QUANG NGAI — A ceremony was held in the central province of Quang Ngai yesterday to pay tributes to sailor-soldiers of the Hoang Sa Flotilla who sacrificed their lives to guard the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Island centuries ago.

The ceremony has been held annually for hundreds of years at the An Vinh communal house on Ly Son Island on the fifteenth and the sixteenth days of the third lunar month which this year fell on April 5 – 6. Thousands of the island's residents and tourists attended the ceremony.

During the rituals, paper boats with effigies of sailors were launched in the sea in homage to troop, of the past that headed out to sea to exploit its natural resources and safeguard Hoang Sa.

A requiem for the souls of the sailors, most of whom were natives of Ly Son Island, was held on yesterday morning.

The Hoang Sa Flotilla was founded under the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century to protect territorial waters of the country.-VNS