Published:  00:00 Thursday - December 18, 2008

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology will offer a wide range of cultural activities to ring in the 2009 Lunar New Year from January 29 to February 1.

The museum will present the dances, songs, traditional games and festivals of Vietnam’s ethnic groups.

For the first time, visitors will get the chance to see performances by the inhabitants of Co Lam and Tu xa communes, from Lam Thao District in Phu Tho Province.

Audiences can also see water puppet performers from Hong Phong Village and will even get a chance to learn how to manipulate the puppets themselves on a small stage after the show.

The museum will also offer traditional music and dance performances including mua xoe and mua sap of the Thai people, mua ken (pan-pipe dance), ken la (leaf-horn instrument) and dan moi, a musical instrument of the H’ Mong in Yen Bai province.

There will be calligraphy and painting demonstrations and visitors can be artists themselves, learning how to make mat na trau (a buffalo-shaped mask) and trau dat nan (buffalo-shaped sculptures).

Traditional games, such as danh du (swinging), keo co (tug of war) and choi trau (buffalo fighting) will also be offered.

Visitors are invited to dine on traditional Vietnamese Tet dishes in the festive museum atmosphere.

At 7.30pm on January 29 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), the museum will have a fireworks show and a water puppetry performance.

The museum, located on Nguyen Van Huyen Road, Hanoi, will be closed to visitors starting January 1, and will reopen again on January 29.