Traditional New Year picture - Marching wrestlers with drums (Vietnamese: Rước Trống)

Southeast Asian Collection

Accession Nr.: 2018.1.9
Type: woodblock print
Date of production:
1960s
Place of production:
Materials/Techniques: paper, coloured woodblock print
Dimensions: height: 24.3 cm
width: 34.5 cm
The print in the photo was made in the Đông Hồ workshop in Vietnam.

Wrestling is traditionally part of the New Year celebrations in Vietnam. These competitions are contested between men from many village communities and from different shrine districts. In the picture, the men's team from one community, dressed for wrestling and holding a fan, is in the process of parading (the rules say that wrestlers can only wear loincloths.) The community name badge is carried by the wrestler who leads the team. Some ethnographers believe that wrestling is actually a symbolic fertility rite.