The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology will celebrate the 2009 Lunar New Year with a wide range of cultural activities from January 29, 2009 to February 1, 2009 (from the fourth to the seventh day of the first month of the Lunar year).
The event will feature dances, songs, traditional games and festivals of Vietnam's ethnic groups. Moreover, for the first time visitors will have a chance to enjoy amusing performances by the inhabitants of Co Lam Village, Tu Xa communes, Lam Thao District in Phu Tho Province.Visitors to the museum will be entertained with a traditional water puppet performance from Hong Phong Village, Ninh Giang District in Hai Duong Province, and after the show will learn how to manipulate the puppets themselves on a small stage.The museum will also offer relaxing moments with traditional music and dance performances including xoe dance and sap dance (bamboo pole dance) of the Thai people, ken dance (pan-pipe dance), ken la dance (leaf-horn instrument) and dan moi, a musical instrument of the H'Mong in Yen Bai Province, as well as displays of Vietnamese calligraphy and Dong Ho folk painting from Dong Ho Village, Thuan Thanh District in Bac Ninh Province.At the event the audience will be invited to discover their own artistic skills by learning how to make buffalo-shaped mask, buffalo-shaped sculptures, buffalo-shaped sand paintings and other folk objects.Traditional folk games will take visitors back to their childhood with Vietnamese danh du (swinging), keo co (tug of war) and choi trau (buffalo fighting), a Thai bamboo dance, buoy throwing and chicken fur fighting of H'mong people.In the animated atmosphere of cultural programs, visitors are also invited to dine on traditional Vietnamese Tet dishes of Thai people. At 7:30 p.m. on January 29 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), the museum will have a fireworks show and a water puppetry performance.The museum, located on Nguyen Van Huyen Road, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, will be closed to visitors starting January 24 to 28, 2009 and will reopen again on January 29, 2009.
