The Ministry of Culture and Information announced Thursday the list of Vietnam’s 10 most significant cultural events this year.

The following is the list:

1. Successfully organizing celebrations to mark the country’s major holidays, with the most noteworthy being the meeting and parade at Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square for National Day, Sep. 2.

2. Successfully organizing festivals to honor the cultural values of the country’s ethnic minority groups.

3. UNESCO’s recognition of the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) gong as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

4. The diaries written by two revolutionary soldiers killed in the war – Nguyen Van Thac’s Mai Mai Tuoi 20 and Dang Thuy Tram’s Nhat Ky Dang Thuy Tram – are published, selling the most numbers of copies of any publication in the last 20 years. They have together sold 300,000 copies and the ministry plans to publish a further 200,000 copies soon.

5. The government issues Directive 17/2005/CT-TTg to regulate restaurants, karaoke, pubs, and dancing halls; and Decision 308/2005/TTg on practicing thrift and adopting new practices for weddings, funerals, and other functions.

6. The Prime Minister approves a Strategy for Information Development for until 2010.

7. The first exhibition of Vietnam’s Champa sculptures in France opens at the Guimet Museum in Paris Oct. 11, attracting wide interest among the French and other Europeans. The show, which features 70 masterpieces of Champa art, runs until Jan. 9, next year.

8. Celebrating solemnly the 240th birth anniversary of the great Vietnamese poet Nguyen Du.

9. Exhibition featuring Vietnam’s fine arts in the 2001-2005 period.

10. Activities for cultural and information exchange with many countries to mark the 60th anniversary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Addressing a press conference in Hanoi Thursday, Deputy Minister Tran Chien Thang said this year Vietnam had steadily expanded cultural exchanges with other countries.

The ministry praised Thanh Nien for successfully organizing the fashion-music show Charming Vietnam, or Duyen Dang Vietnam, in Australia.

“Such a large program, held successfully in Australia without government subsidy, can be considered a symbolic cultural event. The Ministry of Culture and Information hopes Thanh Nien will continue to popularize Duyen Dang Vietnam in many other countries around the world,” Thang said

Thanh Nien