Hundreds of thousands of tourists attend the biggest lantern offering ceremony on Ba Den peak

On the evenings of the 8th and 9th of the Lunar New Year alone, the lantern offering ceremonies at the beginning of the year of the Dragon on Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh welcomed nearly 300,000 visitors. This is considered the largest lantern offering ceremony ever at the leading "pilgrimage land" in the South.

According to statistics from Sun World Ba Den Mountain Tourist Area, in the first 10 days of spring, more than 1 million Buddhists and tourists visited Ba Den Mountain to participate in meaningful activities in the Maitreya Spring Festival and the traditional Ba Den Mountain Spring Festival. In particular, the lantern offering ceremony held on weekend evenings attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors every night.

On the 8th day alone, Tay Ninh attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists to Ba Den Mountain to attend the Great Festival of the Supreme Being at the Holy See - a major holiday of the year for Cao Dai followers across the country. Of these, 148,000 visitors took the cable car to the top of Ba Den Mountain and attended the lantern offering ceremony "A peaceful new spring, a year of joy". In particular, on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the grand lantern offering ceremony with sacred rituals praying for a peaceful and prosperous new year promises to be the biggest lantern offering ceremony in early spring at Ba Mountain.

In Buddhist culture, each flower lantern that is lit is a Buddhist sending a good and peaceful thought to himself and to everyone. This beautiful and sacred Buddhist ritual is held on major holidays at the top of Ba Den Mountain such as the Ba Mountain Spring Festival, Linh Son Thanh Mau Festival, Buddha's Birthday, Vu Lan Festival...

What is special here is that each visitor will write their own wishes and light their own lantern, join in the solemn atmosphere of the lamp transmission ceremony, chant Buddha's name and release the lantern on the water around the Prajnaparamita Sutra pillar.

“Every year, my family makes a pilgrimage to Ba Pagoda at the beginning of the new year. Now, we have the habit of going up the mountain to attend the lantern offering ceremony, praying for peace, luck and happiness. This is truly a very meaningful and sacred experience in the first days of spring,” said Ms. Bui Xuan, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City.

During the Maitreya Spring Festival which lasts throughout January, on all weekend evenings, when reaching the top of Ba Den Mountain, visitors will be immersed in the space of tens of thousands of sparkling lanterns in the square at the foot of the statue of Buddha Tay Bo Da Son. After the ceremony, the lanterns will be burned with the hope that the wishes sent will come true.

Offering lanterns is a special ritual on the top of Ba Den Mountain. For those who do not have the opportunity to go to the top of the mountain on weekend evenings, Sun World Ba Den Mountain tourist area has also prepared lanterns for visitors to write their wishes and attach them to the “Lan Hoa Wish Lantern”. These wishes will then be fulfilled by Sun World Ba Den Mountain tourist area staff on behalf of visitors at the lantern offering ceremonies on weekend evenings.

Besides the lantern offering ceremony, many unique cultural and artistic activities celebrating Maitreya Spring create a jubilant spring atmosphere for the highest mountain in the South throughout January.

Intangible cultural heritages are vividly recreated here such as Chhay-dam drum dance, Khmer dance, pentatonic music performance... creating a special cultural feature for Ba Den mountain peak in early spring.

In particular, the spring of Giap Thin is also the first time visitors can admire the world's largest sandstone statue of Maitreya Bodhisattva on the top of Ba Den Mountain. With a height of 36m and made of 6,688 sandstone pieces, the statue of Maitreya Bodhisattva is an elaborately crafted masterpiece of Buddhist architecture, worthy of being a rare wonder.

An experience that many tourists especially enjoy is the water music show that applies modern technology for the first time in Vietnam. The water music effects, sometimes calm and leisurely, sometimes explosive, are created by 400 jets creating overflow effects, 800 electromagnetic valves creating waterfalls, 360 pumps with many flexible power ranges, and 290 nozzles of various types using the world's leading advanced spraying technology to create dancing effects like a real actor performing.

With a magical combination of music, light, laser and water, visitors can admire the magical halo radiating from Maitreya Bodhisattva, uniquely shaped scenes such as the Western sky, colorful clouds, lotus carpets, lucky coins, or the simple canvas bag that Maitreya Bodhisattva always carries on his shoulder.

Known as one of the most sacred mountains in the country, Ba Den Mountain welcomes millions of visitors to make pilgrimages and worship during the early spring. Located halfway up the mountain, the Ba Pagoda system, over 300 years old, associated with the legend of Linh Son Thanh Mau Bodhisattva, is a solid spiritual support for the people of the South.

On the top of Ba Den Mountain, a majestic spiritual complex with the statue of Buddha Tay Bo Da Son representing Compassion and Love, and the statue of Bodhisattva Maitreya representing Joy and Equanimity, has become a place for people to send their wishes for a peaceful new year, full of joy and to seek true happiness.