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| Co Loa Festival in the spring of Giap Thin. (Photo: CHI DUNG) |
These days, many provinces and cities across the country are in the peak of the festival season. Not only on the main festival days, but throughout January, historical and cultural sites are crowded with visitors almost every day.
More orderly and disciplined
From January 1 to 8, 2024, the Hung Kings Temple National Historical Site (Viet Tri City, Phu Tho) welcomed about 500,000 visitors to offer incense to commemorate the Hung Kings. Ms. Bui Lan Anh in Da Bac District, Hoa Binh Province said that for many years, her family has been coming here. This year, although the number of people coming to Hung Kings Temple is quite large, security and order are quite good, there is no jostling. Shops do not solicit customers or overcharge. In particular, general hygiene is well maintained, the atmosphere of the relic site is very fresh and comfortable.
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Checking the festival organization at Va Temple (Son Tay town, Hanoi ). Photo: Chi Dung. |
Director of Hung Temple Historical Relic Site Le Truong Giang said that the unit has implemented plans to ensure security and order, traffic flow, fire and explosion prevention; added signs and instructions in the relic area; arranged sales locations for people around the relic area, strengthened management, inspection and supervision of sellers in the right places, at the right listed prices.
In the first two weeks of the Giap Thin spring, the historical relic site and scenic complex of Huong Son (My Duc district, Hanoi) welcomed about 300,000 visitors. This year, the Huong Pagoda festival has many innovations, making ticket purchasing more convenient and avoiding boat congestion. Dong Da festival, Soc temple festival, Hai Ba Trung festival, Tan Vien Son Thanh festival... all took place safely and civilly, creating peace of mind for people going to the festival. In the inner city area, the most crowded relic sites are Tay Ho palace, Tran Quoc pagoda, Ha pagoda...
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Co Loa Festival takes place in a solemn atmosphere during the spring of Giap Thin. Photo: Chi Dung. |
At Tay Ho Palace (Quang An Ward, Tay Ho District), on the full moon day of January, the number of visitors to the ceremony increased dramatically, but the situation of crowding in front of the worship area, or "scattering loose change", the situation of burning votive paper decreased significantly. Many people were surprised that the shops on To Ngoc Van Street around the palace are cashless streets, so the situation of overcharging for goods and services almost never appeared.
The Secretary of the Party Committee of Quang An Ward (Tay Ho) said: "The ward has prepared plans to welcome guests after the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin since the end of 2023. Not only in the prefecture but also on the roads outside the prefecture, we have been mobilized to implement civility, ensure food hygiene and safety, cashless payment, traffic flow...".
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Female drum performers from Doi Tam village perform at the Doi Son Tich Dien Festival. Photo: Dao Phuong. |
In Ha Nam province, the festivals: Tich Dien Doi Son; Tam Chuc Spring; Duc Thanh Tran's salary distribution are all solemnly held, following traditional rituals and bearing unique marks. This year, in addition to the main rituals such as the announcement ceremony, water procession, purification ceremony, praying for peace..., the festival is held enthusiastically with many cultural activities showing the characteristics of the region, such as the rice planting competition, buffalo painting competition; Banh Day making competition among the clans in Doi Tam village...
The Saint Tran's salary distribution ceremony at Tran Thuong Temple was held by Ha Nam province on the night of January 14 to the morning of January 15. This year, the Organizing Committee coordinated with the temple to prepare nearly 20,000 salary bags at 19 salary distribution gates in the east and west of the outer Nghi Mon of the Temple, ensuring that people and visitors attending the ceremony will all receive salary for good luck in the spring.
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Plowing ceremony at the Doi Son Plowing Festival 2024. Photo: Dao Phuong. |
Ha Nam Provincial Police have directed Ly Nhan District Police to coordinate with professional departments to deploy plans and solutions to organize traffic guidance and diversion; arrange fire extinguishers at places where incense burning ceremonies take place...
In Nam Dinh, the Tran Temple Seal Opening Ceremony (Loc Vuong Ward, Nam Dinh City) takes place in the first lunar month every year, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the country. Comrade Nguyen Duc Binh, Head of the Management Board of the Tran Temple-Thap Pagoda Historical and Cultural Relic Site, said that visitors attending this year's ceremony will enjoy lion and dragon performances, singing, Xam singing, water puppetry... held for the first time at Dong A Square, a project of the festival center area project of the Tran Dynasty Historical and Cultural Relic Site.
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Buffalo decoration contest at the 2024 Doi Son Tich Dien Festival. Photo: Dao Phuong. |
The space around Tran Temple displays typical OCOP products of Nam Dinh province; the exhibition "Thien Truong Palace - Golden Imprint"... Regarding the organization of the festival, the authorities mobilized more than 2,800 officers and soldiers, divided into five rings and 70 checkpoints to ensure security and order inside and outside Tran Temple.
At this year's festival, the offensive images of people pushing and shoving, throwing money at the palanquin or fighting over the lucky seals no longer occurred. In addition, with the presence of interdisciplinary inspection teams, service activities around Tran Temple have also become more orderly and disciplined, ending the scenes of "ripping off", soliciting customers, begging... that were once the terror of tourists.
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Functional units of the Hung Temple Historical Site inspect the business activities of stores to ensure compliance with regulations. (Photo: NGOC LONG) |
Strengthen inspection, examination and correction of limitations
Before the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports held a meeting with localities with major festivals to discuss preparations, including requiring localities to strictly implement the regulations of the Central and the City on organizing festivals, not allowing superstitious behavior, disguised gambling; not distorting traditional customs...
The Department of Culture and Sports organizes inspection teams to check activities before and during the festival. Thanks to that, the festivals take place in an orderly and civilized manner. At the Huong Pagoda festival, although the situation of scattering coins at the altars has not completely ended, there is almost no situation of fortune telling or burning votive paper indiscriminately. Huong Pagoda is a place with a large number of visitors, and food and beverage services are developed. This year's festival season, there are 97 food and beverage establishments.
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Thanks to good organization, the Tran Temple Seal Opening Ceremony (Nam Dinh) in the spring of Giap Thin 2024 took place safely, solemnly and respectfully. Photo: Tran Khanh. |
Up to this point, there has been no phenomenon of "price gouging" in service activities. On the afternoon of February 24, the Hanoi City Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team No. 1 inspected food safety at the Huong Pagoda Festival. At the time of the inspection, the restaurants complied with regulations on ensuring food hygiene and safety, and publicly posted prices of food items. Through rapid testing, all the bowls met the standards.
After a surprise inspection of the festival organization at a number of relics in Hanoi on February 23, Deputy Director of the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Luong Duc Thang assessed that, through actual inspection, the management, organization of festivals, and management of relics in Hanoi in general and at the above-mentioned relics are quite good and methodical.
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Immediately after the functional departments of Nam Dinh province took drastic action, the activities of "stamping, collecting money" and exchanging small bills at Bao Loc temple relic, My Phuc commune, My Loc district were promptly rectified. Photo: Tran Khanh. |
Regarding the organization of the Hung Temple Festival and the Cultural Tourism Week of the Ancestral Land held in early March (lunar calendar), Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Tho Nguyen Dac Thuy said that the Department has developed a plan to organize well the ceremonial activities, ensure safety for the festival; closely coordinate with functional sectors to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to conduct inspections of food, accommodation, entertainment services, sales points, parking lots, etc., resolutely and strictly handle violations at the festival, acts of taking advantage of the festival for profit, practicing superstition, and disguised gambling to ensure the festival takes place safely and civilly.
Despite many positive changes, the management and organization of festivals cannot avoid difficulties and shortcomings. According to comrade Doan Sinh Nam, Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Management, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nam Dinh province, some festivals still show signs of waste, commercialization in festival services, street vending, illegal book sales, fortune telling, price increases, donation money, arbitrary oil drops, begging... still appear. In some places, relics and festivals are considered as the private resources of the locality, so they focus on exploiting economic values and commercializing various types of service activities.
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Immediately after the functional sectors of Nam Dinh province resolutely took action, the activities of "stamping, collecting money" and exchanging small change at Bao Loc temple relic, My Phuc commune, My Loc district were promptly rectified. Photo: Tran Khanh |
Before the full moon day of the first lunar month, although the Tran Temple seal opening ceremony had not yet taken place, at Bao Loc Temple (My Phuc Commune, My Loc District, Nam Dinh), the seals were already being "sold" publicly. Hundreds of people lined up, jostling to wait to personally stamp the seal in the forbidden palace with prices ranging from 50,000 VND to 250,000 VND, the highest up to 500,000 VND/seal.
In addition, the activity of exchanging small change also takes place openly, transacting right in front of the temple. People who need to exchange money have to pay an "interest rate" of up to 25%, for example, exchanging 100,000 VND in small change costs 125,000 VND. In response to this incident, the People's Committee and the cultural sector of Nam Dinh province have resolutely intervened to rectify and immediately put an end to these offensive activities that damage the image of relics and festivals.
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Spring tourists visit Vieng Market and celebrate at Phu Day National Historical-Cultural Relic, Kim Thai Commune, Vu Ban District (Nam Dinh). Photo: Tran Khanh |
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