Quy Chau: Preserving traditional culture

(Baonghean) -In recent years, with the attention and direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels, the preservation of traditional cultural values ​​in Quy Chau has been implemented and achieved many results. For Quy Chau people today, the preservation of ancient cultural traditions is always associated with the movement "All people unite to build cultural life in residential areas" and the New Rural Development Program.

The Hang Bua Festival has passed, but these days in Hoa Tien 2 village (Chau Tien commune), the fresh air, bustling with singing and gong sounds still echo. The holidays and happy seasons seem to have just begun, every morning people "set out" to do farm work, and at night 12 clusters of families still meet to discuss building roads according to the criteria of building new rural areas, practicing arts, preserving Thai cultural traditions... Just like the 162 stilt houses in the village, the house of Mr. Sam Van Duan, the village chief that we visited, is an ancient, solid and very spacious stilt house, with large, strong pillars buried deep in the ground. Happily offering drinks, Mr. Duan said: Houses like this are a characteristic of Hoa Tien that not every Thai village can fully preserve. And it is no coincidence that Hoa Tien was recognized as a cultural village since the 90s of the last century...

The village lights were turned on after dinner, Mr. Duan’s house became the practice place for the village’s art troupe. Men, women, old and young came to participate in large numbers, the art troupe practiced the dance “Harvest Festival”, and artist Sam Thi Xuan reviewed the heroic song “Hap Lai Hun Chuong” – which was scheduled to be performed in the art program to celebrate International Women’s Day, March 8. Although not yet wearing traditional dresses and shirts, the dance formation of the girls from the old Tau, Chang and San villages was already uniform, rhythmic and beautiful.

Hoa Tien 1 village art troupe participates in the 2012 Village, Hamlet and Cultural Block Festival

According to Mr. Sam Van Duan, not only the songs and dances but also all the cultural features of identity are preserved by the people of Hoa Tien, from language to brocade weaving... Preserving cultural values ​​also requires the active participation of organizations such as the front, the association of the elderly, and the association of women. To teach Thai to the next generation, the elders in Hoa Tien 2 organized separate classes. Every 40 people in a class, when they can read and write fluently, they organize to teach another class. For children, the organization is held in the summer. The committee requires each family and each person to promote the spirit of the elderly teaching the middle-aged, the middle-aged teaching the children. Up to now, in Hoa Tien 2, everyone knows Thai and the brocade weaving, and it is also good.

Because the hall - the community center of Hoa Tien 2 village is being lent to the kindergarten, tonight Mr. Duan's house becomes the meeting place of village officials, discussing: Promoting the title of cultural village in building new rural areas, cleaning and beautifying village roads and alleys. This year, the village is determined to complete the expansion of 1,780m of concrete road to 2.5m, mobilizing villagers to straighten the road according to the plan...

Similar to Hoa Tien 2 village, the preservation and promotion of traditional cultural values ​​in Hoa Tien 1 village is also well implemented. Previously, Hoa Tien 1 and Hoa Tien 2 were originally one village, only when the number of households increased were they divided into two. When mentioning the culture of Hoa Tien 1, Quy Chau people often talk about Mr. Sam Van Dan - the living music treasure of the Thai people, Ms. Sam Thi Bich - Head of the Brocade Craft Village Cooperative. In Hoa Tien 1, the cultural and artistic movement is still very vibrant, the activities of the stream and Nhuon clubs are maintained regularly. Mr. Sam Van Nam, Head of the village, said: 7 residential clusters consisting of 178 households of the village often compete in arts and sports with each other; each cluster has its own team, it is from the love songs and sports matches that have consolidated the village and neighborhood relationships, encouraging the people's spirit of working together to build a new life.

Mr. Nam said: In the current process of building cultural life and new rural areas, the role of village elders and village heads is very important; they have encouraged and persuaded their children and grandchildren, and everyone voluntarily donated land to make way, spent labor, sand, gravel and materials to build the village road. Each family volunteered to take on 10m, in 2012 the village concreted 2km, in 2013 the remaining road will be constructed. People's lives still mainly depend on agriculture, but now thanks to the development of craft villages, brocade and having an output, the village no longer has hungry households and many well-off households have appeared...

Mr. Vi Van Tien, Vice Chairman of Quy Chau District People's Committee said: In Quy Chau, not only the villages in Chau Tien but also many other villages still preserve the traditional cultural features intact. For us, the preservation of cultural values ​​needs to be associated with the construction of villages, hamlets, and cultural blocks as well as with the cultural criteria of the New Rural Development Program. Currently, the whole district has built 94/145 villages, hamlets, and cultural blocks. Every year, based on the actual situation, the district develops a specific corresponding plan, regularly monitors and inspects, promptly corrects and prevents signs of degradation, poor quality titles or emerging social evils; directs communes, hamlets, and villages to review specific criteria to build an implementation roadmap, and overcome each weak point.

In implementing the new rural construction, the district focuses on directing the implementation in Chau Tien and Chau Thuan communes to create bright spots with widespread impacts. That is to deploy the construction of stadiums, synchronous cultural institutions, open Thai Lai Tay classes, maintain art troupes, and improve the quality of the movement by including cultural criteria in the emulation evaluation. The district also regularly organizes performances, competitions in villages, hamlets, and cultural blocks, contributing to strongly promoting the movement "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas".

Article and photos: Thanh Chung