Bai Choi festival, an interesting activity on Tet days

Bai Choi festival has been organized at the beach park opposite 50 Tran Phu Street (Nha Trang City) over the past 12 years. However, Bai Choi spring festival still brings players a unique feeling and interesting experience on Tet days.

Bai Choi art in the central region of Vietnam was recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. At the beginning of each game, the game leaders called “Hieu” sing Bai Choi folk songs and invite players to buy cards. The game leaders often make the songs more interesting to attract players by adding humorous lyrics.

Lunar New Year 2025 Bai Choi festival at the beach park near 2-4 Square (Nha Trang City)

There are 9 bamboo huts for the players to sit on. In each game of Bai Choi, the game leaders draw the game cards at random from the card tube placed in the middle of the game area. After drawing the cards, the game leaders sing a melody demonstrating the card. If the players have the cards which are the same as the ones drawn by the game leaders, the game leaders give the players the cards they drew. The game leaders continue drawing the cards until one player collect all three cards drawn by the game leaders. That player is the winner of the game. The game leaders give betel, wine, cash prizes and sing songs to congratulate the winners. The content of the songs contain messages and teachings of the ancients about relationships in family and society. “This festival is quite interesting. The players listen to music, see performances of folk songs and see if their cards are the same with the drawn cards or not. If they win, it is good luck at the beginning of spring; if not, it is still a fun experience,” said Nguyen Duc Phuong (a tourist from Hanoi).

Khanh Hoa Province is one of the nine provinces and cities of which the art of Bai Choi was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. Over the past 7 years, Khanh Hoa’s cultural sector has made many efforts to preserve and promote Bai Choi’s values in accordance with its commitment to UNESCO. Khanh Hoa’s Bai Choi spring festival 2025 was performed by the artists from Bai Choi Club of the Provincial Department of Culture and Cinema from 6:30pm to 8pm from January 29 to February 7 (lunar January 1-10). In general, those who visited Bai Choi festival could feel the joyful atmosphere as well as learn more about this unique folk art form, according to Meritorious Artist Bich Vuong.

Bai Choi Club of Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Culture and Cinema has 15 members, who used to be professional Bai Choi artists or have passion for this art form. Some members live in Nha Trang; some live in Ninh Hoa Town. They all share a love for Bai Choi and are happy to perform Bai Choi. The artists have learned to better their performance techniques in order to draw audience and players engagement into the performances.

Visiting Bai Choi festival and playing Bai Choi game on Lunar New Year occasion can help local people and tourists know more about the unique cultural heritage of Khanh Hoa Province in particular and other localities in the central region in general.

Giang Dinh
Translated by H.N