Mong panpipe festival, “Pang To Day” flowers await visitors in Mu Cang Chai

Tourism

Mong panpipe festival, “Pang To Day” flowers await visitors in Mu Cang Chai

Thursday, December 14, 2023

YBO - Setting foot on Mu Cang Chai district this time of the year, aside from joining in various special and interesting activities at the Mong panpipe festival, visitors will also have a chance to admire the pink of “Pang To Day” (To Day flower) – a specialty flower of the mountainous northwest.

Setting foot in Mu Cang Chai in this late December, visitors will have a chance to enjoy pink To Day flowers and feel the simple-heartedness of local mountainous residents.

Mu Cang Chai is home to terraced fields recognised as a special national relic site and Khau Pha Pass, one of the four great mountain passes of Vietnam and also a famous attraction among domestic and international travellers.

Visitors can explore those special identities and try unique experiences when coming to the Mong panpipe festival, the ceremony announcing the decision to recognise the "khen” (panpipe) art of the Mong ethnic group and the art of drawing patterns with wax on fabric of Mong people in Mu Cang Chai, Tram Tau, and Van Chan districts as part of the national intangible cultural heritage, along with the To Day flower festival 2023, which will open in Mu Cang Chai district on December 23.

A mass performance named "The quintessence of the Mong panpipe art” by 1,000 artisans and artists of Mu Cang Chai will show tourists the high artistic value of Mong people’s art of performing panpipes, from its movements to meaning.

Mong people play the panpipe and dance at the same time. They invent different panpipe sounds and dance moves to perform in different cultural spaces to express their feelings, emotions, and aesthetics.

In addition, a Mong cultural space and market will help visitors experience the distinctive culture and customs of locals while admiring artisans’ skillfulness in making panpipes and drawing patterns with wax on fabric.

In particular, during this occasion, they will be enchanted with the pink flowers of To Day, a woody plant only growing at over 1,000 metres above the sea level. The colder it is, the more beautiful the flowers are. The wild flowers in the same family with peach blossoms are called "Pang To Day”, which means "forest peach blossoms” in Vietnamese, by Mong people in Mu Cang Chai. The flowers often bloom in the latter half of December, about one month ahead of peach blossoms.

Local Mong people believe that after one year of working hard, when they reap bumper crops, their homes are full of rice, and mountains are covered with the read pink of To Day flowers, it’s the time for young men and women of the Mong ethnic group to adorn themselves with new clothes, practice panpipes and dances, and prepare "Pao” (cloth balls) to welcome the New Year.

The To Day flower season is also a magnet for tourists from far and wide as well as the photographers who have a romantic soul.

The approaching Mong panpipe festival, famous local tourist destinations, along with the unique culture and simple-heartedness of mountainous residents here promise to be worth-to-try experiences for visitors during this time of the year.

Thanh Chi

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