According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there are nearly 8,000 festivals across the country each year, showcasing the diversity, richness and distinctiveness of each ethnic group, region, geographic region and history.…

Besides spiritual and cultural activities, many festivals have become tourism service activities that bring livelihood and income to local people. In addition, there are new festivals organized by local authorities and ministries and sectors, such as B. Fruit Festival, Pangasius Festival, Flower Festival etc.

INCREASE FESTIVAL AND PARTICIPANTS

After a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, festivals across the country jubilantly reopened in spring 2023. The north in general and Hanoi in particular has never hosted festivals as big as this year.

Explaining the sudden increase in both the number of participants and content related to this festival in spring 2023, many people believe that most of the festivals are suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing people’s need to participate in traditional cultural activities, has long been suppressed for a long time.

Many village festivals are only held in even years or only every three or five years, but this year, even though it is an odd year, it’s still going to be a big festival because the last even years have been suspended. Only in the early days of the Lunar New Year, we only visit a few suburban villages in western Hanoi and witness village festivals as crowded as weed mortars, such as the Tay Mo glutinous rice festival, the La Phu pig procession festival…

Large regional festivals are even more crowded. For example, on February 4-7, 2023, the Temple Festival was attended by tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world, the whole sea was crowded on the Red River beach to see the procession of Saint Tan Vien. The line of people filled the streets around this relic.

This year, the Temple Festival saw many major sacrificial activities, with a focus on the procession of the Throne of the Holy Trinity across the Red River to Ngu Doi Temple in Vinh Ninh Township – Vinh Tuong District – Vinh Province. This is the eighth time that the Temple Feast has been restored with the procession of the sacred palanquin across the Red River. And the temple festival is also a bridge between present – past – future, between the people of two regions: Son Tay, Hanoi – Vinh Tuong, Vinh Phuc. This is also an opportunity for people on both sides of the Red River to exchange cultures, consolidate and strengthen community solidarity.

The relic of the Ha Temple in Ba Vi District also hosted the opening ceremony of the Tan Vien Son Thanh Festival – a festival inscribed on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2018. The palanquin procession, around Duc Mutter Thanh Tan at Mau Mau Lang Suong Temple (Thanh Thuy District, Phu Tho Province) offering offerings, and the procession of palanquins and offerings from Lang Suong Temple to Ha Temple (Ba Vi District, Hanoi). with full traditional rites, creating a sacred and unique cultural space.

Although the authorities have stepped up many measures in recent years, some negative phenomena and offensive images still appear in public opinion every festival season. This is the phenomenon of crowd, crowd, crowd to steal fortunes at some festivals such as Giang Cotton Festival in Hoai Duc District (Hanoi), Giong Festival in Soc Son (Hanoi), Phet Hien Quan Festival (Phu Tho ). )…

REDUCING REPRESENTATIVE IMAGES

During the 2018 festival season, at the Cotton Bracing Festival of Son Dong Village, Hoai Duc District, in the Cotton Bracing scene, many young people participated in the scene punching, kicking and choking each other. After performing the rituals, people bring the cotton tree (a piece of bamboo more than 1 m long with 5 knots, which has been pointed with pure white cotton, each stem crimped, then reattached with paper and tasseled to make it beautiful ) from inside On the altar of the community house to the courtyard, the cotton robbery began in the courtyard of the Son Dong community house.

Hundreds of people crowded, trampled on each other, a series of cruel fights, many young men hit each other on the head, choked each other to get the cotton tree. The security guards protecting the festival and the organizers had to handcuff some people to get them out of the area.

According to researchers, robbing and robbing bamboo flowers at ancient folk festivals is just a conventional “robbery,” not an act of stealing gifts. Festival attendees want happiness for everyone, not just themselves, because when it comes to robbery, it’s bad manners. But in recent years this behavior has turned into a very crude and unsophisticated robbery, no longer conventional but real robbery. This is very offensive and reprehensible behavior.

In order to eliminate customs that are no longer suitable for festival culture, the cultural, sports and tourism industries at all levels have carried out propaganda to mobilize people. This year, the custom of stealing bamboo flowers at Giong Temple was changed to a procession of bamboo flowers, where people have to queue for good luck. The custom of slaughtering pigs and offering buffalo has been modified by the populace and the government to reduce offensive and violent images.

In early 2023, the Department of Popular Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) sent written requests to the locality to strengthen festival management.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has also issued written requests not to allow under any circumstances the conversion of beliefs into lucrative, superstitious services that go against good traditions and customs and violate the law.

One of the thorny issues over the years is the state of the organization of the star sacrifice ceremony that takes place in many temples, which makes public opinion very angry…

The content of the article was published in Vietnam Economic Review No. 7-2023, issued on February 13, 2023. Welcome readers to read The:

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