The Dong Hoa Hiep Ancient Village Culture and Tourism Festival, themed “Memories of the Ancient Village,” will take place from December 3 to 7, 2025, in Cai Be Commune, Dong Thap Province.
The event aims to preserve and promote the heritage of the ancient village while boosting local tourism. This year’s festival will feature a recreated Cai Be floating market, offering visitors a distinctive cultural experience.
The program includes heritage tours linking cultural sites, tourism activities, and traditional craft villages; a famtrip; a seminar on developing tourism products for Dong Hoa Hiep; a digital tour of the ancient village; and a culinary event showcasing “Mekong Delta Delicacies.” Other activities include community dance performances, a storytelling contest, an evening cultural performance titled “Night of Dong Hoa Hiep Impressions,” and a trade fair called “Vietnamese Goods to Rural Areas”.
According to the organizers, the highlight of this year’s festival is the recreated floating market space, where visitors can browse handicrafts and local specialty stalls along the Cai Be riverbank. Food boats on the river will serve traditional folk cakes and regional products from Dong Thap.
The festival will also feature side events that introduce local cultural traditions, such as contests for ceremonial food trays and five-fruit displays, folk games, a lantern-floating activity, reenactments of communal house worship rituals, and a traditional scholar competition.
Dong Hoa Hiep Ancient Village is home to seven heritage houses built 150 to 220 years ago, alongside 29 other houses built more recently, between 80 and 100 years ago. The seven oldest houses follow the traditional Southern Vietnamese layout with five compartments and three wings in a T-shaped structure, decorated with detailed carvings and ornate motifs.
Cultural experts consider Dong Hoa Hiep one of the Mekong Delta’s valuable cultural heritage sites and an important foundation for eco-tourism development.
Nguyen Binh Minh, deputy director of the Dong Thap Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the festival is an opportunity to promote distinctive tourism products, support local tourism growth, and introduce Dong Thap’s culture and people to domestic and international visitors.
