HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese and international children will have a chance to learn about the diverse colours of Italian culture during International Children’s Day at the Việt Nam Museum of Ethnology (VME) on May 27&28.  

A series of culture activities will be held at Cánh Diều (Kite) Building, Trống Đồng (Bronze Drum) Building and Chăm Building such as elaborate Italian mask decoration, traditional costume colouring, bookmark-making and cooking.

"Children will learn about the significance of masks at Italian carnivals, and they will learn how to make a mask," said An Thu Trà, a VME staff member. "Colouring traditional costumes will help children to understand the various costumes and inspire them to make designs of their own".

Meetings with Italian people will be held at Trống Đồng Building at 9.30am, 11pm, 2.30pm and 4pm, introducing a panorama of Italian culture.

A festival highlight will be the cuisine, presented by the Italian ambassador to Hà Nội Cecillia Piccioni. She will teach how to make spaghetti and pizza at 10am on Saturday. The Italian restaurants in Hà Nội will also attend the festival to serve Italian foods and drinks.

The event also includes art performances and Italian carnival demonstration by Italian people.

But Italy won’t be the only colourful nation on display. There will be folk games, art and traditional costume performances from Cambodia, South Korea, Nigeria, Lao, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Cuba at the festival.

Traditional costumes will be sashayed by little models at 9.30am; 11am and 3.30am.

"International folk games are often held at the VME, but games from Mongolia and Cuba will be introduced for the first time at the VME," said Trà.

"The Mongolian game shagai (ankle bones) is very interesting. Shagai is played using the cleaned and polished ankle bones of sheep. It is the most unique game in Mongolia. Mongolian students will bring their own shagai and play at the festival."

From Nghĩa Hưng Ward, northern province of Nam Định, water puppeteers will perform at the festival. The puppeteers will teach little audiences how to control the puppets and the audiences will have chance to discover backstage of water puppetry.

The children festival is co-held by VME and Italian embassy in Hà Nội, with hundreds volunteers from Hà Nội University’s Italian Department; Military Science Academy and international schools in Hà Nội.

The festival will be held from 8.30am to 11.30am and from 2pm to 5.30pm on May 27 & 28.

In addition, an exhibition on Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino will be held at the VME on June 2. — VNS