folk festivals

Today the Gioi has me editing descriptions of folk festivals in central and Southern Vietnam. It has been very informative- I have not heard of any of them and they are not listed in the Lonely Planet! The most interesting details to me is how they suspect that some of the festivals originated with the Cham people whom were here before the Vietnamese- especially with Goddess worship. The text has been forthcoming in describing that the rituals and texts have been made over by the Confucians, Buddhists and lastly the Communists. One particular Goddess statue that has been worshipped is actually suspected to be a statue of a man with Indian influences- but in the mid 20th century an artisan has altered it to be more feminine. One particular motif that keeps reoccurring in Vietnamese folklore and myths is of women self sacrificing. I think this is the Confucian ethics at work- as a Western feminist I am grappling with the fact that the Trung sisters the most famous heroines of Vietnam committed suicide rather than give in to the Chinese. Committing suicide in certain circumstances is seen as sacrificial, honourable, to be celebrated and desirable- witness the Buddhist immolations in the sixties. I think that the self sacrificing ethic is one that clashes with Western individuation and causes lots of problems for women (and not only Vietnamese women!)