(HBO) - For more than two years, Muong Khoi folk singing club in Bai hamlet of An Nghia commune (Lac Son) has regularly organised singing during festivals, full-moon days or simply in meetings of its members.
A
meeting of the Muong Khoi folk singing club in An Nghia commune (Lac Son).
Bui Van Chinh, head of the club, said that the
club has 17 members. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the club was very active, as
its members often met and sang together on normal days, along with local
festivals. In addition, the club also organised exchanges with Muong folk
singing clubs in the district and Thanh Hoa and Ninh Binh provinces. Due to the
complicated developments of the pandemic, large gatherings are banned, so the
club members meet in small groups to maintain practice. Besides the Muong Khoi
folk singing club, Lac Son district also sees dozens of other clubs with
hundreds of members.
Thanks to the Resolution of the fifth plenum of
the eighth Party Central Committee (Session VIII) on preserving and promoting
national cultural identities, Muong folk singing has received more and more
attention, becoming a highlight in festivals, contests and mass art shows.
Many artisans who are dedicated to the ancient
Muong folk songs have collected, recorded, and posted videos on Youtube
channel. The most typical is artisan Bui Huy Vong in Huong Nhuong commune.
Artisan Vong said that each type of performance
has its own strengths. Today, going around the district’s villages, hamlets,
and fields, people can hear Muong folk singing on TVs, smart phones and radios.
Some families have invited artisans to sing at weddings, tomb-sweeping
festival, and housewarming parties. This proves that the love for Muong folk
singing is still very deep among local people. Muong people-living areas in
Thanh Hoa province are also excited when they invite Lac Son district’s Muong
folk singing clubs to exchange.
With regular activities, Muong folk singing
clubs are gradually bringing folk songs back to people's daily lives. These
models have also made an important contribution to the preservation and
development of folk songs, folk dances and the unique cultural identity of the
Muong ethnic community in Hoa Binh province.
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.