A wide range of activities took place in Languidic city, in the Morbihan region of France, VNS reported.
The Viet Nam Festival, which was co-hosted by Languidic City Hall, along with Art Space Association and Viet Nam Bretagne Sud Association, included a series of events to introduce Vietnamese culture in French schools. Performances included pieces on Vietnamese traditional and contemporary art and the puppet play 'The Legend of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Dày' at the City Library.
The event is part of the international cultural exchange and community project Toucher Arts, organized by the Art Space association, with the participation of 33 members who are 13-17-year-old students from Viet Nam , Canada, Australia, Japan and France.
Attending the programme were Laurent Duval, mayor of Languidic city, and nearly 1,000 French people interested in Vietnamese culture living in Languidic and neighboring cities such as Lorient, Larmor-Plage, Kervignac and Queven.
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| Laurent Duval, mayor of Languidic city at the event. Photo: TG&VN |
Many French people in Morbihan province on June 28 and 29 participated in many activities to learn and explore Vietnamese culture in a diverse and colorful way, including listening to Vietnamese fairy tales retold in the central library of Languidic city.
Mayor of Languidic Laurent Duval found this to be an extremely interesting and unique event as the organizers have gathered dozens of young Vietnamese people from all over the world to come here and participate in the organization, performance, and such dynamic activities.
"I'm very happy to welcome Vietnamese culture to the Breton region and also look forward to having the opportunity to share Breton culture with the Vietnamese people one day,” he shared.
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| French children attentively watch the lion dance performance. Photo: TG&VN |
With the desire to convey the beauty of the Vietnamese language and Viet Nam's cultural traditions to international friends, Toucher Arts project members chose a familiar story about the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, 'The Legend of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Dày' , combined with the form of puppet theatre so that all ages could participate.
French children and their families were also excited to answer questions about Vietnamese culture to receive gifts and to discover Vietnamese traditions and customs.
The entire script, translation, creating and drawing the puppet theatre stage, character control, storytelling and workshop instruction, were completed by Vietnamese-origin young students of Toucher Arts project from all over the world. It took the entire team three months to prepare for this project before coming to France.
Isabelle Masson-Courtet, director of the Languidic music school and library recalled the puppet theater performance relateing to Tet traditions. of Vietnamese, saying, “the show is greatly presented. The young audience watched the show attentively and were extremely excited. I really appreciate the effort the team put into planning the script, preparing the puppets, decorative details as well as the recent performance."
With the theme of Vietnamese customs and traditions, more than 100 international students, Vietnamese in France and French friends in Ao dai took part in the parade to introduce traditions in Vietnamese culture such as Mid-Autumn Festival and the Lunar New Year.
They recreated many unique images such as giving lucky money envelopes. The parade is also organized on a large scale and receives the support of the community of French people who live in the surrounding areas.
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| A parade promoting Vietnamese culture. Photo: TG&VN |
A concert titled 'Vietnamese Colors' took place to introduce to French audiences at the festival to the beauty of Vietnamese music and art on the evening of June 28.
Participating in the event was the traditional martial arts club Minh Long Mordelles from Mordelles, with a performance called 'One round of Viet Nam' combining martial arts and art and performers from the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Paris with traditional bamboo musical instruments.
Designer Ella Phan also presented an Ao dai collection called 'The flow' inspired by different historical periods. Folk dance and contemporary dance performances by Vietnamese students and French children helped introduce Vietnamese music to international friends in a youthful and unique way.
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| Vietnamese martial arts performance performed by Minh Long Mordelles. Photo: TG&VN |
Source: Vietnamtimes
