(HBO) – Established in 2021, Mo Muong Thang Club in Cao Phong district has made great contributions to preserving and promoting the values of Mo Muong, a unique cultural heritage of the Muong ethnic minority group in Hoa Binh province.
Artisan Bui Ngoc Thuan, Head of the Mo Muong Thang Club, checks necessary equipment for a Mo performance.
Mo Muong is a job and also a performance practiced at funerals, religious festivals, and life cycle rituals by the Muong ethnic group. The art consists of Mo prayers and performances, by Mo practitioners, or Mo artisans. Through generations, Mo prayers have been passed down verbally in the community. When they are collected, translated, and published in books, however, they begin to exist separately from people.
These days, most Mo prayers are called Mo Muong. They are a collection of verses recited at traditional Muong funerals. Each Muong community has its own version of Mo, but they are all fairly similar. The existence of various versions of Mo has helped expand the heritage and spiritual life of the Muong people.
Mo Muong has a long life, spanning centuries, as it has always helped to nurture the characteristics and the souls of the Muong people. It is the essence of labour, production, cultural behaviour and the philosophy of the Muong people, reflecting their love of life and home villages.
Mo Muong has been practiced in the northern mountainous provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Phu Tho, and Ninh Binh, the north central province of Thanh Hoa, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak and Hanoi. Each meeting of the Mo Muong Thang Club gathers many Mo lovers who exchange experience in Mo practices.
At the meetings, young and old Mo artisans shared their skills and experience in performing Mo. Artisan Bui Ngoc Thuan, head of the club, said that the club was formed in late 2021 with 25 members from nine communes in the district. The club has made positive contributions to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage.
After two years of operations, the Mo Muong Thanh Club has drawn 46 members, including 16 young Mo practitioners aging from 26-45. Bui Yen Minh, Vice Director of the Division of Culture and Information of Cao Phong, said that the district is designing a project to build a Mo Muong heritage space in combination with tourism development in Hop Phong commune.
Along with supporting the promotion of Mo Muong culture, Cao Phong has introduced the heritage to local children in schools, thus contributing to maintaining and developing the unique values of Mo Muong./.
The Government Office with Document No. 2082/VPCP-KGVX, dated March 29, 2024, sent out the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha regarding the submission of the "Mo Muong" and "Cheo art" dossiers to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In the evening of March 28th, in Hoa Binh, the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) coordinated with the provincial Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the city to organize a mobile propaganda contest to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7th, 1954 - May 7th, 2024) with the theme "Returning to Dien Bien”. There ứa the attendance of Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; the representatives of the leaders from a number of departments, branches and numerous veterans and Hoa Binh people.
In responding to the movement of "All people stay united to build cultural lifestyle”, over the years, Kim Boi district has conducted many practical and effective activities to promote solidarity and mutual support among the local community in sustainable poverty reduction and building cultural lifestyle and a healthy cultural environment, and maintaining national cultural identity.
Hoa Binh Pedagogical College has just held the closing ceremony of the training class and issued the certificate of the language of Muong ethnic people to the oficials, civil servants and public employees of courses I and II in 2023.
Hoa Binh is an ancient land home to limestone mountains running along the southeast direction and in parallel with Truong Son Mountain Range in the West, forming many basins and valleys with a rich diversity of fauna and flora. Humans came to reside here in the pre-historic period, creating the world-famous Hoa Binh Civilisation.
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