The Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology will organise a series of interesting events to celebrate the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays from February 19 to 21, promising an enjoyable experience combining traditional images, sounds and foods of Viet Nam’s diverse people and regions.

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

The events will provide Vietnamese and foreigners alike with knowledge of the Lunar New Year celebrations and folk culture of the ethnic minority people in different regions throughout the country.

The programme will be enhanced with gong performances, musical instruments and ethnic folk songs by 20 Gie Trieng ethnic people from the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) province of Kon Tum.

Tourists will also have a rare chance to enjoy an ethnic bamboo dance of the Thai ethnic people from Tuong Duong District, the central province of Thanh Hoa. Twenty local artists will come to the museum and perform their dance to celebrate the new year and completed rice harvest.

A water puppetry performance will also take place on the occasion. Children will not only have a chance to enjoy the performances, 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. There will be four daily performances from February 17.

Visitors will 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.

Artists from Dong Ho Village in the northern province of Bac Ninh will display their folk artworks on do (poonah) paper and guide visitors in the art of print-making.

Visitors can join traditional games and enjoy ethnic minority food specialities.

As it’s the Year of Tiger, games and a toy-making competition will feature the theme of the tiger such as tiger masks, drawing clay tigers and kneading tigers from dough.

Last year, the Tet festival at the museum attracted 27,000 visitors, according to museum officer Tran Thi Thu Thuy.