On November 17, at the Hanoi Museum, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports collaborated with the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association to organize a seminar on “Education of Tugging Rituals and Games Heritage” The event aimed to share and exchange experiences in organizing intangible cultural heritage education activities in general and specifically focused on the tugging rituals and games. This initiative is part of a series of events under the “2023 Festival of the Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”
Among the distinguished guests attending the seminar were Ms. Tran Thi Van Anh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports; Associate Professor Dr. Do Van Tru, President of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association; Dr. Le Thi Minh Ly, Vice President of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association; Mr. Truong Minh Tien, President of the UNESCO Association of Hanoi; Mr. Ko Dae-young, representative of the Gijisi Tug of War Museum in Dangjin City; Mr. Kim Ki-kwon, representative of Dangjin City, along with the participation of over 50 delegates from the Gijisi Tugging Safeguarding Association (Dangjin City, the Republic of Korea), museums, historical sites, and universities in Hanoi.
During the event, the Gijisi Tug of War Museum will present the Tug of War Education Kit to the Hanoi Museum, concurrently showcasing and introducing the unique features of the tugging rituals and games in Gijisi, the Republic of Korea. Moreover, the event will feature exciting experiential activities for the general public, pupils and students.
The presentation of the Tug of War Education Kit by the Gijisi Tug of War Museum to the Hanoi Museum.
Regarding the Tug of War game experience organized for Vietnamese students, Mr. Jeong Seok Yong, Secretary of the Gijisi Tugging Safeguarding Association, shared, “The tug of war rope displayed today is 200 meters long, with 100 meters on each side. According to Korean culture, each side of the rope represents the upper (water) and lower (non-water) villages. The competition rope is made of straw. In reality, during festivals in Dangjin City, the competition rope weighs up to 40 tons, with the participation of tens of thousands of people.”
Pupils and students experienced the Gijisi Tug of War Ritual and Game from the Republic of Korea.
During the seminar, representatives from the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, the National History Museum, the Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage of the Temple of Literature – Quoc Tu Giam, and the Hanoi Museum shared their experiences in heritage education.
Discussing heritage education at the National History Museum through educational and experiential activities, Ms. Le Thi Lien, Head of the Education and Public Relations Department at the National History Museum, stated: The National History Museum has evolved into one of the “history schools,” closely linked with history enthusiasts, especially the younger generation in schools. The museum has innovated its content, form, and diversified experiential activities in heritage education. Notably, Tug of War is the most widely applied traditional folk game in heritage education programs at the National History Museum (according to statistics on the number of education programs utilizing traditional folk games, Tug of War accounts for 85-90%). Specifically, for programs exploring historical figures and events, when analyzing the reasons for the success of an event, the museum’s educators often use images of the Tug of War game to analyze and demonstrate the strength of unity in resistance movements and the spirit of teamwork, solidarity, and unanimity that contributed to the collective victory of the nation.
Scenes from the seminar on “Education of Tugging Rituals and Games Heritage.”
According to M.A. Duong Ngoc Ha, Head of Education and Communication at the Center for Cultural Heritage Activities of the Temple of Literature – Quoc Tu Giam, cultural heritage, in general, and intangible cultural heritage, in particular, constitute the foundation for comprehensive education through experiential educational activities. Since 2016, the Center has been actively developing heritage education themes at the Temple of Literature – Quoc Tu Giam, and to date, it has crafted over 30 heritage education themes catering to students from kindergarten to university. Among them are numerous themes related to intangible cultural heritage, such as “Old Classroom” for elementary students, or “Ancestral Worship” and “Thi Huong, Thi Hoi, Thi Dinh” for high school students, which have attracted participation from numerous schools. From January 2023 to November 2023, nearly 7,000 students have engaged in heritage education experiences at the site.
According to Duong Ngoc Ha, the distinctive feature of heritage education programs at the Temple of Literature – Quoc Tu Giam is the emphasis on providing students with an active role in their experiential journey. Students actively absorb knowledge and unleash creativity through interactive activities, self-exploration, and discovery. Instead of traditional lecturing methods where students passively receive information, they are given survey sheets with simple yet intriguing questions that spark curiosity and a sense of exploration, adding an element of suspense to captivate their interest. Heritage education programs at the site always prioritize experiential activities for students.
Experts shared their opinions at the seminar.
Contributing to the seminar, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hoa, Head of Exhibition and Communication at Hanoi Museum, shared insights on the shift in museum perception from “placing artifacts at the center” to “placing the social community at the center.” The educational role within museums is increasingly valued, exerting a powerful and positive impact on various activities. It is considered the cornerstone for the strategic development of each museum in general and Hanoi Museum in particular. In recent years, the Hanoi Museum has adopted numerous orientations and methodologies to develop and implement education programs in line with both general and intangible cultural heritage, tailoring them to the preferences of diverse visitor groups.
With a storage repository housing over 70,000 documents and artifacts, the Hanoi Museum continues to leverage its value in exhibition endeavors. This favorable condition enables the creation of diverse exhibition themes, including those closely related to the preservation and promotion of the value of cultural heritage in general, and intangible cultural heritage in particular. The museum’s collection department consistently exerts tireless efforts to acquire more materials and artifacts, meeting the increasing demand for exhibition and public education.
During the seminar, experts also emphasized that integrating heritage content into classroom programs would make lessons more vivid through experiential activities related to heritage content. The requirement to integrate site content with subjects linked to the knowledge and skills standards of each grade will ensure that educational themes on intangible cultural heritage are suitable for the understanding of each student group. Balancing the difficulty level of knowledge is crucial; content that is too challenging or too easy diminishes the appeal and interest in heritage education themes at the site, failing to engage students effectively.