Taking part in Le Muong festival with Vietnam Airlines

This autumn, Vietnam airlines invites all visitors to experience a place of extremes and marvelousness with the beauty of Vietnam’s Muong culture. Thai A reports on what is sure to be an exciting event.

On September 30th, the Le Muong festival will open in Hoa Binh town to honor the culture, music and traditional graphic arts of the Muong people. Held in the Muong cultural space museum in Hoa Binh city, Hoa Binh province, the event will encompass a festival and an exhibition.

Designed to celebrate and preserve ethnic Muong culture, the Le Muong festival features four key sections:

Mo Muong singing: The Mo Muong artist known as “Mr. Mo Muong” and other singers will take the stage to perform rhymed epics detailing the Muong people’s vision of the start of the world. The 70-year-old oracle Bui Van Chay will perform ancestor workship rites and recount the epic “The Birth of earth and Heaven”, a folk myth that narrates the Muong people’s history.

Special art: Stone and timber reclaimes from old Muong stilt houses will be transformed into artworks. There is also a 3000 square meter herb plantation. The displays are sent on a 1.5 hectare hillside,

Music: an orchestra will play traditional Muong gong music.

Body art: Body art in the patterns of Muong folding skirts will be painted on the bodies of Muong youngsters.

Weigh everything up, there will be definitely no disappointment revealed after long flight to set foot on this wonderland.

Over an area of 1.5 hectares of steep terrain in the museum grounds, a group of contemporary sculptors led by Mr. Dao Chau Hai and including the four sculptors Khong Do Tuyen, Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Nguyen Van Ngoc and Nguyen Van Thao, will use timber and stones obtained from two demolished Muong stilts houses to arrange and create works of art that combine Land art and Ecological art.

The fertile soil between the timber and stones will be filled with 200 species of herbs cultivated by Muong people. These herbs will contribute to the restoration of the Muong’s herb steam-bathing customs. Herbal steam-baths has long been used for medicinal reasons. One 200-square meter stilt house is devoted to herb stem baths.

The 1.5 hectare site and its various artworks will form an important visual focus for the festival. Exhibits should be in place for one year. A unique blend of modern arts and old-fashioned rituals, and an east meets West festival style, will hopefully bring new ideas to the community. The festival should have long-lasting impact on Muong society and leave visitors with enduring impressions of this fascinating culture.

Foreign travelers can book flights with Vietnam Airlines to Hanoi then take tours to Hoa Binh and enjoy the festival with the local people.