| Description |
There is a view that Viên Khê Five Perfomances originated from the period of Northern domination (the Tùy Dynasty) associated with the name of Cả Lãng Đại Vương - the son of the leader Le Ngoc. Legend has it that he often went to the villages to join in the fun with the people, thereby teaching and popularizing to the community the songs, chants, and dances he created. Another opinion is that the heritage originated from the Later Le Dynasty, taught to the people by the Ministry of Rites official Nguyen Mong Tuan (originally from Vien Khe).
Viên Khê Five Perfomances (Đông Anh Folk Songs) is a system of performances held during festivals in Vien Khe village, Dong Anh commune (Dong Son district - Thanh Hoa province) reflecting the daily life and feelings of farmers, with the wish to pray for rain, pray for sunshine, fight against natural disasters, epidemics, wild animals, and natural forces to protect agricultural production and maintain the growth and prosperity of humans and animals.
Over hundreds of years of cultural exchange and acculturation, the system of performances has been enriched, so that today's Viên Khê Five Perfomances has been restored with 12 plays: the Lamp Dance, the Drum and Gong Play, the Ngo Quoc Play (belonging to the Ngu Tro Rủn Dong Khe), the Xiêm Thành Play (Champa), the Tiger Catching Play (Vằn Vương), the Tien Cuoi Play, the Ha Lan Play, the Thủy Play, the Nu Quan Play, the Tú Huần Play (Dong Anh), the Thiếp Play, the Ai Lao Play accompanied by folk songs, creating a unique cultural feature of the Dong Son countryside in general and Dong Khe in particular.
The system of performances of Viên Khê Five Perfomances is extremely unique, the most popular is the Lamp Dance: a comprehensive performance with many layers of ancient culture, related to the calendar of wet rice agricultural production. The lantern dance is a dance with lyrics performed by 12 girls in white pants, red shirts, green belts, red scarves, and a lighted lamp on their heads, singing and dancing with graceful movements. The lantern dance refers to the production work of farmers during the year: lighting lamps, planting cotton and bean beds, sowing seedlings, splitting bamboo strips, weaving bamboo, pulling seedlings, transplanting, spinning, weaving, sewing, and harvesting. The performance ends with three dances of “fighting boiled chicken, offering new rice, and offering cakes” to express the gratitude of the people to the gods for a year of bountiful and abundant crops.
The performances depict a panoramic picture of the material and spiritual life and aspirations for a better future of the people, imbued with profound humanistic values. The songs and dances in the Viên Khê Five Perfomances system still exist in the people's consciousness, expressing feelings and aspirations for life and indirectly condemning bad habits that existed in the old feudal society. Up to now, Viên Khê Five Perfomances has been restored relatively intact. In 2017, Viên Khê Five Perfomances (Đông Anh Folk Songs) was officially included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with a system of 12 performances (dance and singing). |
