Many roads leading to famous temples and pagodas such as Tran Quoc Pagoda, Quan Thanh Temple, Ha Pagoda … are crowded with traffic on the afternoon of the 1st of the Lunar New Year of the year 2023.
On the afternoon of the 1st of the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Rabbit 2023, Hanoians and tourists flock to the city’s sacred temples and pagodas. Many places such as Ha Pagoda, Tran Quoc Pagoda, Quan Thanh Temple … are crowded with people to pray for the new year.
The roads leading to temples and pagodas are congested. In particular, Thanh Nien road is long and difficult to move from 4pm to 6pm. Cars were parked on the sidewalk, extending from Quan Thanh Temple to Tay Ho Palace.
Motorcycles are lined up on the sidewalk of Thanh Nien Street, adjacent to Tran Quoc Pagoda. Tourists and people have to skillfully slip through the empty space to enter the temple ceremony. Spontaneous parking spots also appear.
The image was recorded at Tran Quoc Pagoda at 5pm on the 1st of the Lunar New Year. Tran Quoc Pagoda was built around the year 541 – 547, is the oldest temple of Thang Long – Hanoi. This is one of the Buddhist centers of the capital, attracting many Buddhist followers and visitors.
People and tourists come to the temple to pray for a peaceful and lucky new year. Many people also take advantage of taking pictures with their families, capturing the exciting moments of the new year.
Until 6pm, the number of people flocking to Tran Quoc Pagoda gradually decreased.
Quan Thanh Temple welcomes a lot of people and tourists right after the time of New Year’s Eve. By the afternoon of the 1st of the Lunar New Year, many people accepted to pray from the temple yard because the number of tourists was too large.
“My family has a tradition, in the morning of the 1st day of the 1st we go to visit relatives and in the afternoon we start going to pagodas. By 3pm, many roads to temples and big pagodas are congested, parking spaces are full. It’s quite hard and time consuming, no less than rush hour on weekdays”, said Ms. Hoa Tran (Hoan Kiem, Hanoi). It took about 30 minutes for her family to enter the ceremony at Quan Thanh Temple.
Many people write their prayers on paper or save them on their phones to pray at temples and pagodas.
The yard of Ha pagoda was filled with people and tourists coming to the New Year’s ceremony.
People stand close to place offerings and pray in front of the altar.
Due to overcrowding, it is difficult to calve and book the ceremony.
Going to the temple at the beginning of the year is a traditional culture of Vietnamese people in general and Ha Thanh people in particular for many generations.