Khanh Son: Promoting the values and identity of Raglai culture

Khanh Son district has more than 70% of the population being Raglai people. In recent times, the locality has made many efforts and specific actions to preserve and promote the traditional cultural identity of the Raglai people.

Restore good traditions

Recently, Khanh Son district organized the 2023 Cultural Village Festival, with 8 typical cultural villages representing 8 communes and towns in the district participating. These are all villages and residential groups that have won the title of cultural residential area for many consecutive years. More than 200 actors, artisans, and athletes competed in the following categories: Traditional craft villages; greetings and performances; folk games; organizing booths. The festival reflected the characteristics of the material and spiritual life of the people; demonstrated the awareness of preserving and promoting national identity in the movement to build cultural life at the grassroots level.

Raglai youth in Khanh Son district perform lithophone.

Previously, implementing Project 6 "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" under the National Target Program on socio -economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the district for the period 2021 - 2025, Khanh Son district opened a training course on the use of lithophones for 56 students who are Raglai ethnic people; officials and civil servants working in cultural work; music teachers at schools; students with talent in culture and arts; members of the commune's art troupe. For about 1 month, the students were taught basic knowledge and skills in using lithophones to perform in local cultural and artistic activities. Thereby, contributing to making lithophones - a typical musical instrument of the Raglai people more popular in today's life.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Khanh Son district, in recent years, the work of preserving, teaching and promoting traditional cultural and artistic values in the district has always been of interest to the Party Committee and the government and has achieved encouraging results. Specifically, the grave abandonment ceremony of the Raglai people was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2012; folk performing arts, including lithophone performances, epic singing, and the new rice eating ceremony of the Raglai people are preparing scientific dossiers to propose the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to include them in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. The district also organizes many annual cultural and artistic activities, such as: Mass art performances; Raglai folk song festival in 2018; Raglai folk dance and ma la troupe festival in 2019; cultural heritage discovery contest; Vietnamese Ethnic Culture Day... Through that, some Raglai festivals (wedding ceremony, new rice festival, thanksgiving ceremony), some traditional art forms (epic singing, musical instrument performances of lithophone, ma la, chapi) have the opportunity to be introduced to the public near and far.

Continue to preserve and promote values

Raglai girls in traditional costumes.

Over the past 15 years, Khanh Son district has taken many specific actions to bring traditional cultural values back to the lives of the Raglai people. Specifically, the district's Center for Culture, Information and Sports has developed propaganda and art programs to serve the people in communes and towns. The district has organized many activities and always encouraged and created conditions for Raglai artisans to perform folk songs and traditional musical instruments. Cultural workers in the district also regularly meet with artisans to record folk songs and Raglai epics. Many communes and towns in the district have established ma la, lithophone and traditional art troupes and are ready to serve tourists. In 2023, implementing Project 6 under the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, the district has equipped facilities for community activity houses; Support activities for traditional art troupes in villages; organize restoration of traditional festivals; train and teach intangible culture.

People of Son Hiep commune (Khanh Son district) reenact the new rice eating ceremony.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Nhuan - Chairman of Khanh Son District People's Committee, in order to continue to encourage the masses to participate in creating, preserving, teaching and promoting traditional cultural values in the coming time, the locality will promote propaganda, dissemination and thoroughly grasp this task to each Party Committee, government and people. The district will continue to maintain at least one form of cultural and artistic activities in villages and residential groups. In particular, the district focuses on preserving, promoting and conserving ethnic folk songs, traditional costumes, folk games...; maintaining and establishing new local art and sports clubs and groups; having mechanisms and allocating funds to support the maintenance of traditional art troupes of communes and towns. Along with that, strengthening solutions to build and develop mass art; focusing on collecting, preserving and promoting the values of national cultural heritage; Pay attention to and invest heavily in the art of epic singing, Raglai folk songs, create many exchange programs so that these types of art can reach the widest audience...

FAMILY

Source