Prayers offered at Cao Dai ritual

TAY NINH — More than 100,000 Cao Dai visitors and followers flocked to the Tay Ninh Church in the southern province of Tay Ninh yesterday for the sect's grand ritual, Hoi Yen Dieu Tri Cung.

Hoi Yen Dieu Tri Cung is an annual banquet where trays of fruit and food are offered to the Great Mother to pray for favourable weather, a peaceful and prosperous country and a happy people.

Addressing the event, Monsignor Thuong Tam Thanh, Chief of the Cao Dai Tay Ninh Church's Executive Council, thanked the Party and State for providing favourable conditions for Cao Dai followers to practise their faith.

He called on Cao Dai dignitaries and followers to enthusiastically participate in poverty reduction programmes, charitable and social activities and environmental protection campaigns while building a healthy cultural lifestyle in residential areas.

He urged the followers to practise faith in line with both the religion's rules and the country's laws under the motto "serving both religion and society well."

Cao Dai is the third largest religion in Viet Na, founded in Tay Ninh Province in 1926. — VNS