is open to the public and is well covered by local and foreign media, as well as streamed online for the Vietnamese living abroad. In the past, the date of the ceremony, which was held triennially during the days of the Nguyen Dynasty, was chosen by royal astronomers in accordance with the country's then Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist faiths with the time announced to the nation via messengers and the goods offered to the gods of Heaven in the ceremony were obtained from provinces all over the Empire. While being a modern reenactment of the rites formerly staged during the days wherein Huế was the spiritual and cultural center of all Vietnamese, it is an opportunity also for the people of the city to remember its glory days and pray for the continued prosperity of the city and country, as well as for the continued preservation of the important sites in the history of the Vietnamese nation and people. The current presiding officer is either the governor and/or vice governor of Thừa Thiên-Huế, who serves as chairman or vice chairman of the province's People's Committee, the provincial government, in the name of the government and people of said province and of all Vietnam as a whole. In the current ceremony, the governor or vice governor, wearing the silk robes similar to those worn by the Emperors of old, departs Thái Hòa Imperial Palace in the late morning carrying the ancestral tablet which is to be used in the rites and is soon mounted on the government palanquin, which leaves the Meridian Gate of the Purple Forbidden City complex. On the road outside, a large procession awaits the palanquin section, which is composed of employees of the city government and private citizens wearing costumes worn by servants of the Imperial government and imperial dancers and musicians of the court, which proceeds to Chương Đức gate and out towards the city proper and later on to Nghing Luong Dinh Imperial Port, formerly used by the Imperial household, wherein the presider, after departing the palanquin, then rides a dragon boat on the Perfume River, which then, after travelling to the An Cuu Canal, lands at the Ben Ngu Port at Da Vien Island, wherein the entourage disembarks en route to the Trai Cung Palace to rest before the presider departs to rejoin the procession in the late afternoon to the Esplanade for the