HBO – It is enduringly popular to see Tay ethnic women wearing their traditional costume when rambling around Da Bac town and Tan Minh, Tan Pheo, Giap Dat and Muong Chieng communes. Integrating with the modern life, the Tay ethnic group, accounting for 40.57 percent of the population of Da Bac district, is preserving and promoting their traditional cultural characteristics every day.
An art troupe in Na Man and Muong Chieng communes in Da Bac district
stages an performance in their traditional costume.
Unlike
men’s outfit, women’s clothing is more sophisticated with three kinds of shirts,
namely short shirts, V-neck style short shirt without button and long shirt, head
scarf, bibs, silk dress and belt.
According
to Xa Thi Thay, head of the art troupe, the colourful traditional costumes show
off Tay women’s beauty and charm. Besides special occasions like Tet or
traditional festivals, the garb is used in Tay women’s daily activities as part
of efforts to preserve their cultural values.
Highlight of the dress is a tight-fitting short shirt with a band clipped with
two lines of silver buttons in the shape of butterfly or cicada. Five, seven or
nine pairs of buttons are arranged in the short shirt. Meanwhile, the
sleeveless bibs are in pink and black colours with sequin decoration in their
necks.
The black or indigo knee-length dresses have two kinds: one with embroidered
waistband and the remainder with sunken floral patterns. Meanwhile, the
skillfully-embroiled Pieu ethnic scarf is a vivid illustration for the Tay
ethnic people’s excellent culture.
The Tay women also use such accessories as necklace, bracelet, earrings and
silver or gold rings.
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.