A place rich in folk flavor
Western Nghe An includes 10 districts and the newly established Thai Hoa Town, with a population of 1,125,000 people, accounting for 48.4% of the province's population, of which 410,000 ethnic minorities, accounting for 28.4% of the province's population. This is a homeland with many ethnic groups living together in the area such as Kinh, Kho Mu, San Diu, Thai, Tho, Mong, O Du... so it has a diverse, rich, and unique cultural identity, is the cradle of folk songs, folk music, and folk dances that have existed for hundreds of years, and are being preserved, restored, and promoted.
(Baonghean) -Western Nghe An includes 10 districts and the newly established Thai Hoa Town, with a population of 1,125,000 people, accounting for 48.4% of the province's population, of which 410,000 ethnic minorities, accounting for 28.4% of the province's population. This is a homeland with many ethnic groups living together in the area such as Kinh, Kho Mu, San Diu, Thai, Tho, Mong, O Du... so it has a diverse, rich, and unique cultural identity, is the cradle of folk songs, folk music, and folk dances that have existed for hundreds of years, and are being preserved, restored, and promoted.
Through many trips to the ethnic groups in the West, we have noted that the villages and lands of the West have a rich treasure of folk culture, especially the culture of the Thai ethnic group which is developing very quickly. The Thai ethnic group has folk songs such as: xap, lam, nhuon, suoi; the Tho ethnic group has melodies such as: Du du dien dien, Tap tinh tap tang. Every time Tet comes, Spring comes, or the village has happy events, young men and women and old men and women gather together to dance and sing, making the cultural and artistic movement in these rural areas more vibrant. In the villages, all you need is a jar of rice wine, a set of gongs, and a few people playing the flute to organize a lively cultural and artistic event, imbued with the cultural colors of the highland ethnic groups. In the period of opening up, integration and development of the market economy, foreign culture is flooding into the lives of ethnic communities, causing cultural identity to fade away. The establishment of folk music and singing clubs in mountainous communes and districts shows us that the work of preserving and maintaining the cultural identity of ethnic groups, including preserving and promoting the beauty of folk songs, folk music and folk dance, is very valuable and needs to be promoted and expanded.
"Pa Co" dance of Thai ethnic group by Ke Dinh village art troupe
(Chau Hanh - Quy Chau). Photo: Tran Ngoc Lan
In Con Cuong, Quy Hop, Que Phong districts, mass organizations such as women, farmers, the elderly, and the youth union have established folk music and singing clubs. The most typical is in Con Cuong district, which has up to 12 clubs. In Quy Hop, there is the Xiem hamlet folk culture club, the Tho hamlet folk music and singing club. In Que Phong, there is the Quang Phong folk culture club - these are clubs with quality activities. In addition, there are also gong clubs, lam, xap, nhuon clubs... In these clubs, we acknowledge the enthusiasm and volunteerism of the members, from young to old, who voluntarily participate with sincere feelings and passion, wishing to contribute to preserving the beauty of the folk songs of their homeland. In particular, these clubs also attract the enthusiastic and responsible participation of the elderly, who are the ones who directly teach the younger generation ancient folk songs, ancient lyrics, and ancient music, helping the younger generation preserve and promote the value, beauty, and goodness of traditional folk songs of ethnic groups. Typical examples include the elderly in Ban To and Ban Nua Clubs (Con Cuong), Tho Folk Song Club (Mo Hamlet, Quy Hop), and Xiem Hamlet Club (Quy Hop).
It is the voluntary factor, passion, respect and preservation of the folk songs of the homeland that has united the members of the folk song clubs. For example, at the Thai folk song club in Con Cuong, each time they meet and perform, the members voluntarily contribute rice and money, and mobilize local people to donate support, yet they still maintain and operate regularly every Saturday and Sunday evening. Due to financial difficulties, many clubs do not have enough musical instruments such as gongs, cymbals, panpipes, flutes, drums, etc., but in many places, the clubs have actively mobilized local people to contribute to purchase musical instruments. Many clubs and members have voluntarily donated their family's musical instruments for the club to operate.
Through research, we learned that in order to maintain the activities of folk song clubs, Con Cuong district has assigned the youth union to gather and coordinate with the Association of the Elderly and the Women's Union to organize the learning of traditional folk songs for the youth, and guide the younger generation to learn and use traditional musical instruments. The district's Department of Culture has coordinated programs with Pu Mat National Park to send folk song clubs to perform whenever there are groups of visitors coming to visit and travel, in order to introduce the beauty of Thai folk songs to friends and tourists at home and abroad.
However, it is also necessary to say that the economic life in Western Nghe An is developing slowly, the budget of the cultural sector and the communes is very limited, leading to many difficulties and limitations in the restoration, preservation and promotion of folk songs and ethnic musical instruments. Therefore, in order for traditional culture and folk songs of ethnic groups to last forever and be promoted well in today's life, it is necessary to have investment attention in both funding and professional expertise from all levels and sectors from commune to province, especially the attention of the State and the whole society.
Poland Dance
