(HBO) - Every year, the province’s photographers have brought their art works to the photo contest of 15 northern mountainous provinces.
Since 1998, as many as 1,800 works by local photographers have been sent to the contest. The works mainly feature the culture, customs, practices and landscapes of the Muong land.
For photo contests in the province, local artists often participate irregularly, because there are few photo contest in the locality. From 1998 to 2018, only six contests were organized. However, the contests gathered many high-quality photos.
.
The photo "Hat thuong rang, bo meng” by a member of
the provincial photography association.
The
provincial photography association has 18 members, most of who are retirees or are
working in Hoa Binh city. To prepare for the contests, the association’s
members often go in groups to mountainous and remote areas of the locality, so
as to capture moments of the life there.
The photographers travel to Muong Bi, Muong Thang and Muong Vang to capture images
of the yellow carpet of ripe rice on terraced rice fields, hills covered by
ripe Cao Phong orange and Tan Lac pomelo.
They also cross
Thung Khe to visit Van, Lac and Pa Co villages in the faraway Mai Chau
district, where they can take photos of idyllic landscapes with vast forest,
and Tu, Lao and Dong Bang waterfalls.
In the last three years, the provincial literature and arts association has
no funds to open creative camps for members of the provincial photography association, but
with their own effortsand passion for capturing
the beauty of nature and human life in
villages and hamlets, localartists have taken many
beautiful photos, which wonmany
awards in regional contests.
Hoa Binh’s unique culture of various ethnic minority groups has created inspiration for local photographers. From 2016
- 2018, Hoa Binh photographers
sent 310 art works to the photo contest for artists from 15 provinces of the Northern
mountainous region. Two of
those won silver prizes, and five other photos were presented Consolation
prizes, while a total of 32 were selected for exhibitions./.
From March 10th – 11th, the People's Committee of Cao Phong town (Cao Phong) coordinated with the Relics Management Board to organize the traditional festival of Thuong Bong Lai Temple in 2024.
As spring comes, people in Phu Nghia commune in particular and Lac Thuy district in general flock to Tien Pagoda festival to enjoy festive activities during the annual event.
Khai Ha festival is a long-standing traditional folk festival with the largest scale of Muong people in Hoa Binh province. In 2022, Khai Ha fesstival the Muong minority in Hoa Binh province was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2023 and 2024, the festival was held on the provincial scale, getting together 4 major Muong regions (Bi, Vang, Thang, Dong) to participate, and it has been an opportunity for the quintessence of Muong ethnic culture to converge and shine.
With a great passion for national art, outstanding artisan Nguyen Manh Tuan in Voi area, Ba Hang Doi town in Lac Thuy district, has developed and promoted a Muong ethnic cultural space with over 2,000 artifacts which are familiar in the daily life in the Muong ethnic people.
Along with the process of integration and development, traditional cultural identities of the Muong ethnic community in general, and Muong ethnic people in Tan Lac district in particular, are at risk of falling into oblivion. Therefore, many clubs have been established in the locality to preserve and promote the beauty of the ethnic group’s cultural identities.
Held every three years, the swing festival in Muong Voi, Vu Ban town in Lac Son district is "one-of-a-kind". From the 5th to the 7th day of the first lunar month in the Year of the Dragon, thousands of residents and tourists flocked to the locality to experience the unique cultural festival.