Every year, the Dum Singing Festival in Thuy Nguyen is held on the 4th to 10th day of the first lunar month. The original place of Dum singing in Hai Phong is in Phuc Le, Pha Le, and Lap Le communes (Thuy Nguyen District) with a large number of songs and rich ideological contents.
Dum singing is a type of folk song with popular response melodies in the early spring. This is an art formed in the production process, associated with the unique cultural features of the people in the estuary region. In 1989, the Scientific-Cultural Organization of UNESCO recognized the Dum singing as a "Living Treasure" for the artisans of Dum singing in Lap Le - Thuy Nguyen. In 2018, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced "Dum singing” to the category of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Dum singing has the funniest time on the farewell singing day. At this time, they gave each other remembrance, the more they sang, the more they dedicated. The love, the longing, the distance, the separation, the promises, the waiting, and the hopes… They look forward to the next festival to see and hear each other's songs again.
Mr. Phung Van Manh - Director of Center for Culture and Information of Thuy Nguyen District said: "Dum singing with many different ways, but the best form is the love singing, when men and women fall in love, then sing to exact wedding-presents. Such artisans who love labor and nature can come up with such songs. After the love singing, then the challenge singing; People can challenge and test each other's literary talents. There is a lot of content for one party to make questions, and then another party makes responses. Through the songs, they showed that the artisans were very well flexible and improvised.
In order to maintain the Dum singing for sustainable development, Thuy Nguyen District has built many centers for performing the Dump singing heritage, and at the same time, communes also established clubs to practice, exchange, and foster young talents. The District also paid attention to expanding the scope of Dum singing in school extracurricular activities to teach pupils.
In addition to the ancient lyrics recorded and collected, Dum singing has currently made use of more familiar things in daily life. This is also a way to help this folk art form contact young people more easily, and reduce the "picky listeners” from profound ancient songs.
Through many years, Dum singing and some traditional folk activities still play an important role in the life and mind of every Vietnamese people.