Folk singing to open museum’s cultural activities

HA NOI — The Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology will host a series of cultural activities to mark its 20 years of operation.

Artists from the central province of Ha Tinh will have two performances on today and tomorrow starting at 9pm. They will perform vi giam folk singing and recite Kieu’s Tale by Nguyen Du.

Vi giam are the ninth Vietnamese cultural practice to receive UNESCO’s intangible heritage status. The vitality of vi giam folk songs is reflected in their popularity, from lullabies to fishing chants. These folk songs are often sung with the accents of people in the Nghe An and Ha Tinh regions. The folk music is a back-and-forth exchange sung while working, unaccompanied by musical instruments. It reflects the work, cultural life and feelings of the locals in the central coastal provinces.

This type of folk singing is popular in nearly 260 villages in the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. The two provinces have 51 singing clubs with over 800 members.

A book on museology and the exhibiting methods of the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology will be released on Sunday.

Especially, an exhibition entitled Elephant in the Central Highlands will take place on November 25. On the next day, the Mnong people from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak will present their handicraft, traditional arts and singing.

The museum, located at 1 Nguyen Van Huyen Street, Ha Noi, will host an international conference on religion and the identity of different world communities on December 1-4. Many foreign and Vietnamese experts will participate in the event. — VNS