Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with 54 ethnic groups and nearly 4,000 years of history, which built up a great culture of diversity and uniqueness, especially traditional costumes. You can know more about the beauty, elegance and characteristics of local people when you look at their traditional costumes. Vietnamese traditional costumes have been affected by many cultures in the world from the past to present. In this article, Vietnam Travel will help you to gain a deeper understanding of them, as well as origins, history and culture.
AO DAI (Vietnamese Traditional Dress)
There is no doubt that the Ao Dai is very well-known in Vietnam and the world because this is the most popular traditional costume of Vietnam. The word “Ao Dai” was originally used in the 18th century, during the Nguyen Dynasty when the first Nguyen Lord in Hue recognized that our costumes were very similar to those worn by the Chinese. He ordered his subordinates to create our own costumes to distinguish them from other countries. This was also the way to show his ambition to be the king of an independent land. The first version of Ao Dai had five flaps called “than”: two flaps in the front, two flaps in the back, and the last “than” inside the front flaps to represent the wearer. This five “than” design represented “Tu Than Phu Mau”, meaning that the four parents (the birth parents and parents-in-law) always protect their child
Over the years, Ao Dai went through lots of transformations, affected by Western culture. During French colonialism, a French-trained artist named Cat Tuong, or Le Mur, made a revolution for this outfit design. He combined the western dress style with the traditional ao dai, making it much more fitted and in true colonial style, requiring a tight-fitting corset. During that period, Ao Dai was promoted as the national costume for the modern era. It had many different styles throughout the decades until its appearance in modern time as the simple, colorful and graceful Vietnamese national dress. The modern “Ao Dai” consists of long trousers and a two-flap dress (from waist down, the dress splits into front and back flaps).
Nowadays, Vietnamese are familiar with Western clothing, but this traditional Vietnamese dress is still a symbol showing the beauty of Vietnamese culture and remains a very popular garment for formal occasions such as weddings or the New Year celebrations.
For men, since the era of Lord Nguyen, rules to wear “Ao Dai” are not as strict as for women. Nowadays, men occasionally wear it for special events but it’s less popular than for women.
2. NON LA (Conical Palm-Leaf Hat)
Non La (Vietnamese conical palm-leaf hat) is a part of Vietnamese costumes for female. While traveling along Vietnam, a common sight you can come across that Non La is taken by local ladies, walking along the sidewalk. This conical hat is very handy in a tropical country like Vietnam, especially useful in countryside. It protects farmers from raining or sunny weather.
Like many other traditional costumes of the country, Non La has its own origin, resulted from a legend which was pertained to Vietnam wet rice growing culture. Once upon a time, an elegant goddess descended from the sky to protect human-being from a heavy deluge. She wore a giant hat made of four round shaped leaves stitched together by bamboo sticks. That hat was so large that the people were guarded against all the rain, and brought normal life back to the people. After the Goddess was gone, a temple was built to honor her as the Rain-defending Goddess. Locals tried to make a similar hat to the one that the Goddess had on her head so they went into the forest to find natural and available materials such as palm leaves, bark of Moc tree and bamboo to create the Non La as known today. The Non La has become a daily essential for the farmers on the rice fields, boat men and women on the rivers and local street vendors in big cities.
