VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese and international children will have a chance to learn about the diverse colours of Italian culture during International Children’s Day at the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology (VME) on May 27&28. 

Old school fun: Volunteers and Vietnamese children play folk game.

A series of culture activities will be held at Canh Dieu (Kite) Building, Trong Dong (Bronze Drum) Building and Cham Building such as elaborate Italian mask decoration, traditional costume colouring, bookmark-making and cooking.

"Children will learn about the significance of masks at Italian carnivals, and they will learn how to make a mask," said An Thu Tra, a VME staff member. "Colouring traditional costumes will help children to understand the various costumes and inspire them to make designs of their own".

Meetings with Italian people will be held at Trong Dong Building at 9.30am, 11pm, 2.30pm and 4pm, introducing a panorama of Italian culture.

A festival highlight will be the cuisine, presented by the Italian ambassador to Ha Noi Cecillia Piccioni. She will teach how to make spaghetti and pizza at 10am on Saturday. The Italian restaurants in Ha Noi will also attend the festival to serve Italian foods and drinks.

The event also includes art performances and Italian carnival demonstration by Italian people.

But Italy won’t be the only colourful nation on display. There will be folk games, art and traditional costume performances from Cambodia, South Korea, Nigeria, Lao, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Cuba at the festival.

Traditional costumes will be sashayed by little models at 9.30am; 11am and 3.30am.

"International folk games are often held at the VME, but games from Mongolia and Cuba will be introduced for the first time at the VME," said Tra.

"The Mongolian game shagai (ankle bones) is very interesting. Shagai is played using the cleaned and polished ankle bones of sheep. It is the most unique game in Mongolia. Mongolian students will bring their own shagai and play at the festival."

From Nghia Hung Ward, northern province of Nam Dinh, water puppeteers will perform at the festival. The puppeteers will teach little audiences how to control the puppets and the audiences will have chance to discover backstage of water puppetry.

Little models, big dreams: Child models prepare for a fashion performance at the children festival to be held on May 27 & 28. — Photos courtesy of VME

The children festival is co-held by VME and Italian embassy in Ha Noi, with hundreds volunteers from Ha Noi University’s Italian Department; Military Science Academy and international schools in Ha Noi.

The festival will be held from 8.30am to 11.30am and from 2pm to 5.30pm on May 27 & 28.

In addition, an exhibition on Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino will be held at the VME on June 2. 

VNS