Every spring, people in the province eagerly go to festivals. Contributing to the vibrant atmosphere at the festivals are folk games. Organizing special games at the festivals creates a joyful, exciting atmosphere, connecting the community, contributing to preserving the traditional cultural beauty of the nation.
According to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, each year, our province has over 500 traditional festivals. In the festivals, besides the important rituals in the ceremony, an indispensable component is the unique folk games, which are traditional cultural features preserved and passed down by local people through many generations.
Folk games in festivals in our province are diverse in many forms. They can be games that are for health training and entertainment such as: swinging, cockfighting, duck catching, blindfolded goat catching, bridge crossing, rowing…; intellectual competitions such as: human chess, Chinese chess… or showing martial spirit such as: wrestling, traditional martial arts performances…
Folk games play an important role in creating a unique appearance and increasing the attractiveness of the festival. Therefore, in recent years, along with preserving festival activities, traditional folk games have been paid attention to and regularly organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and localities in the province.
Recently, at the Pho Hien Folk Culture Festival ( Hung Yen city) taking place from February 29 to March 2, games such as tug of war, blindfolded pot smashing, lemon passing, sack jumping, and dry bridge crossing were organized systematically, attracting many teams and people and tourists to join in cheering.
Comrade Pham Quoc Dung, Director of the Culture and Broadcasting Center of Hung Yen City, Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2024 Pho Hien Folk Culture Festival, said: In addition to recreating traditional rituals, the Organizing Committee also focuses on the festival with many cultural and artistic activities such as water puppetry, singing on boats at Crescent Lake, especially organizing many traditional folk games to contribute to recreating and vividly depicting, helping visitors visualize the bustling and prosperous scene of ancient Pho Hien. In order for the games to take place in a systematic, safe, attractive manner, promoting the spirit of solidarity, we proactively developed the script, invited participating teams, and selected team-oriented games... This year's festival attracted nearly 50 teams from communes, wards, and schools in the city. Through organizing traditional folk games, we hope that the younger generation will better understand the culture of their ancestors, thereby raising awareness of preserving, promoting and building a culture rich in national identity.
Hau Temple Festival, Dong Ket Commune (Khoai Chau) is held every 3 years to commemorate the merits of Linh Lang Dai Vuong and Thanh Hoang of Nguyen Sieu village. This year, the festival takes place from the 1st to the 2nd of the 2nd lunar month, attracting a large number of people and tourists to participate. In particular, the festival part with many special games is expected by many people, the most prominent being wrestling. Participating in wrestling in this year's festival are 6 pairs of 3 age groups: Elderly, middle-aged and young. The teams perform wrestling right in the yard in front of the temple. Although the wrestling game at Hau Temple Festival is wrestling to pay respect to the Saint, performed for visitors, without distinction of winning or losing, the competitions are no less exciting and attractive. Amidst the continuous drumbeats and the cheers of the audience, the wrestlers wearing red scarves will perform great moves and beautiful techniques, receiving applause from the audience and prizes from the Organizing Committee. Traditional wrestling at Hau Temple Festival is a cultural feature, demonstrating the martial spirit of the people, encouraging everyone to practice and improve their health. In addition, there are many other folk games at the festival such as: Monkey bridge climbing, blindfolded pot smashing, Chinese chess, human chess, etc.
Comrade Nguyen Duc Tiep, Party Cell Secretary, Head of Dong Ket Village, Dong Ket Commune, Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of Hau Temple Festival said: The festival cannot lack folk games and performances. This year, the weather was favorable, so the games attracted a large number of people in the village, commune, as well as neighboring localities. During the 2 days of the festival, we estimate that thousands of visitors came to watch and participate in the programs.
It can be said that folk games were created by the ancients as a message about the spiritual and cultural life, the lifestyle, thinking, and aspirations of the whole community. Folk games are part of the festival activities of traditional festivals, contributing to creating a unified and complete festival structure. In each locality, depending on the specific conditions of the festival activities and scale, the games are organized in accordance with the current real life conditions, but still retain the inherent traditional features, contributing to building an advanced culture with strong national identity.
Duong Mien
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