Vân chưng cakes are offered at the Hiệp Hòa District's district's Memorial to the Revolutionary Martyrs.

BẮC GIANG — The Hiệp Hòa District People's Commitee of Bắc Giang Province has organised many activities to popularise its traditional culture and promote sports and tourism activities in 2025.

One has been the Festival of Kindness, organised by the committee, in a cooperation with the provincial Việt Nam Red Cross, aiming to appeal the whole community, to help the vulnerable people and people in difficult circumstances.

Under the theme 'Fair - Giving gifts - Happy Tết', organisers asked visitors to bring either gifts and offer spiritual support so that those in need could have a warm and happy year-end celebration.

Organisers set up a zone of 18 booths of goods and necessities and delivered 630 Tết gift sets of VNĐ800,000 (US$32) each to the poor households. One hundred other gift sets went to underprivileged students of the district.

Organisers believed that their activities would also partly build a united and compassionate community of Hiệp Hòa.

At the same time a special programme entitled 'Return to Hiệp Hòa -- Visit ATK II' and 'Vân Chưng Cake Festival' were held.

Hiệp Hòa District People's Commitee Chairman Hoàng Công Bộ said the annual festival was a unique event, attracting thousands of people to the district every year, affirming the appeal of traditional cultural values ​​and the growing prospects of the sustainable development of 'cultural and historical tourism' that the district was trying to promote.

Hiệp Hòa, located in the west of Bắc Giang, is a land with a rich historical and cultural traditions. It is home to the Đông Lâm archaeological relics with rare relic objects such as the Bắc Lý bronze and Xuân Giang bronze drums, dating back over 2,000 years.

The district has an extremely heritage system with 687 relics of all kinds, showing the beautiful and typical architecture, sculpture, paintings and creativity of the Hiệp Hòa people. Among them 131 are ranked relics in different levels including eight places in the special national relic sites of the Safety Zone II or An Toàn Khu (ATK), the national relic memorial site of President Hồ's visit to Cẩm Xuyên Village in Xuân Cẩm Commune, the Y Sơn historical - cultural - scenic relic complex, the Lỗ Hạnh Communal House and the oldest stone mausoleum system of the province.

The district owns many rich intangible cultural heritages such as quan họ (love duet) singing, ca trù (ceremonial singing), the Y Sơn Festival and festivals of swimming and flower tossing.

Hiệp Hòa also has its unique cuisine with delicious dishes created, cultivated and preserved by many generations such as Vân chưng cake, Hoàng Thanh chè lam (sticky rice ginger peanut bars), nham trám (pili nuts cooked with pork and fish), Thái Sơn sticky rice and Hoàng Vân black pili nuts and Mai Đình mustard greens.

A procession of chưng cakes from Vân Market Communal House to the Memorial to the Revolutionary Martyrs, one of the activities of the annual Vân Chưng Cake Festival.

In addition to its rich cultural tradition, Hiệp Hòa is also known as a hometown of revolutionary heroes. It is a military strategic area selected by the Party Central Committee and the Northern Party Committee as the second ATK in the period prior to the 1945 August Revolution.

This is an important gateway connecting the Việt Bắc Base with other revolutionary bases and movements across the north. The land was safely shelter for many national senior Party members such as Trường Chinh, Võ Nguyên Giáp, Hoàng Quốc Việt, Hoàng Văn Thái, Lê Hoàng, Lê Thanh Nghị and Hà Thị Quế.

The heroic Hiệp Hòa was also honoured and proudly welcomed President Hồ Chí Minh on a visit on February 8, 1955, in Cẩm Xuyên Village, Xuân Cẩm Commune, where he spoke at a land reform conference.

After the opening ceremony of the Festival of Kindness and Vân Chưng Cake Festival, delegates and local people, watched and encouraged the Vân chưng cake wrapping contest and went on to tour the special National Monument ATK II Hiệp Hòa.

Earlier, people took part in a ceremony of offering Vân chưng cakes to the village's tutelary god at the Vân Market Communal House and formed a procession of the cakes to the district's Memorial to the Revolutionary Martyrs. VNS