Love duets tune up

BAC NINH – A love duet singing festival kicks off today in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

The two-day festival will gather dozens of amateur and professional love duet (quan ho) singers at communes of Noi Due, Lien Bao and Lim Town.

The singing would be in a-cappella style (without musical instruments) which was the local style of love duets, People's Committee deputy chairman Nguyen Huu Manh said.

The entertainment would take place in six tents scattered throughout the area and on boats, temples and the homes of 10 local love duet artists.

Folk games such as traditional swinging, wrestling, hide and seek and card games also will be organised.

The festival activities and venues had been widely publicised in a leaflet campaign, Manh said.

The art of love duets was inscribed in the UNESCO's representative list of intangible cultural heritage in September, 2009.

The art is also performed in other festivals in the province such as the O Village festival (on the lunar 4th and 5th of the first month) in Xuan O Village; the Nhoi Village Festival (lunar 7th of the first month); the Diem Village Festival (lunar 5th to 7th of the first month) in Yen Phong District; the Dinh Bang Village Festival (lunar 12nd to 16th of the second month) in Tu Son District. – VNS

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Spring festival set to brighten capital

Bouquet: A farmer tends flowers in Tay Tuu Village on the outskirts of Ha Noi. Flowers from the village and neighbouring areas will soon appear at a spring festival in the capital city. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

HA NOI — A bursting spring atmosphere will be brought to downtown Ha Noi by a festival gathering typical products such as bonsai trees from handicraft villages on the outskirts of the city between January 27 and February 1.

The festival, which will be held on Tran Nhan Tong Street and nearby areas in Thong Nhat Park, will feature not only bonsai trees, but flowers from the villages of Nhat Tan, Tay Tuu and Me Linh along with artificial flowers made of paper, bronze and other metals and wood by artisans living in the city.

Various traditional festive food such as gio (boiled minced pork paste), nem chua (fermented pork paste) from Uoc Le Village and jams from Xuan Dinh Village will also be available at the festival, along with worshipping wares from Ha Noi's Son Dong Village, and furniture from Bac Ninh Province's Dong Ky Village.

Traditional folk performances will also take place including quan ho (love duets), cheo (traditional opera) and ca tru (ceremonial singing), as well as folk games and traditional handicraft competitions. — VNS

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Spring festival to stir up capital

HA NOI - A bursting spring atmosphere will be bought to downtown Ha Noi by a festival gathering typical products such as bonsai trees from handicraft villages on the outskirts of the city between January 27 and February 1.

The festival, which will be held on Tran Nhan Tong Street and nearby areas in Thong Nhat Park, will feature not only bonsai trees, but flowers from the villages of Nhat Tan, Tay Tuu, Me Linh along with artificial flowers made of paper, metal, bronze and wood by artisans living in the city.

Various traditional festive food such as gio cha (boiled minced pork paste), nem chua (fermented pork paste) from Uoc Le Village and jams from Xuan Dinh Village will also be available at the festival, along with worshipping wares from Ha Noi's Son Dong Village, and furniture from the northern province of Bac Ninh's Dong Ky Village.

Traditional folk performances will also take place including quan ho (love duets), cheo (traditional opera) and ca tru (ceremonial singing), as well as folk games and traditional handicraft competitions. - VNS

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Ha Noi snake village lures visitors for spring festival

by Cong Thanh

 

Spring blooms: Le Mat villagers perform at the annual festival at the communal house on the lunar New Year. — VNA/VNS Photos Anh Tuan A brush with history: Le Thanh Hai, one of the village's famous calligraphers, displays his skills for tourists. — VNS Photo Hoai Nam

Le Mat Village, 7km northeast of Ha Noi, across the Hong (Red River), has become a destination known for its snake catching and gourmet restaurants.

It plans to host the first Australian tourists groups this June, following a co-operation between Ha Noi-based Focus Travel Company and the Australia Pacific Touring agency.

The snake legend

Many local residents are skilled at catching wild snake and some households in the 7,000-person village have prospered from snake restaurants since the early 1990s.

The elderly residents still talk about a particular snake legend that relates to the village's founding and history.

Nguyen Huy Tuong, 76, a guardian of the village's communal house, said the village was formed in the 11th century under the reign of King Ly Thai Tong.

According to the legend, the king's daughter was boating on what was then the Nguyet Duc River when a giant snake encircled her vessel, creating a whirlpool that tipped the boat. Hoang, a farmer, waded into the churning water, slew the snake, and saved the princess.

The King offered the heroic farmer gold, jewels and a position in the court, but Hoang refused. Instead, he asked for land west of the capital where he founded 13 villages, including Le Mat.

The village still honours Hoang, the village's patron saint, at a festival on the 23rd of the third lunar month.

Residents build a giant bamboo replica of the snake to re-enact Hoang's fateful encounter and the most beautiful girl in the village is chosen to play the princess.

The annual three-day festival draws about 6,000 visitors. During the event, villagers demonstrate net fishing in the lake in front of the communal house to worship the village patron saint and the princess.

Tran Nhu Rat, 70, the deputy head of the relic management board, said.

"The communal house was built in the 11th century, but it was then moved to a new site, which is its current location."

"I heard from old generations that the first house was built on the wrong site in astrological terms, which caused the diseases of villagers," the 70-year-old recalled.

Calligraphy

Snake killer: A man fights against a giant snake in a Le Mat village performance.

Le Thanh Hai, one of the village's famous calligraphers, has organised a calligraphy performance for tourists at an old house in the village. He encourages visitors to practice their writing, while exploring the old house.

Hai, 42, said he wants to introduce tourists to the art of handwriting that has had such a long history in Viet Nam.

"I demonstrate the reappearance of the prolonged art once seen in rural schools. Confucian scholars used to write letters in an old fashion while wearing an oriental robe and a turban," he explained.

Now, calligraphy is often written in the Han Chinese script or in Vietnamese characters on paper. Visitors often ask calligraphers to make them a letter during Tet as a sign of good fortune for the new year.

"I write many letters for Vietnamese and foreigners, not only during the Tet festival. People believe the letters will bring good luck and happiness to their family and friends."

Hai also explained that he uses different brushes to write thin and thick letters. He said most people ask for letters meaning peace, happiness or prosperity.

"Brushes made from chicken feathers or horse hair are used to write bold words, while brushes made from cat or rabbit hair is used for thin letters."

Tourists enjoy the art by writing words and then bringing home their creations after visiting the house.

Truong Van Mai, 60, the owner of a house that was home to five generations, said his house still remains the best old architecture in the north.

"The house's structure is made mostly from ironwood, which keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter," Mai said, adding that the house was restored last year.

"I leave jars of rain water and plant areca and betel in a small garden. Northerners always offer visitors tea and betel chewing – a popular custom in Viet Nam."

He said the village has several old houses that have survived the rapid urbanisation in recent years. The construction of new houses has gradually taken the place of the village's thatched roof cottages. Visitors now only recognise the rural village by pictures of banyan trees and the lake in front of the communal house. — VNS

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Festival honours buffalo boys

Revival: Buffalo boys enjoy folk games at a festival in honour of rural children who look after buffaloes at Phong Le Village last weekend. Hard work: Children with their buffaloes in Phong Le Village. — VNS Photos Van Thu Bich

DA NANG — A unique folk festival celebrating the rural children who look after buffalo has been revived near the central city of Da Nang for the first time in nearly 75 years.

The festival, at Phong Le Village in Hoa Vang District's Hoa Chau Commune, gathered 400 locals last weekend with traditional worship customs and folk games as well as performances of tuong (classical drama).

According to local Ngo Van Nghia, this was the first time the festival had been held since 1936.

"The festival not only praises the buffalo children but also celebrates the solidarity of all the working people in the village and wishes for a lucky harvest and wealth for everyone," Nghia said.

"The festival used to be held every three years," said researcher Van Thu Bich from the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism who was the head of the festival preservation team and vows that it has been re-created exactly the same as the original.

"We will now try our best to hold it every two years in order to preserve the local intangible cultural heritage as well as create a tourism product for tourists visiting Da Nang."

For the revived festival, the village was lit up last Saturday with hundreds of lanterns and models of agricultural tools hanging all over the village. Early morning on Sunday, a procession of the 60 buffalo children travelled around the fields of the village, calling out wishes for a good harvest and creating a atmosphere full of cheer and loud laughter. They then participated in folk games like tug-of-war and catching ducks while blindfolded.

They were chosen from 17 clans in the village to take the central roles in various ceremonies at the festival, such as a procession bearing a likeness of the god of agriculture from a holy islet in the village called Con Than to the village's communal house.

Legend holds that ducks were unable to move their feet off the land when they reached the islet, so the locals were afraid to visit it. One day, a herd of buffalo strayed to the islet and local buffaloes boys brought them back safely. Since then, the islet has been a popular place for buffalo children in the village to gather, and the legend became the centrepiece of a special festival for the children. — VNS

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Rival for old ceramics village

by Cong Thanh

Theme park: A craftsman makes a clay jar at Minh Hai craft village in Gia Lam District, Ha Noi. Tourists can practice pottery-making skills during a visit to the site.

A new craft village site, the Minh Hai ceramic village, which has been built near the Bat Trang ceramic village, began welcoming tourists last month, and offers more choice for tourists looking for a day out from Ha Noi.

Bat Trang Village is a well-known half-day tour from Ha Noi, but the new site will offer travellers more choices in exploring a large natural site with folk performances and a backdrop modelled in the typical style of craft villages in the northern delta region.

The 10-ha Vietnamese art village displays different traditional handicraft trades, such as ceramics, silk, woodwork and bamboo.

A lake stage has been set up at the site to feature traditional Vietnamese folk performances such as cheo (traditional opera), chau van (spiritual music), quan ho (love duet) ca tru (ceremonial singing), and water puppetry twice a day every Saturday and Sunday.

Visits cost from VND150,000 (US$7.5) to VND300,000 ($15) for a day-time tour.

The cost includes pottery practices, cultural performances, lunch and fishing from the lake.

Getting there

What's for dinner? Different galleries in the Minh Hai craft village display tri-coloured ceremic products, a unique ceramic product of northern Viet Nam. — VNS Photos Hoai Nam

The site is situated near Bat Trang Village, near the foot of the Red River dyke, and is a 20-minute bus journey from the city centre. The No 47 bus leaves from Long Bien station to Bat Trang Village every 15 minutes from 5.30am to 8.20pm daily.

The bus route winds the 12km river dyke from Chuong Duong Bridge to the east and runs across the site gate, which is 300m from Bat Trang.

Visitors can explore both the site and Bat Trang Village over a few hours.

Hanoian Nghiem Huyen Trang and her friends visited the site as soon as it opened last month.

The 19-year-old student said she preferred taking a motorbike rather than the bus along the river dyke road, but the unfinished road was particularly dusty. However, the Hanoian had a perfect day at the site after touring the ceramic village on a buffalo-drawn cart.

The group also saw water puppetry shows, pottery, reading and fishing with lunch on a raft.

Trang, who grew up in the Old Quarter, said she enjoyed the peace and quiet of the place, just 20-minutes from the crowded city centre.

"I still remember the dust and smoke emitted by the kilns in Bat Trang Village a few years ago when I first visited, but I'm excited by the new craft village site," Trang said.

"I was clumsy when trying the pottery and fishing, but it was interesting to give it a go as I'm a city girl. It was great when we caught some fish from the raft," she said.

Pottery gallery

Nguyen Minh Hai, the owner of the Minh Hai craft village, designed the gate of the site in the shape of a pottery-kiln, while pavilions and stilt houses surround a big lake.

The passageway imitates a stream with dotted stepping-bricks in the middle.

Hai, 40, who has 20 years of experience in the tourism and pottery industries, wanted the site to offer a new look at traditional ceramic villages.

"Bat Trang Village has been long-known as a pottery centre, but it's not easy to promote it as a charming destination due to its polluted environment. Although villagers have introduced gas furnaces to replace coal-fired kilns," said Hai.

"I launched the cart-buffalo service 10 years ago, but I want to lure tourists with a new tourist product," he added.

The site has different galleries showcasing silks from Van Phuc Village in Ha Dong town; brocade weaving from Sa Pa; wooden furniture, rattan and bamboo products, terracotta from Bau Truc in Ninh Thuan Province and precious stone from Yen Bai Province.

"It's like a miniature centre for Vietnamese craft villages. I even made myself a flower pot with the help of a craftsman in the ceramic workshop," said Tran Thanh Van.

Van, 28, a shop assistant from Ha Noi, said she was glad to make the clay pot within half an hour.

Craftsman Nguyen Van Doanh, 36, instructs visitors practising with porcelain clay.

"I teach them how to form thing with hands and a slab-roller. It lets them do a bit of handicraft," Doanh said.

"Tourists can take home unfinished things that they make themselves. We want to let visitors have a bit of fun for a few hours."

The tour closes with cultural performances. — VNS

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Capital city assured of crafts conservation

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has promised investments in traditional crafts village conservation that will not only target production but also be friendly to the environment.

Deputy MARD Minister Ho Xuan Hung unveiled the plan at a workshop on Friday as part of a one-week festival entitled “Crafts Villages, Crafts Streets of Thang Long-Hanoi” beginning on Thursday.

Hung said the scheme would also aim to harmonize production while maintaining traditional cultural identity and focusing on crafts of rich cultural and economic value for sustainable development.

Along with the conservation of traditional crafts in danger of extinction, such as handmade Nepal paper in Van Canh village and traditional music instruments in Dao Xa village, MARD plans to develop new crafts in several villages to meet market demand, said the deputy minister.

He said the ministry has worked out numerous concrete steps to speed up the work such as upgrading rural traffic and communications systems, integrating tourism into traditional crafts development and intensifying investments in personnel training.

MARD also plans to diversify financial sources for conservation and development of traditional crafts villages, Hung added.

The scheme was prompted by the fact that craft village conservation has been ignored to some extent since 2000 and the work has revealed some problems such as serious environmental pollution, limited market share, poor product design and unknown trademarks.

Hanoi is home to 1,350 crafts villages, accounting for almost 59 percent of the total number of villages nationwide and providing jobs for over 626,000 locals.

Their production value reached over VND7.65 trillion (US$38.76 billion) annually, making up 8.4 percent of the municipal industrial revenues.

The history of municipal crafts villages dates back hundreds of years. For instance, the Bat Trang ceramics village was founded 600 years ago, the Chuon Ngo mother-of-pearl village, 1,000 years ago and the Van Phuc Natural Silk village, 1,200 years ago.

Many of these crafts were typical to Hanoi as they are only produced in the capital city - such as porcelain, gold and silver coating and natural silk making.

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Hanoi craft villages show off their wares

Handicrafts made from bamboo and rattan, silk, and gold by artisans from dozens of craft villages in Hanoi will be on display at a festival opening Thursday.

“Thang Long - Hanoi Craft Villages and Streets” at Bach Thao Botanical Park on Hoang Hoa Tham Street will showcase five of the most renowned Hanoi craft villages -- Bat Trang ceramic village, Kieu Ky gold plating village, Van Phuc silk village, Son Dong handicraft village, and Phu Vinh rattan village.

Hanoi’s 36 old streets and wards will be recreated at the event which will also feature the traditional handicrafts sold on Hang Non, Hang Dong, Hang Ma, Lan Ong, and Hang Quat Streets.

More than 100 old photos of craft villages and streets and record works created by Hanoian artisans will be on display.

There will be nearly 200 booths showcasing wood, bamboo and rattan, silk, and gold works, cast statues, folk paintings, and traditional Vietnamese hats made in 50 cities and provinces.

The festival from September 16 to 21, organized by the Ministries of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Agriculture and Rural Development, the city people’s committee, the Vietnam Association of Craft Villages, and the Vietnam Handicraft Exporters’ Association, will mark the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Thang Long – Hanoi next month.

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