«Nghinh Ong Can Gio» Festival 2026

   Can Gio commune hosts the Nghinh Ong Can Gio Festival 2026 - the year's biggest religious festival for Ho Chi Minh City's fishing communities, tied to a centuries-old whale-worship tradition.

   Photo and art exhibitions on Le Thuong street and in Can Thanh park open on 23 September, and a food and souvenir fair runs there from that day until 27 September. From 24 to 26 September, the programme includes traditional rites at Lang Ong Thuy Tuong temple, visits to the Rung Sac Martyrs' Cemetery, a flag-raising ceremony and the sea procession of Nghinh Ong - a flotilla of lantern-lit boats sailing out to "welcome the Whale" home. Evenings bring the "Nghinh Ong Can Gio - Full Moon Festival Night" arts programme, along with hat boi opera, don ca tai tu folk music, water puppetry, street circus and Mid-Autumn folk games for children. Free admission.

   The main evening is 25 September. At 19:00 the Nghinh Ong arts programme at Can Thanh park merges the rite with the Mid-Autumn celebration; at 21:00 a flotilla of lantern-lit boats sails out from Lang Ong Thuy Tuong along Can Gio beach; at 22:00 fireworks go up over the beach. Earlier that day there are kite displays, lion and dragon dances, vo nhac martial arts set to music, and don ca tai tu. The festival opens at 19:00 on 24 September at the same park.

   In Southern Vietnamese fishing communities, the whale is venerated as a guardian spirit protecting boats at sea - the tradition runs the length of the central and southern coast, and in Can Gio it has been kept alive across generations as part of the identity of Ho Chi Minh City's only coastal district.

   Good for anyone after a genuine folk festival, not staged for tourists - Can Gio is about a two-hour drive from central Saigon.

   If you're more curious about the everyday religious life of southern fishing communities than about a staged performance, these three days are a rare chance to see it firsthand, unscripted.