A ceremony to erect cay neu, a tall bamboo tree believed to ward offghosts and monsters from entering the community during Tet, theVietnamese Lunar New Year, was re-enacted in the former imperial city ofHue, central Thua Thien-Hue province, on February 11.

The 15-metre bamboo pole cay neu was carried by ten guards in aprocession from the Hien Nhon Gate through the Thai Hoa Palace to arriveat the Ancestral Temple, where it was put up to the backdrop ofceremonial music and smoke from burning incense.

According toPhan Thanh Hai at the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, there-enactment of the ceremony will contribute to the preservation andpromotion of intangible cultural values in the former royal city.

The custom of erecting cay neu has died out in modern Vietnamesesociety and has been replaced with the display of ornamental trees suchas peach and kumquat trees, Nhan Dan newspaper quoted Hai as saying. Cayneu is now only seen in a few rural areas and ethnic minoritycommunities, he added.

According to Hai, under theNguyen Dynasty, cay neu was usually erected on the 23rd day of the finalmonth of the lunar year, coinciding with the day when the Kitchen Godsare believed to ride carps to Heaven to report on the events from thepast year.

Cay neu will be taken down on the seventh day of the first lunar month.-VNA