The rich culture of Vietnam was represented through fairy tales at a two-day festival that opened in Long Island Children’s Museum (LICM) in New York on Nov. 5.
The event was co-organised by the New York Humanitarian Science Council and the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
The festival brought visitors back in time to early days in the history of the Vietnamese nation when Au Co, a mountain fairy got married to a dragon, Lac Long Quan, and gave birth to a sac containing 100 eggs. The eggs hatched 100 children who were the ancestors of the Vietnamese. They then travelled through tales about the uprising led by the Trung sisters against northern aggressors and legendary hero Thanh Giong’s victory against An aggressors and learnt about the nation’s traditions and customs, also through stories that have been passed down many Vietnamese generations.
Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan, a researcher at the New York-based Centre for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture and Society, performed the traditional “dan tranh” (16-string zither) at the event.