The Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) sent a document to localities requesting that star offerings to ward off bad luck be transformed into profiteering services; and that activities with signs of heresy, superstition, and going against good customs and traditions not occur at festivals.
Large festivals with large crowds that need close monitoring include the Hien Quan festival and buffalo praying festival (Phu Tho); Buddha casting festival, phet robbing festival, buffalo fighting festival (Vinh Phuc); Huong pagoda, Soc temple (Hanoi); Tran temple seal opening ceremony ( Nam Dinh ); Do Son buffalo fighting (Hai Phong).
Earlier in late January, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the chairmen of provinces and cities to prevent superstition, star offering, soul calling, worshiping the dead, and worshiping creditors at religious establishments. Religious activities that are distorted, deviated from standards, and profiteering must be dealt with.
In the cultural field in our country, one of the activities with the largest number of participants is probably the festival during the Lunar New Year. Many localities, such as Nam Dinh, during the traditional New Year, there are up to 100 festivals of all kinds held from January to March of the lunar calendar.
In addition to festivals with long-standing traditions, many localities across the country have recently "created" many new festivals, mostly festivals with spiritual elements to attract people and tourists, for example the Huyen Tran Princess Festival in Thua Thien Hue.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the nation's fine cultural traditions, for many years now, our spring festivals have been fertile ground for superstitious activities to "bloom".
The most common activities are burning votive paper, stuffing coins on Buddha and Saint statues; fighting and trampling each other to steal good luck; then performing spirit mediumship, fortune telling, physiognomy prediction, praying to the stars to ward off bad luck...
This makes the boundary between orthodoxy, between religious practice, belief and superstition in the community sometimes and in some places so fragile that it is impossible to distinguish.
Although the law (Decree No. 38/2021/ND-CP of the Government regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fields of culture and advertising and the 2015 Penal Code) has clearly stipulated fines to imprisonment for acts related to superstition.
However, in reality, the law has not yet been put into practice. The activities of selling gods and saints, being uncultured and unorthodox in festivals have existed and are still existing because of its economic "effectiveness" which is "aided" by the ignorance and delusion of a large number of people, despite the efforts of local authorities to intervene.
Therefore, it is necessary for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to issue a document requesting localities to closely monitor crowded festivals and eliminate or replace customs that are not suitable for the trend of integration and development during the Lunar New Year.
But to be more effective, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and localities must be more aggressive with specific and systematic "campaigns" in addition to "supervision". The "elimination or replacement of customs that are not in line with the trend of integration and development" must be done strongly and substantially.
Finally, let's just strictly follow the law, along with propaganda and raising awareness...
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