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At the festival |
Many residents in this coastal city spent two weekends engrossed in watching the traditional wedding parade, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Vietnamese traditional Tet and they were surprised to receive lucky money envelopes in Vietnamese currency.
About 200kg of ao dai - traditional costume of Vietnamese people which is well-known around the world, 200kg of decorations shipped from Vietnam, and tons of homemade materials in France were prepared for the festival within the framework of the big project Toucher Arts and Vietnam Month at Larmor-Plage organized by Larmor-Plage City Hall in association with 3 associations Art Space, Vietnam Bretagne Sud and APPEL Lorient from June 30 to July 2, 2023.
Approximately 1,000 locals and visitors in the festival were not only amazed at the variety and youthful appeal of the festival's activities but also enjoyed something special things such as a parade of more than 100 international and Vietnamese students in France, the French in Vietnamese traditional costume ao dai to re-produce special images of Tet holidays of Vietnam such as Kitchen God - one of the cultural features of Tet holiday that has been preserved for many generations of the Vietnamese people.
In addition, there were activities of giving red envelopes, unicorn performance by girls, more than 10 stalls introducing Vietnamese street food, workshop on decorating bamboo mats, Dong Ho paintings on do paper - Vietnamese traditional hand-made paper from the inner bark of the do tree and traditionally produced in many villages in Vietnam, drawing calligraphy.
More than 50 amateur artists participated in a concert called Toucher Arts - Les Traditions et Légendes du Vietnam - Touching on the traditions and legends of Vietnamese music.
Musician Hoang Thu Trang - Head of the organizing committee - disclosed how to mobilize many participants with the most minimal budget to organize such a diverse festival of Vietnamese culture abroad.
According to him, Vietnamese-French teenagers have prepared everything with the assistance of their parents. Vietnamese-French teenagers are the designers of the activities. They also directly introduced Vietnamese culture in schools from primary to high school in Larmor-Plage and Nante. These children presented and taught about Vietnamese culture so attractively that some French students came home to convince them and then dragged their parents to Larmor-Plage to attend the festival.
The project mobilized the participation of 25 Vietnamese students aged 12-20 years old from France, the USA, the UK, Australia, Germany and Vietnam. Volunteers joined hands to create an exhibition of children's paintings from nearly 20 countries around the world in response to international solidarity and sustainable relations on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Vietnam. The festival has collected 500 ao dai for the 2LIFE Ao Dai program to bring a second life to used ao dai by giving to French friends as a gift rich in cultural value and also very humane.
Through the festival, the 25 students who volunteered to participate in the Toucher Arts project as well as the Vietnam Festival at Larmor-Plage understood their potential to the fullest and discovered their own abilities. Each child has 6 months of soft skills training before entering three weeks of focusing on rubbing and training in France - therefore, their feelings are also deepened. At the time of parting, many children burst into tears.
Nguyen Minh Khoi from Vietnam wrote a guestbook that Toucher Arts gave him unforgettable emotions and many memorable memories. He recalled the first difficult practice was to prepare for the presentation in front of students and teachers of the school. Though he was very shy and scared, he, at last, overcame it and called for many ao dai donations to the project.
Musician Hoang Thu Trang said that the program has been organized in schools in France to teach, introduce Vietnamese culture is still maintained by Toucher Arts. The above-mentioned large-scale Vietnamese cultural festival creating happy Vietnamese days in France will be held at the beginning of summer every year if possible.
