vaga#4/5 culture and religion

MUSIC, Colours AND RITUALS

Part V

Culture and keeping it alive you see all the photos are in Hanoi, we have already seen the ethnic cultures of the north, the south is scattered and highly integrated into contemporary civilisation and its ethnic roots have been fading, losing their traditional clothes, young people are going to cities for work moving away from the general Vietnamese culture. A country that is full of centuries old, ancient and diverse cultures.

The photos in this chapter are all in motion, the ones taken by the paparazzi are dark and with a lot of incense smoke. You have to read this chapter listening to music, all different; cymbals, bongs, drums, wooden keyboards, flutes and guitars of the most diverse shapes, formats and of beautiful exotic rarities.

The bottom pictures I witnessed a street theatre for a couple of nights, always with different narratives and the shows lasted about two hours for three days or more, they have many stories to recite, that shows the abundance of an impressive legacy. They told stories of heroes, and it was made clear without me understanding anything, they are heroines, stories of women who made history. They were different theatre groups that took turns. There was live music, the costumes were impressive, none were repeated. In the front row there were many older Vietnamese who brought their stools, they set up shop.

Water puppets "water puppets" another exclusive wonder of Vietnam, tell parts of the stories and mythologies with live music and singing, there are several stories and all with happy endings, the bad guys are overthrown or a marriage of kings ending. Behind the curtain there are about twelve performers in the water with rods that move so skilfully and harmoniously with a perfect coordination between them, it was impossible to take your eyes off them, the dragons even breathed fire from their mouths. the last photo there is a pond where they teach the children to be puppetmasters.

Seeing the dragons dancing, leaping, moving sinuously up and down, with drums and cymbals was a gift like all gifts, unexpected. It was impossible to remain passive with that show, that dance and music, children and adults followed the music, they were accompanied by other mythological creatures. The head of the dragon rose very high, and I watched how they did it. There were two boys and one climbs on top of the other again and again to the shoulders reaching the height of two men.

RELIGIONS

Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity (by French colony) those of the ethnic groups with their beliefs in spirits and surely others more. What impressed me was the  tolerance, Vietnam is communist, but this is how tolerance is seen from the government. The photos are of the "old quarter" downtown, which is a labyrinth of 30 by 30 streets with small streets,  temples next to another, They are not big but sometimes a large altar and a front all in 40 meters in length. They are full all day and fully active, Living Religions, small altars in each house, in each store in each hotel, in addition to morning rites when the stores open, among other prayers, they leave incense burning all day.

Everything in the "old quarter" is saturated with motorcycles, street vendors, everything is cooked in the street, and you eat in the street I saw the boys before going to school eating on the pavements,  it is tightly compressed, full and vibrant and at night people take up about 4 blocks, they put low tables with chairs and every night is filled with mostly Vietnamese along with tourists, Energy, everything is energy. I put the photos of the nightlife in,  because everything happens at the same time, the temples open, thousands of tourists, and people meditate in that chaos as if it were a place of reflection, nothing was farther from silence. Many of the religions here have mixed expressions or are copied by one another, but it is known which one is on the altar  if it is Buddha or Confucius because they look alike, I did not include photos of Buddhist temples, I had already passed many but their temples are very similar to the ones in Hanoi.

I attended two rituals, they took place inside the temples that were dark, with complex rites, with clothes, reciting mantras and music, always music, flowers, fruits and a lot of incense and the donation boxes are everywhere

I think this celebration was special, it had to do with the Chinese New Year, I was the only outsider, uncomfortable but curiosity overcame me, they threw me out of the one, the one with the photos I was half an hour, I had been sure it would go on all day the number of diverse rites, of strict and hierarchical manifestations, were all very solemn. They were 8 different high-ranking priests each one doing different rites, and they intertwined to enter, each one wearing different outfit and the live music changed according to what was happening and at some point they lit fires  On leaving I ran into a young woman who entered and saw me feeling disoriented, about being there and because of not having understood anything, she spontaneously told me it was the celebration of the old, and the dead, they are worshipped, they have a deep respect for them and the lady that they take from the altar is the oldest in the community. Nope, not like us who put the elderly in the closet.

the architecture remains Chinese, it is beautiful and that gives contrast to the city culture

Donation boxes are everywhere, many in each temple, even so I saw many donations of things such as abundant amounts of chocolates, cookies, and even fans, no, no I did not understand, then I found out that one contributes with the things that they appreciate the most, and it costs more ...  The fan is the artefact of first necessity with this climate, many chocolates, cookies, cigars, bundles of money, although they are made of worthless paper  beers are placed on the sides of the altars as an offering, it costs us dearly, we want it for all, you like them that's why you make the sacrifices of offering them.  Who eats or smokes them? a mystery

I finished with this video, which gave me great pleasure because I had already ignored the videos, they do not go up because of very slow internet or YouTube got more complicated since I learned, but I took a chance with this video because I find it beautiful and unique, to see the creativity of the game the joy of the children I was almost tempted to jump to the rhythm of the bamboo.