Tea culture is an essential part of social and cultural life and is an important social practice aiming to show hospitality, celebrate important moments in lives of communities and helping them to build and maintain social relationships and enjoy moments by drinking tea for social exchange and interaction. It also represents knowledge, traditions and skills linked to cultivating, preparing and drinking tea by communities in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Tea is an agricultural plant the leaves and buds of which are used to make beverage. Tea plant transforms into dried leaves after steps such as plucking, withering, disruption, oxidation and drying. Although there are different types and brewing techniques in both countries, communities harvest and consume mostly the black tea. Traditional techniques used in preparing and harvesting tea led to development of special tools and vessels such as teapots, samovars, silver tray, woven tea baskets and tea plucking shear. Communities brew tea by using a great variety of kettles, produced in traditional craftsmanship, called “çaydan” or “çaynik” in Azerbaijan, a double container called "çaydanlık" (tea pot) in Turkey and samovar in both countries. Water is boiled in the larger pot and tea leaves are added to the smallest pot. Samovar is a traditional copper, clay, metal or brass container used to heat and boil water for brewing tea in smaller teapot, which is put on samovar. This method allows people to drink tea as they desire: strong or light. In rural areas especially, communities use metal samovars or “çaydanlık” heated with wood. Tea is traditionally served in special pear-shaped cups called “armudu” (literally, “pear-like”), made from glass, porcelain, faience, and silver in Azerbaijan and similarly small tulip-shaped glass, which is called “ince belli bardak” (thin waist glass) in Turkey. Communities traditionally serve tea freshly, brewed and hot, accompanied with various sweets, pastry, sugar, slices of lemon, jams and dried fruits. In different regions of Azerbaijan, communities also add local spices and herbs to tea, such as cinnamon, ginger and thyme. There is a special style of drinking tea with sugar called “kıtlama” or “dishleme” in both countries. In this style, tea is drunk by placing a piece of sugar between tongue and chin instead of pouring sugar directly into glass.

Azerbaijan,Turkey 2022

IIn the Pôồn Pôông Performances of the Mường ethnic group, Thanh Hóa; The Pôồn Pôông in Mường language means "playing with flowers". Pôồn Pôông is a type of folk song, a ritual, a spirit that is both a matchmaking event between young men and women and a prayer for blessings. The performances of the Mường is held in the third lunar month every year to pray for prosperity, happiness, and faithful love. The performances consists of two parts, the ritual and the festival. At the ritual, the shaman will use verse to inform the gods that this year's harvest will be bountiful, to express gratitude to heaven and earth for giving favorable weather and wind, to make people happy, and to invite the ancestors and kings to come and enjoy. The performances and folk games take place enthusiastically: the scene of villagers chasing fierce tigers, catching fish, cockfighting, buffalo fighting, flower dancing, flower fortune telling... At the end of the festival, boys and girls ask for a flower branch to bring home for good luck. The Pôồn Pôông Performances is attractive because of the ingenuity of the cotton makers and is an opportunity for everyone to review the heroic history of a nation.