Ensuring festivals are joyful, safe and healthy

On January 22, the City's interdisciplinary inspection team led by Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports Pham Xuan Tai continued to work and inspect the preparations for the organization of the Gióng festival at Sóc temple (Sóc Sơn district) and the Sài temple festival (Đồng Anh district).

Fully prepare the material conditions
The Soc Temple Festival is held annually to pay tribute to the hero Phu Dong Thien Vuong in the cause of building and defending the country, to arouse the tradition of patriotism and the spirit of great solidarity among Vietnamese people in the cause of building, defending the fatherland and international integration. At the same time, it honors, promotes and introduces the value of the Giong Festival - Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity; the value of the historical relic and architectural art of Soc Temple - a special national relic to the people of the country and international friends.

Inspection team at Soc temple festival

This year's festival will be held for 3 days from February 3 to February 5, 2025 (ie from January 6 to 8, At Ty year). The ceremony will include traditional rituals such as: Moc Duc ceremony on the night of the 5th day of Tet, the sacrificial ceremony and procession of 08 villages on the morning of the 6th day of Tet and the elephant transformation ceremony (Doc Thuong village) and horse transformation ceremony (Phu Ma village) taking place on the afternoon of the 8th day of Tet; The opening ceremony will take place from 6:30 am on February 3, 2025 (ie January 6) at Thuong Temple - Soc Temple relic site. The festival will have activities to experience traditional cultural practices, folk games, and display and introduce OCOP products; Cultural, artistic and sports activities such as: Performing the Mole Pulling Game ritual, organizing a rice cooking competition, the Huc Ball Wrestling program and many other art performances, local cultural exchanges...

Reporting at the meeting, Director of the Soc Temple Tourism and Relic Management Center Dao Anh Tu said that the plan to organize the Gióng festival at Soc Temple was issued by the People's Committee of Soc Son district from December 26, 2024. The district police have developed a detailed plan for security and order, fire prevention and fighting, and plans to ensure security and order during the festival, especially during the procession and ceremony. There are plans to ensure traffic safety, check fire prevention and fighting work... The center has also repaired the electrical system at the relic, overcoming the shortcomings of the previous festival season as well as the opinions of inspection teams on medical work... There is also a plan for environmental sanitation work, from the beginning of the month, a general cleaning, cleaning, and wrapping according to the custom has been carried out. Business households have signed a commitment on food safety...

Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Son district, Ho Viet Hung, also added that the Gióng festival at Soc temple is an annual festival that not only takes place for 3 days but also takes place throughout January, starting from the night of the 30th of Tet to the full moon of January. Every year, the relic welcomes 140,000-150,000 visitors from all over the country to worship, during the festival it attracts about 40,000-50,000 visitors, and on peak days it can welcome up to 20,000 visitors. Therefore, to prepare well for the festival season, relevant sectors have developed their own plans for organizing the festival. Regarding the Soc temple festival, Mr. Ho Viet Hung affirmed that there is no superstition, no sorcerers writing petitions, fortune telling, etc. The practice of stealing bamboo flowers has been limited for many years. The People's Committee of Phu Linh commune has coordinated with the Management Center of the Soc temple tourist area - relic to prepare the conditions for facilities, develop plans for parking lots, and list prices. All sales services must be registered in advance. Increase public toilets, increase garbage collection frequency…

Develop organizational plans for a safe and civilized festival season
At Sai Temple (Dong Anh District), preparations for the festival are being carefully carried out. Decorations are being completed with the welcome gate erected, signs placed, and the grounds of the site being cleaned and new flower beds and ornamental plants planted to beautify the landscape of the site.

New flower beds and ornamental plants are being planted at Sai Temple.

According to Vice Chairwoman of Dong Anh District People's Committee Nguyen Thi Tam, from the beginning of January 2025, the district issued a plan to organize the Co Loa festival and Sai temple festival to ensure the management and organization of the traditional Co Loa festival and Sai temple in accordance with the provisions of law, in accordance with good customs and traditional values, to pay tribute to the contributions of our ancestors in building and defending the Fatherland.

Secretary of the Party Committee of Thuy Lam Commune (Dong Anh District) Nguyen Tuan Don - Head of the Steering Committee of Sai Temple Festival also said that in order to improve the quality of festival management and organization, promote and preserve traditional cultural values ​​in festival activities. At the same time, to ensure the organization of Sai Temple Festival to preserve traditional cultural features, so that people can enjoy cultural and religious values, Thuy Lam Commune has developed a detailed plan for the organization of Sai Temple Festival At Ty 2025. In addition, the commune also issued decisions to establish the Steering Committee, the Organizing Committee of the festival, and assign specific tasks to the members of the Organizing Committee; Develop detailed plans to ensure security and order, traffic safety, health care... specific to each day, each location, activities of protecting antiquities, managing donations, on duty, welcoming guests... Develop plans to ensure security and order, look after vehicles, shops, environmental sanitation, food safety... to promote the roles and responsibilities of all levels, departments, organizations and the festival organizing committee, ensuring the festival takes place safely and civilly.

Vice Chairwoman of Dong Anh District People's Committee Nguyen Thi Tam reported on preparations for the Sai Temple festival to the Inspection Delegation.

Acknowledging the proactiveness of localities in planning the organization of festivals, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports Pham Xuan Tai - Head of the inspection team also noted that localities still need to pay more attention to developing specific plans or detailed plans for each subject, specific time; have traffic diversion plans. Environmental sanitation needs more attention, paying attention to general cleaning before and after the festival; during the festival, it is necessary to increase regular cleaning. There should be signs outside early about parking spots, controlling spontaneous parking services of people if any.

Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports Pham Xuan Tai - Head of the inspection team concluded at the working session with Soc Son district.

“The organization of the festival must comply with Decree No. 110/2018/ND-CP on festival management and organization and Circular 04/2023/TT-BTC on financial revenue and expenditure for festival organization and donations. In addition, control the implementation of rituals to ensure cultural traditions. Strictly implement civilized lifestyle during festivals, the City's codes of conduct, especially in places of worship; control visitors' clothing when entering places of worship, control behavior... to ensure the festival takes place joyfully, safely and healthily" - Mr. Pham Xuan Tai further emphasized.

Vy Vy

Source: https://sovhtt.hanoi.gov.vn/dam-bao-cac-le-hoi-dien-ra-vui-tuoi-an-toan-lanh-manh/