In pictures: Ba Chua Kho festival in Hanoi

Tens of thousands of visitors from all over the country flocked to Ba Chua Kho Temple Festival in Vu Ninh, Bac Ninh Friday in their annual pilgrimage to pray for good luck and fortune.

The end of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) celebration in Vietnam every year sees a surge of spring festivals blooming all over the country as thousands of the likes of Ba Chua Kho Temple draw massive crowds of prayers.

First held during Ly Dynasty in 1077, the festival is to worship Madame Kho, a beautiful woman who was the national treasure’s keeper and later died in the country’s last battle to maintain independence from the Chinese. King Ly Nhan Tong then elevated the lady to sainthood and the Ba Chua Kho Temple was built at the old site of the treasure.

In recent years, it is believed that worshipping the goddess and making a New Year pilgrimage can bring good fortune and financial success, especially to businessmen thus many claim the festival has been commercialized and exploited for other purposes. 

Thousands of pilgrims elbowed each other at the entrance of the temple

Surrounding the temples are shops selling paper votive offerings

Offerings are carried to the temple and then burned 

Pilgrims jostled to pass each other at the main temple  

A close-up of a tray of votive offering

Small change found all over the altars 

Paper votive money are burnt after pilgrims finish their praying 

92-year-old Phuong from Thuong Tin, Hanoi could not get into the main temple as there were too many people

Two sanitation workers brought disposed flowers and other garbage to the back side of the temple

A beggar at the festival