The festival picture was stained

(Baonghean)- Going to pagodas and temples at the beginning of the year to pray for peace has been a long-standing tradition of Vietnamese people. However, this unique cultural beauty of the nation is being distorted, deformed by superstitious practices, greed, and pragmatic lifestyles of some people who go to pagodas, causing negative reactions in society. This situation requires strong corrective measures from the authorities, but first of all, from the awareness of each person.

In recent days, the media has been flooded with information and images of jostling, pushing, and fighting over offerings at the Tran Temple Seal Opening Ceremony (Nam Dinh). The story at Tran Temple is probably endless because of the conflict between the narrow space of the ancient-style temples and the reputation and majesty of the kings - the heroes that people have worshiped for generations. The number of visitors to the Tran Temple Festival seems to increase every year. Therefore, although the organizers have had many plans to ensure security and order, 2,000 police officers and hundreds of people from the temple and local authorities were mobilized but could not prevent the jostling, trampling, and fighting over the holy offerings from happening.

People jostled and pushed, even jumped over the fence to "rob the luck".

It can be said that temples and pagodas have never been as overloaded as they are now. During the festival season, every day tens of thousands of people flock to temples and pagodas such as Phuc Khanh Pagoda, Quan Su Pagoda, Tran Quoc Pagoda, Huong Pagoda, Tay Ho Palace, Bia Ba Temple (Hanoi); Yen Tu Scenic Area, Cua Ong Temple (Quang Ninh), Tran Temple, Day Palace (Nam Dinh), Bai Dinh Pagoda (Ninh Binh), Ba Chua Kho Temple, Phat Tich Pagoda (Bac Ninh), Tay Thien (Vinh Phuc)... to worship. However, it is worth mentioning that going to temples today is becoming a movement and "pragmatized", resulting in many social evils, even violence.

Many tourists expressed their disappointment when witnessing the chaos at Tran Temple on the night of January 14 with a shower of rolled up coins thrown over the heads of visitors hoping to land on the Jade palanquin, then the scene of stuffing coins through the temple door cracks, holding coins in the hands of Buddha and Saint statues... as if the money was not handed to them, the gods did not listen to their prayers; the scene of people stepping over each other's heads to rush to grab the offerings; Then the scene of fighting to the point of breaking heads like in an action movie just to grab a bit of betel and areca, snatching the lucky bamboo sticks... no one could have imagined that these things could happen in a sacred place of worship. The festival picture is being tarnished, leaving a not-so-good impression of a long-standing traditional cultural activity of the Vietnamese people.

People are misunderstanding or intentionally misunderstanding the true meaning of festivals, and then have deviant behaviors when considering temples and pagodas as places to pray and bribe gods and Buddhas to get more money and titles, rather than going to a place to visit, pray for health, pray for a peaceful life... Many people who go to temples no longer "light a stick of incense with all their heart" but always have large offerings, lots of votive paper, burn cars, mansions and flocks of paper elephants and horses, and have to force their way into the harem to call it a ceremony... No one gives in, everyone does their own thing, everyone wants to pray the loudest, longest, place the offering in the best position, and have the most expensive offerings to feel secure.

In life, no one gives anything to anyone for free, especially not to gods or Buddhas! The ancients believed that the meaning of the word "phan" is to bless health and peace to work, not to bless people who sit around waiting for money to flow into their homes, or to suddenly become this or that person... Therefore, rushing to buy high-class dishes to worship at pagodas and temples, praying for this and that is delusion. Buddhists call it: "Greed - Anger - Delusion", which are taboos. Those who go to pagodas and temples at the beginning of the year, if their minds are not clear, no matter how much they run around and beg, no saint or god will witness. "Good deeds will be rewarded", that is the simple truth that our ancestors have passed down for thousands of years. If you work hard, live well, cultivate virtue... then you don't need to go anywhere, gods and Buddhas will protect you... The cultural beauty of going to the temple only has meaning when people come to the temple with a pure heart, putting aside all worries of daily life to focus on the core values ​​that our ancestors left behind.

Van Thieng