Party features finest reggae music

Once a month, The Skank The Tank – the Reggae Sound System based in Ha Noi, provides the finest reggae selections from the early 60's to the future dub sounds at CAMA ATK.

Tomorrow, the music party which has been running for the past two years will return to the venue.

DJ Mr Gonjaman will be playing a selection of LPs and teaming up with some live performances. Put on your skanking shoes and come to dance.

The party will take place from 8-12pm at 73A Mai Hac De Street. Free entry.

French films screen next month

The Institute of Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) will host a series of French films in March. They include Et maintenant, on va ou (Where Do We Go Now?) which won the People's Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, 2 Automnes 3 Hivers (2 Autumns, 3 Winters), Vandal and Les Beaux Jours (Bright Days Ahead).

The films, which will be shown with Vietnamese subtitles, will be scheduled at 3pm every Saturday. The institute is at 28 Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1. Admission fee is VND30,000.

Woman's Day event to support young girls

A fundraising event to support young girls will be held at Saigon Outcast on Woman's Day (March 8). The event will feature speeches on women's issues, workshops on yoga and zumba, live dance and music performances by dancers Emily Navarra and Anh Pham, DJs Starchild and Will Henly, and bands The Magic Pinions, Cat Pylon and James & the Van der Beeks.

There will be games for children, quizes, and a raffle. All proceeds from the event will go to The Little Rose Shelter in District 7, a local non-governmental organisation to help young girls who are survivors of, or at risk for, abuse and trafficking in Viet Nam.

The event will take place from 11am-11 pm at 188/1 Nguyen Van Huong Street in District 2.

British reggae star heads for Observatory

Two music nights featuring international and local musicians will be held at The Observatory on Friday and Saturday, February 27 and 28.

British reggae singer and DJ Tippa Irie, whose real name is Anthony Henry, will present a show of reggae music today. His performance will be supported by local DJs like Knappe, Jase, Dan Lo, K-One and Sawji. Ticket costs VND150,000.

The next show will feature Fulbert of Cliche Records, a veteran electronic music producer, DJ and collector who has been immersed in the creation and delivery of raw, deep-reaching house and techno since the early 1990s. He will perform along with local DJ Hibiya Line.

Admission is free before midnight, and is VND100,000 after midnight. All shows will start at 9pm at 5 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street in District 4.

Four seasons through the window

L'Espace will present an exhibition by artist Duong Thuy Duong from tomorrow through March 21.

Entitled Through the Window, Duong describes her works as what she sees through her window after her kids go to school.

"I stay at home alone with a cup of hot coffee in hand, listening to Rachmaninoff and looking out of the window. It is a large window overlooking lush vegetation, the bright sun of summer, the falling leaves of autumn, the grey and gloomy skies of winter and the fragile, icy space that precedes the arrival of spring.

"I like to stay and think like this. Nothing important, just the reflections of an ordinary person, an ordinary woman, an ordinary mother.

"The coffee is cold, the music has stopped, four seasons pass, and... I paint..."

The show will open at 6pm tomorrow at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street.

Circus performs in central Vietnam

Artists from the Vietnam Circus Federation will entertain thousands of audience members in central provinces with a cabaret circus show on the occasion of the Lunar New Year (Tet).

Numerous intriguing circus and magician performances will dazzle the resplendently decorated stage in a mobile circus tent with over 1,000 seats. Spectators will have the opportunity to enjoy award-winning acrobatic feats and displays.

Along with comedic magic tricks bringing laughter to local residents, the animal circus shows including “horse racing the basin” and “Thach Sanh kills the python” are a favorite of the children.

The event is scheduled to commence in the central coastal city of Nha Trang on March 7, after which the circus troupe will continue its tours to Tuy Hoa, Quy Nhon, Quang Ngai, Tam Ky, Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue.

Festival commemorates nation’s legendary mother

The northern midland province of Phu Tho launched a festival paying homage to Vietnam’s legendary mother Au Co at her temple in Ha Hoa district on February 25, the seventh day of the first lunar month.

Legend has it that Au Co was a fairy and descended to earth on the seventh day of the first lunar month. She later met with Lac Long Quan and gave birth to 100 sons. Fifty of them followed their father to the sea and the other half followed their mother to the mountains.

When the family arrived at what is now known as Ha Hoa’s Hien Luong commune, mother Au Co and her children were so captivated by the area’s fertility and stunning landscapes that they decided to settle there. The eldest son was crowned King Hung – the legendary first king of Vietnam – on that land.

They cultivated water rice to provide food, planted mulberry trees, and bred silk worms. Au Co then returned to heaven on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The festival was opened with an offering ritual to the guardian deity at the local communal house. A palanquin procession began at the house later in the day, ending at the Au Co Temple.

Besides commemorating the legendary mother, the two-day festival also offers visitors a chance to take part in folk games such as tug of war, Chinese chess, and crossbow shooting along with singing and dancing performances by locals.

Many of Vietnam’s traditional festivals open in the first lunar month, including the Bai Dinh Pagoda, Huong (Perfume) Pagoda, and Hai Ba Trung (Trung Sisters) Temple festivals.

Spring festival to spotlight unique ethnic cultures

A new year festival featuring cultural characteristics of Vietnamese ethnic groups will be held at the Culture Tourism Village of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups in Hanoi from February 27-March 1.

The event is part of activities aiming to preserve and uphold traditional values of the national diverse culture, as well as introduce unique ethnic cultures in Vietnam.

It is expected to serve as a venue for promoting exchange and unity between ethnic groups, according to the village’s management board.

Tourists will be offered a chance to witness and join a “Con” (cloth ball) throwing festival of the Thai group, while enjoying folk song singing and dancing and folk games of Thai people in northern mountainous Lai Chau province, and Muong and Dao ethnic groups in Ba Vi outlying district, Hanoi.

Specialties from participating localities will be also displayed at the event.

Previously, a wide range of cultural activities jubilantly took place at the village from February 7-11 to welcome the Year of the Goat in the framework of the Sac Xuan Tren Moi Mien To Quoc (Spring in Every Region Nationwide) festival, drawing a crowd of visitors from Hanoi capital and surrounding areas.

Vietnamese culture embellishes Cyprus Carnival

Vietnam’s signature red-and-golden-star flag, traditional long dress (ao dai) and folk music were featured in the Grand Parade of the Limassol Carnival in the Republic of Cyprus on February 22.

The cold winter in Cyprus had little effect on Vietnamese participants wearing the one-layer ao dai or Vietnamese flag T-shirts, and the delegation received an enthusiastic welcome from local friends during the 5 kilometre parade.

This is the first time the Vietnamese community joined in the event, celebrated in Limassol and throughout Cyprus annually for over a century. The city attracted 109 delegations this year.

The Republic of Cyprus is currently home to around 12,000 Vietnamese nationals. The two countries will mark the 40 th anniversary of their diplomatic ties this year with a number of celebratory activities.

Old custom re-enacted in Hue

A traditional ceremony to remove “cay neu” (Tet pole) and open the royal seal was re-enacted in the Imperial Citadel of Hue, central Thua Thien-Hue province on February 25, the seventh day of the first lunar month and the last day of the Tet celebration.

The event was organised by the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre to mark the official closing of the Tet festival in the Hue heritage site, reported the Saigon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper.

Under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), cay neu was erected on the 23rd day of the last month of the lunar year in Hue Citadel, starting the Tet holiday.

A tall bamboo pole was erected with some ritual items, like a royal seal, pen brush and swords, which were guarded by solders, to be hung on its top. It was believed to expel evils and pray for favourable weather and bumper crops in the New Year.

The pole was ceremonially removed on the seventh day of Tet, bringing an end to the New Year celebration.

At the ceremony to remove the pole in Hue, the centre re-enacted the royal seal opening and presented calligraphy with a seal on it to visitors on the special day.-