Having traveled abroad and hosted numerous international press delegations in Vietnam, I've learned that nowhere else organizes a Spring Press Festival like we do. Perhaps, producing Tet (Lunar New Year) newspapers and organizing a Spring Press Festival is a unique product of Vietnam's revolutionary press. These days, the Quang Ninh Provincial Journalists Association is busily preparing for the province's Spring Press Festival in the Year of the Dragon and participating in the 2024 National Press Festival with great enthusiasm.
To make the Press Festival even more vibrant with the colors of Spring.
Just like in other localities, the Spring Press Festival in the Quang Ninh mining region is always a unique and indispensable cultural event every time Tet (Lunar New Year) arrives. In particular, the Quang Ninh Provincial Journalists Association is one of the first to organize its Spring Press Festival. Ms. Nguyen Thu Hien, Deputy Head of the Provincial Journalists Association Office, recalled: The Standing Office of the Provincial Journalists Association was established at the end of 1997 and moved to its own headquarters (previously, the Association's office was located within the Quang Ninh Newspaper building). Right during that Tet, the Association began organizing its Spring Press Festival. The first Quang Ninh Spring Press Festival was held at the Provincial Library.
Delegates visit the Quang Ninh provincial newspaper exhibition area at the Spring Newspaper Festival 2023.
In recent years, the Quang Ninh Spring Press Festival has been held in two locations: one in Ha Long City – the provincial capital, and the second rotating among the remaining localities of the province. This year, with the support of the provincial leaders, the Quang Ninh Journalists Association will preside over and coordinate the organization of the Spring Press Festival in all 13 districts, towns, and cities of the province.
To organize the Spring Press Festival in Ha Long every year, our Provincial Journalists Association collaborates with the Provincial Department of Culture and Sports , specifically the Quang Ninh Library and Museum. Although it only lasts for about a week to half a month, the participating units have to start preparations very early. Tasks are assigned in detail and meticulously, with smooth coordination. The Journalists Association develops a plan for editing the Association's special Spring issue, encouraging members and journalists to create outstanding journalistic works for the Tet (Lunar New Year) celebration.
To ensure a sufficient supply of publications for the public, the Association sent a request to press agencies nationwide to exchange and support the provision of Tet (Lunar New Year) publications. The resident journalists' branch assigned its members and resident reporters to contribute Tet issues of newspapers and magazines from their respective agencies to diversify the publications displayed at the Spring Press Festival, including central and ministerial newspapers. In recent years, to proactively secure a sufficient quantity of Tet publications, the Provincial Journalists' Association has also sought out large newsstands in Hanoi to purchase additional copies. The Quang Ninh Provincial Journalists' Association is proud to have mobilized a relatively complete range of Tet newspapers and magazines, ensuring that its exhibition booths are well-stocked and diverse.
At the Spring Press Festivals, along with Tet (Lunar New Year) press publications, the Provincial Journalists Association also displays representative images of events that took place in the locality over the past year, organized according to themes. To ensure clear themes, we organize a vote among members to select the 10 most outstanding events of the province each year. This simple task is very meaningful and creates a lively atmosphere among reporters and journalist members.
Through this, the Provincial Journalists Association has gained a rich source of photographic materials to organize the annual photo exhibition on the province's outstanding achievements, held within the framework of the Spring Press Festival. Furthermore, for nearly ten years now, we have collected documentary materials and artifacts, including equipment and tools used by journalists across generations in the mining region. Displaying these materials and artifacts at the Spring Press Festival contributes to educating younger generations of journalists about their traditions and also helps the public better understand the work of journalists.
Having participated with the Provincial Journalists Association since the early days of organizing the Spring Newspaper Festival, the staff of the Provincial Library were very enthusiastic and responsible in mobilizing additional spring newspapers, books, and publications on the themes of Tet, celebrating the Party, and celebrating Spring. And without the scientific and artistic presentation of the Provincial Library staff, the Spring Newspaper Festival would surely have lacked its appeal to the public.
In recent years, the Quang Ninh Museum has also played an important role in making the province's Spring Newspaper Festivals more diverse and attractive. Visitors to the Spring Newspaper Festival can check in and take photos in traditional Vietnamese houses with New Year's poles, firecrackers, and a Tet kitchen setting. Folk games such as blindfolded duck catching, Xam singing, calligraphy writing area, and a banh chung (traditional rice cake) making experience area also attract a large number of people.
Involved in social and charitable activities.
Along with displaying Tet newspapers, in recent years, the Provincial Journalists Association has also paid great attention to social and charitable activities in the areas where the Association organizes the Spring Newspaper Festival. This includes organizing the Spring Newspaper Festival in border areas, combining it with cultural exchanges, football matches with border guards, and awarding scholarships to students in mountainous regions. Despite the busy schedule leading up to Tet, when the Provincial Journalists Association proposes coordinating the organization of the Spring Newspaper Festival, every locality enthusiastically registers to participate.
Journalists did the same; resident reporters, in addition to contributing newspapers and postponing their Tet holiday, also mobilized additional funds from benefactors to join the Provincial Journalists Association in giving Tet gifts and scholarships to underprivileged students. Some journalists even donated their prize money to provide scholarships for students at the Spring Press Festival.
The Provincial Journalists Association awarded scholarships to students from the mountainous region of Ba Chẽ district at the Spring Press Festival 2023.
Thanks to the active participation of its journalist members, the Provincial Journalists Association annually mobilizes and collects dozens to hundreds of Tet (Lunar New Year) gifts to donate to policy beneficiaries and those in difficult circumstances. In Tet 2021, they donated 1,000 test kits to hemodialysis patients in Ha Long and Cam Pha; and tens of thousands of face masks and Tet gifts to people in disadvantaged areas and poor patients in hospitals. Last Tet, at the request of the leaders of the mountainous Ba Che district, the Provincial Journalists Association mobilized 200 million VND to build solar-powered streetlights for three remote villages in Thanh Son commune, a disadvantaged commune in the district.
Every year, along with the Spring Newspaper Festival in the provincial capital, the Spring Newspaper Festival, held alternately in other districts, towns, and cities in the province, is also an attractive cultural product for the people in the area. After Tet, the spring newspaper publications are sorted by the Provincial Journalists Association and sent as gifts to military units and cultural centers in border and island communes in the province.
Ready for the Spring Press Festival of the Year of the Dragon 2024
Unlike previous years, this spring the Quang Ninh Journalists Association will preside over and coordinate the Spring Press Festival in all 13 districts, towns, and cities of the province. The workload has therefore increased significantly. However, adhering to the provincial leadership's principle that the Tet holiday must serve the people, the Provincial Journalists Association is urgently carrying out its tasks. These include preparing documents requesting media agencies and journalists' associations to exchange Tet-themed publications; editing and publishing the Association's special Spring issue; and encouraging members at media agencies to effectively implement their Tet-themed publications and programs to produce outstanding publications and programs.
In addition, the Association has also commissioned media outlets to increase the number of Tet (Lunar New Year) newspapers, ensuring that all 13 locations of the Spring Newspaper Fair in the province have newspapers from central and local media agencies. The Association is also organizing trips for its members to create photojournalism works to provide high-quality images for the exhibition "Quang Ninh: Outstanding Images of 2023". Furthermore, efforts are being made to raise additional resources for organizing social and charitable activities…
Along with organizing this year's Spring Press Festival, the Provincial Journalists Association has also proactively prepared to participate in the National Press Festival held in Ho Chi Minh City. Journalists and association members in Quang Ninh are eagerly awaiting the day they can travel, bringing their Tet (Lunar New Year) publications to Ho Chi Minh City to exchange professional knowledge and promote their local OCOP (One Commune One Product) products to colleagues nationwide and the Southern press audience.
Journalist Do Ngoc Ha –
Permanent Vice Chairman of the Quang Ninh Provincial Journalists Association
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