Graceful Ao dai
These days, on many streets of Hanoi, visitors can easily see the graceful Ao dai (traditional long dress of Vietnam). The Ao dai blending with the autumn sunshine and the heritage of Hanoi becomes a beautiful image for many visitors. The Ao dai has even crossed national borders to be engraved in the hearts of many international friends.
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An Ao dai performance at the opening ceremony of the Hanoi Tourism Ao Dai Festival 2024 |
Walking around Hoan Kiem Lake and the heritage sites around this area, Anonglak Vongthonglak, a lecturer at Champasak University, and other teachers participating in the ongoing preschool teacher training course for 15 Lao provinces at Hanoi National University of Education, were delighted to see so many people wearing Ao dai. “This is a truly impressive image,” Anonglak said, adding that “When I wear Ao dai, I feel more beautiful.”
Though it was her first visit to Hanoi, Manju from India had known about the Vietnamese Ao dai. Learning that her first day in Hanoi was the opening day of the festival, she was very excited and said she would spend time with her friends joining the festival's activities.
The Ao dai has long been attached with the beauty of the Hanoi people. According to designer Hoang Ly, President of the Vietnam Ao dai Culture Club, Hanoi’s Ao dai is often made from soft chiffon or silk with gentle colors and reflects the gentleness and elegance of Hanoi women. Graceful in traditional Ao dai, old Vu Thi Thanh said that when talking about Hanoi girls, people immediately think of the Ao dai. In the past, she often went to An Trach tailor shop in Trach Xa village to have Ao dai made. Thanh added that Hanoians are elegant and civilized and the Ao dai, along with rituals and manners, creates that temperament.
Ambassador of tourism
Culture researcher Nguyen Duc Binh assessed that Hanoi has great potential for developing Ao dai brand, turning the Ao dai into an attractive tourism product.
The Hanoi Tourism Ao Dai Festival, the third of its kind, has partly affirmed the economic, social and cultural benefits it brings, showing the integration of the Ao dai into modern life, contributing to promoting the image of the capital city.
This year’s festival featured nearly 100 booths promoting, displaying and introducing Ao dai products and accessories from famous designers and Ao dai brands from the Northern, Central and Southern regions. Together with seeing different models of Ao dai recalling the past, Hanoi’s old quarter, and Hanoi’s traditional culture, visitors could watch artisans perform silk spinning, weaving, embroidering, get suggestions on how to combine Ao dai with accessories, how to pose with Ao dai, and make mini Ao dai by themselves.
Other activities to encourage people to wear Ao dai were also held before the festival. They were cycling with Ao dai, wearing Ao dai to tour Hanoi on double-decker bus, and the Ao dai month which lasts until October 20.
Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi Tourism Department, said that the festival opens a new direction for the development of culture and tourism in the capital, contributing to turning Vietnam and Hanoi into top choices of domestic and international tourists, and Hanoi a leading city tourism destination in the world.
The festival conveyed the message of a safe-friendly-quality-attractive Hanoi. With the success of the festival, the love for the Ao dai and the journey of attaching the Ao dai with tourism will continue, making the Ao dai an ambassador of tourism of Hanoi and Vietnam.
Translated by Mai Huong