Singers perform Quan Ho folk songs at the opening of the Lim Festival. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Ha

BAC NINH — More than 3,500 singers performed Quan Ho folk songs at the opening of the Lim Festival in the northern province of Bac Ninh's Tien Du District on Saturday morning - the 13th day of the first lunar month.

They set a national record for the largest number of people to wear traditional Quan Ho costumes while singing Quan Ho (a love duet).

The delegation gathered at Nguyen Dang Dao High School and then marched to the Lim Pagoda, dedicated to Quan Ho creator, Hieu Trung Hau, and opened the show with the popular song, Khach Den Choi Nha (Guests Visit Our House).

Both male and female singers from Quan Ho clubs, singing troupes and the Bac Ninh Association of Quan Ho, as well as Overseas Vietnamese, took part in the event.

"The record confirms the value, continuity and vitality of Bac Ninh's Quan Ho singing under a National Action Plan to protect and preserve the folk songs, and proves that the Quan Ho still lives and pervades generations one after another," said Tran Dinh Luyen, deputy chairman of the association.

Recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009, Quan Ho songs express the spirit, philosophy and local identity of the communities in this region, and help forge social bonds within and between villages that share a cherished cultural practice.

Quan Ho folk songs are performed as alternative verses between women from one village who sing in harmony, and men from another village who respond with similar melodies, but with different lyrics. —VNS