(VOVworld) – The just-concluded 15th Vietnam Poetry Day has highlighted the dreams of poets and nurtured kids’ love for poetry.
This year’s Vietnam Poetry Day created a “Child Poetry Space”, where kids were able to read, enjoy, and write poems.
- “I love literature because it teaches me how to imagine and dream. I find the Vietnam Poetry Day very interesting. I promise myself to attend this event every year.”
- “Very useful and exciting for young people like us to understand Vietnamese poems. Because kids are now less interested in literature, this program helps them find reading and writing fun.”
Children were introduced to beautiful poems that many generations of Vietnamese have learned by heart. For example, “Who gets up early” by Vo Quang, “Little poems” by Pham Ho, “The sky in an egg” by Xuan Quynh, and “Earth song” by Dinh Hai. They also played poem and word games. Nguyen Thuy Anh, head of a club called “Reading books with kids”, said: “What we have shared with parents is not difficult at all and anybody can do it if they have a little patience. At this poetry festival, we want to show parents how to help their children embrace the world of literature. Reading, listening to, playing, and arranging poems makes poetry fun for the kids.”
One third of the Hanoi Temple of Literature area was dedicated to children’s poems. The young citizens learned about their peer’s works and talked to famous poets. Their stories were about school, family life, and dreams. Ngo Thi My Duyen brought her child to the festival. She said: “Since my student days, I have known that the Vietnam Poetry Day is organized by the Vietnam Writers’ Association on the 15th day of the first lunar month of the New Year. I have a growing interest in this event. This year, when my child is a first-grade student and likes reading short poems, I brought him here to get him acquainted with books and foster his love for poetry.”
Poet Le Phuong Lien, Deputy Head of the Children’s Literature Department of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, said the festival’s “Child Poetry Space” will encourage a love of literature in children, who represent the future of Vietnam. Lien said: “This year’s pilot literary playground of kids makes the festival more fun and promotes children’s literature in Vietnam. Both kids and their parents enjoy the works together through entertaining activities.”