In welcoming Vietnam Family Day, Action Month for Children – Welcoming Summer 2014, and toward the anniversaries of the nation and Petroleum industry, the Committee for the Advancement of Women (CFTAW), Labor Union and Women Labor Union of PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation cooperated and organized “Happy Family” Contest on June 27th, 2014 in HCMC.
A bride that has never visited her husband’s company; a husband that has never experienced the stage light; families that have never stood side by side to bow down and sing a song together; couples and their children that have never practiced so silently, seriously, and urgently to prepare for an art performance... That was the common start for 22 enthusiastic families from 16 labor union units attending the “Happy Family” Contest of PV GAS – 2014. They were neither professionally trained nor desirous to professionalize their performance; simply, they just put aside their daily worries and hustles of life, and families all gather here under the common house of PV GAS, spending time finding about the meaning of Vietnam Family Day and legal knowledge about family and marriage, and especially, discovering their families’ unique characteristics by themselves.
Contesting teams could be a couple of husband and wife, a parent and his/her child or children, or both parents and their child or children of 4-11 years old. The scope of the attendants was expanded so that many families of all ages could come to participate in the contest, provided that they have a member as an employee of PV GAS. And so, there appeared on the stage newly married lovebirds, young parents with their babies, and even middle-age parents supporting their talented children. There were many parents participating with their children so that in the Q&A sections, the children also became equal candidates. From the first welcoming moment, such lively scenes flooded the stage with unrepeated colors like a garden of flowers.
The Contest consisted of three rounds with different requirements creating the liveliness and demonstrating overall talents of families. In the first round, the version of “Who is the millionaire?” game-show on VTV3 was remodeled strangely and lively. It was for the attractiveness of the questions that legal knowledge became closer and attracted even the audience to participate in and remember about.
In the second round, teams went back to... find out about their own families. Daily questions were ordinary yet challenging, funny but meaningful. The audience laughed nonstop and clapped their hands when pairs of contestants seemed so nervous and worked hard to “match the Q&A” correctly: Does your wife have a make-up before going for an outdoor trip? Who calls first when either of you travel away? Which is the dish that your whole family likes? Which does your kid want you to reward for his excellent study? When returning home, what is the first sentence your mom says? What is your best friend’s name at school?... There were numerous situations of daily life that were raised, making the contestants realize that they should know more about each other, their life partners, their parents, and their children.
The third round was also the most challenging one: members of all teams had to work together to carry out and demonstrate a stage performance to show their talents and family solidarity. There were quite many families choosing singing or playing guitars or pianos. Some of them chose dancing. Others chose kungfu, backward poem reading, flower arranging, and storytelling with demonstrations. There was only 5 minutes for each of their shows, so 22 families had to work hard to give beautiful and interesting performance. Especially, the families receiving the highest points from the Examination Board were thanks to their... talented children. For these teams, parents volunteered to... step back and left the stage to be the shining place for their children, taking over the support and companion role.
