Hanoi (VNA)𓆏 – A festival showcasing the traditional costumes of ethnic minority groups in the northern region will be held in late November to honour and promote the traditional cultural values of ethnic groups and contribute to developing tourism across the region. 

 The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) announced the event, the first of its kind, at a press conference on November 11.  The festival will take place from November 18 to November 21 at the National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Son Tay town on the outskirts of Hanoi. On display will be the traditional daily wear, festival costumes and brides' and grooms' wedding clothes from 22 ethnic minority groups across 17 northern cities and provinces. The models will be ethnic people themselves.  Nguyen Thi Hai Nhung, Director of the Department of Ethnic Culture under the MCST, said the festival is an activity to implement a project on conserving and promoting the value of traditional costumes of ethnic minority groups in the current period.  She added that the event is also an opportunity to introduce the traditional cultural values of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam to both Vietnamese and foreigners, contributing to developing tourism.   "The festival is a step to realize the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws on the preservation and promotion of ethnic minority cultures, and at the same time, it honours the fine traditional cultural values of ethnic groups in the northern region, which is part of the diverse but unified culture of the community of 54 fraternal, ethnic groups in Vietnam," Nhung said.  Under the theme "'The colours of northern ethnic traditional costumes amid integration and development era', the festival will feature a wide range of activities, including a meeting of ethnic artisans and people who have contributed significantly to preserving ethnic cultures. A scientific seminar on solutions to preserve and revive traditional ethnic costumes in modern times.  Shows of traditional ethnic costumes will be held alongside demonstrations of the making of traditional cloth and costumes. There will also be exhibition spaces for typical cultural products of ethnic minority groups in the northern region and re-creations of traditional ethnic markets in the northern mountainous region.   The traditional ethnic costumes festival will be taking place in parallel with the "Great Solidarity of Ethnic Groups- Vietnamese Cultural Heritage Week 2022", which will also be held at the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Hanoi from November 18-23 to mark the foundation day of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (November 18) and the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Day (November 23).  Emeritus Artist Tran Ly Ly, Acting Director of the Department of Performing Arts under the MCST, said there would be a grand opening ceremony for Cultural Heritage Week 2022.  The ceremony will be staged on a floating stage shaped like a fan, an important item in Vietnam's cultural heritage. All the fan's ribs converge at the pivot pin, symbolizing national unity, while the spreading out leaf implies the image of sails taking the country out to the sea, Ly explained.   There will be 200 professional artists and 170 ethnic artisans performing during the ceremony, according to Ly.  The two days - November 19 and 20 – are devoted to cultural exchanges. Some traditional festivals and customs of ethnic groups from around the country will be introduced.  On November 19, a ceremony for a mother adopting a child of the Ede ethnic group in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak will be re-created in the morning and the ceremony for naming a child of the Cham group in the southern province of An Giang in the afternoon.  The next day, a fishing festival in the south-central province of Phu Yen will be re-created in the morning and the new rice ritual of the Gia Rai ethnic group in the afternoon.  Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic groups, each of which has its unique cultural identity./.