VietExplorer

The fashion week that ran from December 6 to 12 is a tribute to the 90th birthday of Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother of Thailand. It attracted more than 100 designers from Thailand and other countries, aiming to promote Thai silk and boost their cultural exchange and cooperation. Participating in the fashion week for the first time, Vietnam’s Embassy to Thailand coordinated with the Association of Thai Silk Promotion and the Association of Thai Culture and Promotion to organise the show “Vietnamese ‘Ao dai’ meets Thai silk” with five collections by Vietnamese designers. Designer Lan Huong said that her collection was inspired by the life cycle of rice and she wanted to convey a thank-you message to mother nature and a call for environmental protection to build a prosperous world where people can enjoy a peaceful life and a peaceful world. Using Thai silk to make ‘ao dai”, the designer also used hand-embroidered patterns like Vietnam’s terraced fields or the daily activ...

The 2022 international food festival attracted 35 foreign embassies, foreign representative agencies, and units under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as localities nationwide, showcasing traditional and exotic foods of various countries and territories worldwide. Vu Thi Bich Ngoc, the spouse of Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, noted the festival has developed into an annual culture exchange and charity function, drawing more and more embassies, foreign cultural centres, local departments of external affairs, and businesses. The primary purpose of the festival is to celebrate 55 years since the foundation of ASEAN in 1967, showing the friendship and solidarity among the bloc’s members, as well as between ASEAN and international friends, she noted. So far roughly VND5 billion has been raised through nine editions of the festival to support orphans, disabled people, and poor women nationwide. The annual festival was first held in 2014 by the Service Department for Dip...

The Christmas concert is set to begin with an orchestra piece called Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson, an American composer of light music who lived from 1908 to 1975. Following this will be two pieces, including Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate featuring Pham Khanh Ngoc, a female vocalist who has won First Prize at the Concour Festival in 2019. A chorus from Handel’s Messiah, For Unto Us a Child is Born, will then be played. Furthermore, German Christmas song Maria Wiegenlied by Max Reger will be performed by soprano soloist Duyen Nguyet. A Christmas Scherzo by American arranger and keyboard player Don Sebesky and O Holy Night will then be played by Dao Mac, a baritone who plays many roles in HBSO operas, from Papageno in The Magic Flute to Doctor Falk in Die Fledermaus. Dao Mac will sing It’s beginning to look like Christmas by Michael Buble, a celebrated Canadian composer. The solo orchestra will return with Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, before leading into Variations on Jin...

Nguyen Thu Hang, the owner of a company on Tran Binh Trong Street in District 5 which specializes in designing and decorating high-end events, shared that customers have already began placing orders to have their houses decorated for Christmas, which is still several weeks away. “Families typically begin decorating for Christmas shortly after Halloween ends,” Hang said. “We get many orders this time of year, but we can only work on two or three houses a day.” Hang’s team offers a wide range of Christmas packages for its customers, with each costing anywhere from VND40-100 million. Premium packages, fetching from VND70-100 million, include decorating the garden, main door, living room, banquet table, and Christmas tree. Less expensive options, fetching VND40-50 million, only include the Christmas tree, staircase, and main door. It takes two to three days to decorate each house. For big contracts, pine trees are often imported from Denmark and are decorated wit...

Rich cultural heritage is an invaluable asset that can help the capital lead the development of the cultural industry. Based on lessons learned, the Hanoi model will be replicated across the country, said Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Phong told the 2022 Culture Conference in Hanoi on December 17. A space in the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2022- the silk installation titled Ngu hanh or  ‘Five Elements’ Ngu Hanh Artwork by artist Pham Tuan Ngoc Great achievements According to Phong, thanks to positive policy changes, the capital’s cultural industry has gradually seen remarkable success in recent years. The municipal cultural industry brought in around  US$1.49 billion in 2018, contributing 3.7% to the city’s GRDP). One million direct workers in Hanoi’s craft villages brought in about $983.5 million in revenue in 2018. The export turnover of handicrafts reached $192 million, accounting for 1.4% of the city’s total export turn...