys a message of environmental protection; displays of children’s paintings; fashion designs; and the artistic photo installation featuring traditional Ao dai, creating experiential highlights and spreading Vietnamese cultural imagery across social media platforms.
Contemporary art activities are further expanded with exhibitions and performances of light sculptures depicting President Ho Chi Minh; light artworks themed “The Story of the Horse in Vietnamese Folk Legends,” contributing to honoring historical and cultural values through new creative languages.
Throughout the festival, a series of Tet experiential activities are held, including wrapping and boiling banh chung and banh gai, making Tet candied fruits, introducing traditional folk delicacies, and organizing handicraft and craft workshops such as making lucky money envelopes, paper fans, folk woodblock prints, calligraphy writing, folk calendar making, pottery shaping, sedge weaving, and scented candle making. Many customs and cultural practices of the Tay ethnic community are also reenacted through village bonfire nights, ritual dances, Then singing with tinh lute accompaniment, and folk games, creating a lively atmosphere and strengthening community bonds. The event will run until February 9.
