Hanoi Amateur Water Puppetry Festival to take place in May
The Hanoi Amateur Water Puppetry Festival 2021 will be held on May 17 in Hanoi, aiming at promoting and preserving Vietnam’s unique intangible heritage.
A water puppetry performance (Photo: sovhtt.hanoi.gov.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) - The Hanoi Amateur Water Puppetry Festival 2021 will beheld on May 17 in Hanoi, aiming at promoting and preserving Vietnam’s uniqueintangible heritage.
The festival will be held on May 17 at Thay Pagoda relic site, Sai Son commune,Quoc Oai district, Hanoi.
Masters, non-professional members of traditional water puppetry troupesfrom all around Hanoi will join in a single water puppet show, which last forat least 25 minutes.
Each performance will re-enact glorious historical events of the nation;present the daily life and work of Vietnamese people; and promote the culturalvalue of Vietnam.
Water puppetry originated in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam around the10th century, where almost all towns and villages have communal ponds, whichwere used as the puppet show stage.
The villages of Thach That and Dao Thuc in Hanoi and Rach and Nguyen Xa in thenearby provinces of Nam Dinh and Thai Binh are some of the earliest known centresof water puppetry.
Traditionally, water puppetry performances portray the daily life of Vietnamesefarmers (cultivating, tending buffalo, and catching fish), communalentertainment (swimming races and dragon dancing), or historical legends (likeLe Loi returning the precious sword to the Golden Turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake)appealing to audiences for centuries./.
In recent years, the preservation and development of water puppetry has been paid attention by many localities, including the northern province of Nam Dinh.
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The event formed part of Vietnam’s ongoing campaign to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the complex at the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, scheduled to take place in Paris in July.
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A water puppetry performance (Photo: sovhtt.hanoi.gov.vn) 
