(HBO) - In 2 days, March 6th and 7th, the fesstival of Ke pagoda in 2023 took place in Phu Vinh commune (Tan Lac).
The performance of Muong gongs at the festival.
The festival of Ke Pagoda is the first clearing ceremony of the year, according to the Muong language is "Le tha Cha chua”. The festival is a religious and community activity associated with wet-rice agriculture in order to return to the roots and express the gratitude to the Buddha and the village lords who have helped the people to build Ke ditch to bring water to the fields, teach the people to build the land and establish Muong area. It is also to wish for a year of favorale rain, the peaceful wind, which is full of happiness. The festival is also an opportunity for people to meet, exchange, tighten the solidarity and propagate the preservation and promotion of the national cultural identity in the customs and culinary life of the local people.
At the festival, the delegates and the local people had an opportinity to watch the concert of Muong gongs and the special cultural performances imbued with the national identity; visiting the stalls displaying the traditional handicraft products, the ethnic musical instruments and the cuisine. The festival organizing board organized the competitions in sports and folk games such as aray fighting, cotton ball throwing, stall dancing, swings, stilt walking, volleyball, etc.
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.
Many festivals take place in the first lunar month of the year in Lac Son district, attracting a large number of both home and foreign visitors to come and experience the locality’s unique cultural values.
The People's Committee of Lac Thuy district on February 29 held a ceremony to receive a certificate recognising Co Lao Temple as a provincial historical relic. Within the framework of the ceremony, leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lac Thuy district, delegates, and locals offered incense at Co Lao temple.