14TH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM
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Cultural Discussion: The Vietnamese Tradition of Mother Goddess Worship

Discussion with Dr. Nguyen Chi Ben, former Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Cultural & Arts Studies about Vietnam’s Mother Goddess Worship tradition (Thờ Mẫu), which was recently recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO.

The ancient Vietnamese tradition Mother Goddess Worship is now recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO.
Mother Goddess Worship is a fusion of Vietnamese and foreign religions. To celebrate this recognition, we are delighted to invite Professor Dr Nguyen Chi Ben, former Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Cultural & Arts Studies to host our evening. He also headed up the team which submitted to report to UNESCO.
More details about the discussion will be updated later, prior to the event.
Tentative agenda:
• Origins and beliefs about Mother Goddess worship
• The key elements and meanings of the tradition
• Information about music, songs, ceremonies, performances
• The hầu đồng ritual (Medium/Shaman)
• UNESCO application procedure
• 2 performances of rituals (with costumes/music etc…)
• Q&A with the Professor
The talk will be supported by visuals and as much explanation as possible. Our aim is to make this as visually interesting and as engaging as possible.
This is a very special honour for FVH that Professor Ben has agreed to host our event and we encourage as many people to come along as possible. Please bring family and friends. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear directly from one of the Vietnam’s leading Mother Goddess experts involved in the UNESCO application. The Director and Editor in Chief of Thế Giới publishers, Dr Trần Đoan Lâm, will also be present and he also is an expert in Mother Goddess worship.
The talk will be held on 16 Feb 2017, 7 – 9 pm at Thế Giới publishers, 6th floor, 46 Tran Hung Dao, Hanoi.
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