Metropole Hanoi holds traditional market

People stand at a calligraphy stall at Cho Que in the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. The hotel will open its traditional Vietnamese market in anticipation of the Tet lunar new year from tomorrow. — Photo courtesy of organiser

The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is transforming the ‘street' through its open-air courtyard into a traditional Vietnamese market in anticipation of the Tet Lunar New Year.

From 4pm tomorrow, the three-day Cho Que (countryside market) anchors a multi-faceted approach to the annual observance.

At Cho Que, vendors, in traditional costumes, will sell food, handicrafts and colourful do (poonah) paper paintings from Dong Ho Village. Vietnamese artists will paint visitors' portraits, while vendors will offer bowls of pho and bun cha to visitors. A traditional dragon dance will bring luck to all in attendance.

Tomorrow, contestants will compete to make the best banh chung (traditional sticky square rice cake); on Saturday the best banh cuon (rice roll) and best nom (salad); and on Sunday the best child's drawing on a traditional conical hat. Winners will receive vouchers for various dining experiences in the hotel.

The free entry market will open to the public from January 29 to 31, from 4-8pm.

Go Group make music with daily objects

Tomorrow night, Manzi Art Space will present Sound Travellers in the Night – a percussion concert featuring experiments by Ha Noi's Sound Travellers – the Go Group.

Go Group consists of Tran Xuan Hoa, Nghiem Manh Tuan, and Bui Anh Dung, who are known to perform using daily objects such as trash bins, hammers, pots and pans as instruments.

The Sound Travellers in the Night will start at 8pm at 14 Phan Huy Ich Street. Surcharge: VND200,000/person.

FVH hosts lecture on Kitchen God Day

On Sunday, the Friends of Vietnam Heritage will host a lecture on the Ong Tao ritual – Kitchen God Day celebration, from 6pm to 8pm.

The Kitchen God or Ong Tao ritual signals the start of preparations for Tet. This celebration marks the day when the three kitchen gods, the advocates of the family, travel on the back of a carp to the Jade Emperor, the King of Heaven.

The kitchen gods then report to the Jade Emperor on the good and the bad of the family.

Professor Le Van Lan will explain the origins and rituals of Tet to attendees. The group will then participate in sending the three kitchen gods, a new set of clothes (made of paper) which will be burnt as an offering to them.

After the offering of new clothes, attendees can then release live fish to carry their family's report into West Lake. The group will then return to learn about and experience a wide range of traditional Tet foods.

Cost: VND250,000 for adults, VND125,000 for students with current ID, VND100,000 for accompanied children under 15 years. Price includes one live fish, a buffet style selection of Tet traditional dishes and one soft drink or tea.

Limit: 40 people. Register: John at lefthanded2hanoi@yahoo.com.

Fusion concert celebrates coming spring

Fusion Spring Melodies concert featuring a combination of Vietnamese traditional music, pop music and symphony will be held at the HCM City Opera House tomorrow.

The show will include performances of talented Vietnamese musicians Tran Manh Hung, Nguyen Hong Kim Quang, Tran Vuong Thach, and Mat Troi Do (Red Sun) Band. They will perform under the baton of world-famous conductor Marius Stravinsky from the UK.

The concert will start at 7.30pm at 7 Lam Son Square in District 1.

French band to perform at Lush Bar

La Fine Equipe from France will present an electronic music show at Lush Bar today.

The band, formed in 2001, consists of four DJs and beat makers from Marseille and Paris. Their third album La Boulangerie (Bakery) produced by Nowadays Records won the VIP prize at Prix Deezer Adami in 2015.

The show begins at 8pm at 27 Ly Tu Trong Street in District 1. Tickets are priced at VND350,000 and VND160,000 for students. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketbox.vn.

After the HCM City show, the band will perform in Ha Noi on Saturday.

Expat band presents music from 60, 70s

Expatriate band Mikey and Friends will play music from the 1960s and 1970s at Yoko Cafe on February 4.

The four-member band will cover songs by three British legendary bands and musician of the Rolling Stones, Beatles and Eric Clapton.

The concert will begin at 8 pm at 22A Nguyen Thi Dieu Street in District 3.

Traditional Lunar New Year alive in Ha Noi

People will gather together to prepare for Tet and share feelings when New Year comes to the holy space of So Village's Communal House in Quoc Oai, a suburban district of Ha Noi.

An atmosphere of traditional Lunar New Year will be enjoyed with various activities such as presenting offerings for gods and ancestors, wrapping banh chung (square glutinous rice cake), hat cua dinh (ceremonial singing), an exhibition about folk paintings and calligraphy.

Dinh Lang Viet (Vietnamese communal houses) group will organise the event at So Village's Communal House this weekend.

Wrapping banh chung is among traditional activities to prepare for Tet. However, in recent years, people often buy ready-to-eat cakes instead of making them themselves.

"Participants will make the cakes together, which will remind them of traditional Tet in the old days," said art critic Nguyen Duc Binh, founder of the Dinh Lang Viet group.

"We try to reenact all the moments of Tet celebration in which people can live slow and enjoy the sacred and special things of the new year," he said.

Old people in the village and folk cultural experts will talk about rituals and customs of Vietnamese people such as decorating houses with paintings, offering incense at temples, setting up cay neu (New Year trees to drive evil away) and visiting relatives during Tet holiday.

The Dinh Lang Viet group was established in 2014 and has attracted numerous folk culture researchers, photographers, architects, painters, sculptors and journalists who share a love for Vietnamese communal houses and the intangible value of their cultural space.

They try to warn people of the changing conditions of tangible and intangible cultural values in traditional Vietnamese communal houses, growing damage, the modification of traditional values and the possibility of the disappearance of communal houses across the country.

So Village's Communal House is 40km to the west of Ha Noi's centre. The event, with organized activities, promises to bring participants a memorable experience of Vietnamese traditional Tet.

Upcoming events celebrate Tet in HCMC Youth’s Cultural House

A series of cultural activities marking Vietnamese Lunar New Year will take place at Ho Chi Minh City Youth’s Cultural House from January 28-February 12.

The programs include calligraphy street on January 28-February 7, performance of Vietnamese traditional martial arts on February 12, art balloon fest on February 11, game of human chess on February 10.

There will be music programs which to be performed by many well-known singers and artists in the country on February 2, 3,4,6,7 and 9.

Frida and Diego’s works displayed in city

An exhibition featuring photos by two famous Mexican photographers, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo opened at the War Remnants Museum of HCMC.

The display aims to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords which helped restore peace in Vietnam, the 41st anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Mexico.

The photos present the life of artists who took part in movements struggling for the peace and freedom of Mexican people.

The event gives Vietnamese and international audiences an opportunity to know more about Mexican people and culture; as well as introduce deep friendship and relationship between the two countries.

The event will run until February 20 at the museum, 28 Vo Van Tan Street, District 3.