The parade started at 8:30 p.m. as Buddhists accompanied monks carrying a Buddha's statue for one km from An Quang Pagoda to the Vietnamese National Buddhist Temple in District 10.
The activity is one of several held by Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Ho Chi Minh City in a week to celebrate Buddha's birthday.
The Buddha's statue is placed upon the main worshiping area at the Vietnamese National Buddhist Temple.
Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, was born in 624 BC and his birthday, also known as Vesak, is celebrated on the fourth lunar month.
Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea celebrate it on the eighth day, which is May 26 this year.
Countries that follow Theravada Buddhism, Buddhism's oldest existing school, such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, celebrate the birthday on the 15th, which is June 2 this year.
Monks perform a ceremony in front of the statue at Vietnamese National Buddhist Temple.
The temple's 63-meter tower (pictured) keeps the relic of the heart of Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk who died by self-immolation at a Saigon road intersection on June 11, 1963 to protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the U.S. backed South Vietnam regime, then led by Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem.
Nguyen Thi Yen cries after telling how her mother's stories about Thich Quang Duc turned her into a Buddhism follower.
Nguyen Thi Thuy, 4, carries the Buddhist flag and wears a Buddha's birthday celebration headband as her grandmother brought her along to the parade.
Followers give a Buddha's statue a shower, a ritual believed to show one's respect for Buddha and help cleanse their soul.
