Pagoda processions

Around the area where I live, there are several pagodas and every now and then they take out their altars and antique music instruments and proceed around the streets. As we live on one of Tay Ho's main streets, they never miss to pass our house and today one of the longest, and loudest, I have seen passed. It stopped all traffic in both directions and the amount of motorbikes, bicycles and huge SUVs that accumulated at both ends were of course inmense.
Even so, the procession was beautiful, with a huge amount of groups of men or women wearing the same kind of colourful clothes. Sort of like a Vietnamese version of the Carnaval. They also bring lots of big drums and different types of other beeping and squeaking instruments. And dragons. And altars. I tried to ask the lady at the bamboo shop and the next door-granny what it was all about this time, but they just pointed to the sky and managed to explain it had something to do with gods...