National Assembly delegates offer advice on avoiding terrible crowding at Hung Kings' death anniversary

Regarding the incident where thousands of people jostled and pushed each other, causing women to faint and police to have to take many children away from the crowd at the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day on the morning of April 16. Discussing this, Ms. Bui Thi An (National Assembly member of the 13th term of Hanoi City) said that this was the fault of the festival's Organizing Committee.

Ms. Bui Thi An, 13th National Assembly Delegate of Hanoi City (Photo: QH)

Faced with the scene of jostling and pushing at the Hung Temple Festival, delegate Bui Thi An (Hanoi City) emphasized that the jostling and showing off at the recent festival was very wrong. Organizing festivals is necessary, but it should not be too formal. And festival-goers must realize that going to the festival with all their heart, turning to their ancestors is necessary, but they must clearly understand that in their hearts they need peace and tranquility. Festival-goers must not show jostling and formality. When going to burn incense, do spiritual work, do charity, everyone must be quiet, but if going to the ancestral memorial service and showing off, then what is the ancestral memorial service anymore?

Going to the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day is to show the people's heart, to show their faith in the founders of the country, who gave birth to their ancestors, and who have contributed to the nation. The locality also wants to show off that it organizes a grand festival and tourists from all over the world want to show off that they get to the temple early, leading to terrible jostling. The core problem here, in my opinion, is an unstable mindset.

Ms. An said: Through the recent jostling, I think the Organizing Committee must reorganize the organization to make it more appropriate. If every time the festival ends, it feels heavy and every year, we learn from experience and then everything goes back to the way it was, that is unacceptable.

“We must avoid formalism. The new Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said we need to “fight formalism”. Why do we have to make 2.5-ton banh chung for the Hung King Festival, to set a record… While some areas are still poor and have nothing to eat” – Ms. An was indignant.

According to Ms. An, the festival organizing committee needs to properly implement the new Prime Minister's directive, which is to fight formalism everywhere, especially the festival must demonstrate purity and sincerity.

“Organizing the festival is very important. Arrangement and planning must be arranged so that everyone can line up and have a way to reduce the number of people gathering too much in one place, which will be difficult to control. And we must change the mindset of the organizers, we must strongly fight against formalism, grandeur, and insubstantiality. Secondly, we must propagate to the people that it is not always good to come directly to the festival, the important thing is to have a heart that is directed towards good deeds and good things. Not everyone who offers a big, large, and many offerings will receive a lot of blessings. Therefore, we must propagate to the people, that they can stand from afar and pray, looking towards the temple, so their hearts will also be at peace" - Ms. An said.

According to Labor