Published:  00:00 Tuesday - February 09, 2010

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology will organise a series of activities to celebrate the lunar New Year Festival (Tet) from February 19-21, combining traditional images, sounds and foods of Vietnam’s diverse areas.

A grand opening ceremony will be held on February 19 with a firework display and water puppet show.

The follow-up events will highlight folk culture of the ethnic minority groups in different areas throughout the country.

Gong performances, musical instruments and ethnic folk songs will be displayed by the Gie Trieng ethnic people from the Central Highland province of KonTum.

Visitors will have an excellent opportunity to enjoy an ethnic bamboo dance of the Thai ethnic people in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa. Twenty local artists will come to the museum and perform their dance to celebrate the New Year.

A water puppetry performance will also take place on the occasion. Children will not only have a chance to enjoy the performance, but also learn how to manipulate the puppets under the instruction of puppeteers from the Hong Phong troupe, based in the northern province of Hai Duong.

Visitors will also be treated to decorative calligraphy, featuring ‘lucky’ words such as Phuc, Loc and Tho (happiness, prosperity and longevity) which are traditionally hung in celebration of the New Year.