Khmer people in Tra Vinh prepare for Sene Dolta festival; Festival to celebrate Vietnam’s diverse, colourful cultures; Pre-historic stone tool workshop found in Gia Lai

Festival to celebrate Vietnam’s diverse, colourful cultures

A colourful festival to highlight various regions’ cultural identities will take place in Hanoi from Oct. 6-9, beginning a series of activities to celebrate the 1,000th founding anniversary of the Thang Long-Hanoi capital city.

Twenty provinces and cities representing the northern, central and southern regions will visit the capital to showcase their typical arts, traditional costumes, folk games and gastronomy.

Art troupes from the various provinces and cities will perform at the opening ceremony on Oct. 6, and then on other festival days on open-air stages in the inner city and its outskirts.

Three exhibitions will be held during the festival, featuring images from Hanoi’s past and present, cultural identities of diverse ethnic groups from various regions of Vietnam, and collections of Vietnamese folk paintings depicting Hang Trong and Dong Ho, and paintings of the Tay, Nung, Dao and Cao Lan ethnic minority groups.

Typical festivals from a range of regions, such as the harvest festival from the mountainous areas, the fish prayer festival celebrated in coastal areas, the Ok Om Bok (Moon Thanksgiving Festival) observed by the Khmer ethnic group in Mekong delta region, and others will also be represented.

Pre-historic stone tool workshop found in Gia Lai

Archaeologists have found a stone tool workshop in Ia Mor Commune, Chuprong district of Central Highlands Gia Lai province, with the largest number of artefacts discovered in the central highlands so far.

Excavators from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology (VIA) and the Gia Lai Museum unearthed more than 60 stone artefacts and thousands of ceramic relics at the site.

Archaeologists also found human bones and teeth together with stone and bone jewellery in an urn tomb at Ia Mor stream.

This is the first time pre-historic human remains have been found in Gia Lai and the Central Highlands.

Ia Mor is the sixth excavation site in Gia Lai and the excavation work will last through October.

(Source: VNA)