Religious institutions in Hanoi have been asked to help ring in the Lunar New Year with bells after the city scrapped its fireworks plans following a Party directive.

The request was made in a letter issued by the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, which asked local churches and temples to ring their bells at midnight on Lunar New Year’s Eve, January 27, to create a meaningful ‘consonance’.

To Van Dong, the department’s director, said on Tuesday that the bell-ringing plan was to replace the city’s traditional Lunar New Year fireworks display, after the show had been scrapped following a directive by the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The Party’s highest implementation body banned all localities from organizing fireworks displays on the occasion, requesting that the funds earmarked for such shows be used instead to support the poor.

“The ringing of bells will serve as the mark of the Lunar New Year for everyone,” Dong said. “Hanoi will also be organizing multiple art performances at Ly Thai To Flower Garden, Hoan Kiem Lake and My Dinh Stadium on Lunar New Year’s Eve.”

Tet, or Lunar New Year, is the biggest public celebration in Vietnam, including a series of ceremonial preparations as well as festive exhibitions customarily lasting one week before and after that date.

This year, the public holiday will last for seven days, from January 26 to February 1, with Lunar New Year’s Day falling on Saturday, January 28.

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