So Village’s communal house on the western outskirts of Hanoi will provide a platform to showcase the traditional customs of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on February 10.

Various activities will be held in So Village's communal house. (Photo courtesy of Dinh Lang Viet Group)

The event is an annual gathering hosted by the Dinh Lang Viet (Vietnamese Communal House) Group, a Hanoi-based community keen on preserving the ancient values of communal houses.

The event will include a ceremony to erect cây nêu, a tall bamboo tree, in the house’s yard. The bamboo pole is stripped of its leaves, except for a tuft on top so that it can be wrapped or decorated with red paper for good luck. Bows, arrows, bells and gongs are hung on the treetop with the hope that the bad luck of the past year is chased away and everyone has a happy New Year.

A traditional worship ceremony will be held, apart from events featuring the art of calligraphy and folk singing.

Researcher Tran Hau Yen The will deliver a talk on 'nghe' (a holy animal made of stone, with the body of a dog, and head, legs and tail of a dragon, that stand guard at temples or communal houses) and researcher Tran Doan Lam will speak on traditional customs during the Lunar New Year.

Participants will have the opportunity to cook traditional food such as 'chung' (square, sticky rice cake) and 'che kho' (sweetened bean pudding).

Both men and women participating in the gathering are encouraged to wear the Vietnamese traditional long dress.

The event will take place in Cong Hoa Commune, Quoc Oai District, some 20km to the west of Hanoi's centre, between 8am and 9pm on Saturday, February 10 (the 25th day of the last lunar month).

Interested people can register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOfZhp0yUliIG6eFJDsrpIKu6s5j265mOh9DZcAY6oYI-TSw/viewform or contact Nguyen Duc Binh (in charge of the group) at 0904179673 or log on to https://www.facebook.com/groups/DinhlangVN/.

The cost for an adult is 600,000 VND, while that for children under 10 is 300,000 VND. This covers transportation with the group’s members, two meals at the site and all relevant fee for organising the event. A part of the contribution will be used to gift 'ao dai' (traditional long dress) to elders at the communal house.

The event last year gathered hundreds of people including the group’s members, locals, tourists and representatives from 27 embassies and diplomatic organisations in Hanoi.-VNA