Sơn Tinh – Thủy Tinh

The storyline of this year’s Ao Dai Festival show is based on the stories of “Sơn Tinh – Thủy Tinh” and “Trương Chi – Mỵ Nương”, two popular tales in Vietnamese mythology. These two tales are distinct and unrelated; their combination is merely a product of the show producers designed to provide the storyline with a more contemporary twist. “Sơn Tinh – Thủy Tinh” is a story of vanity and its destructive consequences. The object of desire in this tale is the beautiful princess Mỵ Nương, daughter of King Hùng the 18th of the Hồng Bàng dynasty (2879 BC – 258 BC), the first dynasty of Vietnam, then known as Văn Lang. When the beautiful princess reached her age of majority, the king decided to hold a contest to select a worthy son-in-law. Two candidates stood out from the pool of contestants: Son Tinh, the Lord (Spirit) of the Mountain and Thuy Tinh, the Lord (Spirit) of the Water (Sea). Unable to choose, the King proposed a final contest: he who was the first to bring wedding gifts to the Princess the next day will become her husband. Son Tinh would be the first to do so and thus became the Princess’s husband. Unwilling and unable to accept defeat, Thủy Tinh launched a full scale war against Sơn Tinh by causing rains and tidal waves. Sơn Tinh, in defense, would caused mountains to rise and forests to stop the floods caused by the rains. This war would last for days before Thủy Tinh decided to stop. However, he remained bitter and vengeful and would renew his war every year....