(VOVworld) – The lullaby, a priceless cultural asset of the Vietnamese, has passed down to children the spiritual values of the community. The lullaby is also a precious life-affirming lesson that helps form personalities and ethics. The Vietnamese culture sector is making an effort to preserve the lullaby.
The lullaby is the oldest genre of folk song and has been passed down from one generation to another. From the day they are born, children absorb with the most loving, sweetest feelings from their mothers or grandmothers through lullabies. A lullaby is soft, sweet and emotional, expressing the meaning of life. The images of a river, moonlight, a rice field, grass, bamboo groves and white storks flying over a vast green rice field have entered childhood dreams. The lyrics, which are taken from folk verses, children’s songs or chanting, are simple and rich in images and melody. Each region has its own lullaby, but all help lull the child to sleep.
Listening to lullabies, children feel the love, tenderness and comforting. “Baby, sleep well! Your mom is busy planting rice seedlings. Catching some fish, cat fish, she will bring them home for you, baby, to eat”.
Pham Hong Chuong, lecturer of the Central Music and Painting Teacher Training College, told VOV:
"During war time, I stayed in the evacuation zone in Phu Tho province. Because of blackout during the summer, the children were lulled to sleep by their mothers or grandmothers with hand fans. Singing lullabies and rubbing the child’s head and back, the woman warmed up her child, who quickly fell into a deep sleep. Although they were not singers, their voices were expressive. Those were unforgettable memories”.
However, the lullaby has faded with time. Professor, musician Tran Van Khe who has devoted his life to researching folk music, told VOV: “In 1976 when I returned to the home country after 25 years, I travelled from North to South. I started to find out that the sound of lullaby had not been carried on due to the new lifestyle and the war. This is regrettable because the lullaby is the first music lesson that a mother conveys to her child. Like a flow of hot milk that helps bring up the child, a piece of folk melody is poured into the child’s unconscious”
A lullaby which is passed down orally has many variants. Amidst urbanization and the modern lifestyle, mothers have little time for their child and there are fewer opportunities for songs. In a bid to preserve the lullaby, Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is working with localities to organize lullaby festivals. Artist Cao Thi Hien told us:“We have worked on programs to teach lullabies to young parents. It bears human characteristics, educates children and praises the home country. We are trying our best to restore and preserve this particular kind of national art”.
Artist Pham Hong Chuong said: “We are not nostalgic and do not force people to confine themselves to bamboo groves. We understand the inevitable trend of modern society. But the essence of the nation is the significance of building human ethics and feelings”. Therefore, the lullaby remains the quintessence of the Vietnamese people and its preservation is more important than ever before.