Mo Muong is a job and also a performance practiced at funerals, religious festivals, and life cycle rituals by the Muong ethnic group. (Photo: VNA) Mo Muong is a job and also a performance practiced atfunerals, religious festivals, and life cycle rituals by the Muong ethnicgroup. The art consists of Mo prayers and performances, by Mo practitioners, orMo artisans.
Through generations, Mo prayers have been passeddown verbally in the community. When they’re collected, translated, andpublished in books, however, they begin to exist separately from people.
These days, most Mo prayers are called Mo Muong.They are a collection of verses recited at traditional Muong funerals. They aredivided into "cat Mo” and "roong Mo”, similar to chapters inliterature. Each Mo chapter has its own theme and purposes for each item in afuneral ritual. The chapters may tell folk epics, customs or lessons.
Each Muong community has its own version of Mo, butthey are all fairly similar. The existence of various versions of Mo has helpedexpand the heritage and spiritual life of the Muong people.
Mo Muong has a long life, spanning centuries, as ithas always helped to nurture the characteristics and the souls of the Muongpeople.
It is the essence of labour, production, culturalbehaviour and the philosophy of the Muong people, reflecting their love of lifeand home villages.
At the conference (Photo: VNA) Muong ethnic people live in all 30 districts inHanoi, mostly in Thach That and Ba Vi. There are seven Mo prayers in the city,with the oldest 86 years old, and the youngest 28 years old.
The municipal Department of Culture and Sports iscoordinating with agencies and localities to build the national dossier.
Experts at the conference spoke of methods to reviewMo Muong in accordance with viewpoints and requirements of UNESCO.
The conference has also helped to raise theawareness among officials about Mo Muong, thus better preserving and upholdingits values./.
VNA
