Mid-Autumn Festival and lion-dance

Lion-dance is a game of traditionally cultural identity in East-Asian nations. The merry sounds of drums, cymbals, the face-masks of “Mr. Địa” and his wide grin, the noisy crowds... are very customary to Vietnamese life on Mid-Autumn festival .

Lion-dancePhoto: Trọng Hiếu

On Hàng Mã street (Hà Nội) or the Chinatown (Hồ Chí Minh city) you can feel and see the busy and merry atmosphere months before. The lion-heads of all sizes are selling fast to meet all demands, for professional dancers or non-professionals. The lion-heads are made carefully and it needs skills and techniques how to be both light and easy to move on. The frames are made of bamboo and covered with coloured paper, then it needs painting beads, eye-lids, eye-brows, manes. There must be “4-sacreds” on a head, the horn, ears, tails symbolize the nobility, the mouth for the sacred, last but not least is the apples of the eyes. Sometimes, lion-heads are made in pagodas.

Dance movements are also very complicated. It’s not merely shaking or jumping. In Hồ Chí Minh city and Hà Nội,  there are lion-dance clubs, but most impressively are those of martial-arts schools, it’s a good combination of martial arts and dance in moving. Professional clubs have their own unwritten laws and they are ranked by the colour of the eye-brows and the gardens are judged by the colour to recognize whether it’s experienced or freshhand. If it’s just 10-year-old or less, the colour is black and named child-lion. If it’s over ten years old, the colour is grey and called father-lion, it’s 20 years or more, the colour is white and honoured as great-grandfather lion. On their dance, the child-lion has to step aside for its father and the father has to step aside for the grandfather. When the two grandfathers meet, it might be a fight and amy club that put on “unrecognized colour”, it will be punished by others. The dance-clubs perform on holidays, festival. On Mid-Autumn night, house-owners tie money high on a stick. To win the money prize, the dancers have to stand on each other, high enough to get the money down. This scene makes the night more interesting and noisy.

Lion-dance is favoured, not only by Vietnamese, but the foreigners as well. Visitors to Việt Nam, please try not to miss the chance.

                                                                           HẢI ANH

source : http://www.vtr.org.vn/vtr.php?ml=923&pid=840