The 2013 Luc Bat Festival, which is set to be held in Hanoi on Sept 7 and 8 and is a bid to win “luc bat”, the national verse genre, the UNESCO recognition, will attract 1,800 artisans from all over the country.

The fest, to take place at 4 Phung Hung st, Ha Dong district, will see the participation of almost a hundred poetry clubs representing some thousands of clubs nationwide.

The festival will feature rustically-designed stalls, where the artists and poetry enthusiasts will gather and recite “luc bat” (six and eight words) poems along with promoting their regional identities.

14 winning authors and works from a poetry competition will be granted with six golds and eight silvers during the festival.

One of the festival’s highlights are the time-honored rituals such as drum beating to kick-start the festival, offerings, processions, and Buddhist monks’ offering blessings to visitors.

According to Kim Quoc Hoa, editor-in-chief of “The Elderly” magazine and head of the organizing board, the fest is initiated and launched annually by www.lucbat.com, the national “luc bat” website, in efforts to recognize the genre as the national treasure and the world’s intangible heritage.

Visitors are also urged to donate at least one book to the library at Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Sea and sign their names to support the bid to recognize “luc bat” as the national verse genre and to earn the genre the UNESCO recognition as the world’s intangible heritage.

“Luc bat”, which is unique to Vietnam, comprises of pairs of six-word and eight-word verse sentences which rhyme with one another. The country’s most typical, critically acclaimed “luc bat” work is “Truyen Kieu” (The Tale of Kieu), which features 1627 such pairs, by revered poet Nguyen Du (1766–1820).