Raising environmental awareness at the Hon Chen Temple Festival

Hon Chen Temple is located in Huong Tho Commune ( Hue City), is a very important temple in the spiritual life of the people of the ancient capital and is also the only temple in Hue that combines royal rituals and folk beliefs. Hon Chen Temple Festival, also known as Hue Nam Temple, is one of the folk belief activities of the followers who worship the Holy Mother Thien YA Na - the goddess who created the land, trees, precious wood forests, rice, corn and taught people how to grow crops. The festival takes place in the 3rd and 7th lunar months every year, with a fairly large scale, this is considered a folk cultural festival on the Huong River.

*The scene of votive papers being released into the Perfume River during the Hon Chen Temple Festival was recorded by reporters many years ago.*

The traditional beauty of the Hon Chen Temple Festival is no longer a matter of much discussion, especially when the “Mother Goddess Worship of the Vietnamese” was officially recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. It is worth mentioning that since 1971, the festivals have organized a procession on the Huong River, from Thien Tien Thanh Giao Temple (No. 352 Chi Lang, Hue City) to Hue Nam Temple, where Thien YA Na Thanh Mau is worshiped, and the act of releasing votive paper directly into the river has been widely reported, causing environmental pollution and causing disgust and anger to tourists. However, in recent years, this situation has almost disappeared, becoming more civilized and cleaner.

According to PV's records, in the most recent event this year (August 23-25, 2023, corresponding to July 8-10 of the lunar calendar), the procession of boats on the Perfume River was decorated with flags and flowers, solemn altars, and the procession to Hon Chen Temple no longer had the scene of scattering votive papers on the Perfume River.

Right at the wharf in front of the temple, the boats attending the ceremony are parked neatly, not in a mess. The authorities also assigned people to be on duty, check and propagate so that people do not gather to burn or scatter votive papers near the riverbank. Garbage also no longer appears on the Huong River, instead it is put in bins.

*The festival just took place cleanly, with no more burning of votive paper or throwing of trash into the Huong River.*

Mr. Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Thua Thien - Hue province, said that before the festival took place, the Organizing Committee held a meeting to propagate and thoroughly inform the majority of people attending the festival about the strict prohibition of scattering votive papers into the Huong River, minimizing the burning of votive papers when coming to worship at Hon Chen Temple, and if burned, it must be in the right place as prescribed by the relic management unit and placed signs.

“In recent Hon Chen Temple festival seasons, the burning of votive paper has been minimized, which is a positive sign in building a cultural and civilized festival. The organizing committee will continue to maintain and improve the quality of future festivals,” said Mr. Hai.

*Minimizing the burning of votive paper is a positive signal in building a cultural and civilized festival in the ancient capital of Hue.*

According to the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, the unit has placed many trash bins in the Hon Chen Temple relic area and notified the tourist community to avoid littering. The unit has put into operation a closed votive paper incinerator, ensuring environmental hygiene last year. This incinerator was sponsored by a local resident with a cost of more than 700 million VND for construction and assembly. Currently, the Hon Chen Temple relic area has 2 votive paper incinerators, but the unit has mobilized and widely announced for people to burn at this new closed incinerator.

“During previous festivals, the joss paper incinerators sometimes took 2-3 days to burn out. We had to assign people to regularly monitor and check to ensure the safety of the relic area and surrounding landscape. However, during last year’s and this year’s festivals, the volume of joss paper burned was only concentrated in the closed incinerator, and the furnace was not operating at full design capacity. We regularly propagate and remind people attending the festival not to litter, affecting the environment, as well as limit the burning of joss paper…”, informed Mr. Hoang Viet Trung - Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center.

*Union members clean up after the festival*

It is known that before and after each festival, the Organizing Committee and local authorities also responded to the "Green Sunday" movement of Thua Thien - Hue province by taking specific actions by collecting waste around Hon Chen temple, both on land and in the water.

Hue is considered a land with many traditional festivals. It can be seen that protecting the environment and landscape will help festival activities in the ancient capital promote the national cultural identity, creating a good impression for the people and tourists. In particular, it also contributes to the good implementation of the "Set of criteria on cultural environment in traditional festivals" recently issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism .

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