Preserving the beauty of going to the temple at the beginning of the year

(Baonghean) - At the beginning of the year, people go to the temple to pray for wealth, fortune, health, and peace. At the end of the year, they go to the temple to repay gratitude and kindness. This is a philosophy of life and a beautiful way of behaving that is a typical cultural trait of the Vietnamese people. However, nowadays, many people go to the temple at the beginning of the year not only to pray for luck, but also to perform star-offering ceremonies to ward off bad luck, leading to many consequences and distortions in spiritual beliefs...

The pictures are not beautiful

Although according to the regulations of Hoang Muoi Temple (Hung Thinh Commune, Hung Nguyen District), from the 8th day of Tet, the temple will hold ceremonies to dispel bad luck at night, and from the 16th day (lunar calendar) will organize ceremonies to dispel bad luck during the day. But right after Tet, many people came to perform the ceremony to dispel bad luck.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga in Dien Hong commune (Dien Chau) and her daughter arrived early to perform the ceremony to dispel bad luck, saying, “For many years now, I have performed the ceremony to dispel bad luck for the whole family at the temple. To participate in the early dispelling ceremony, you must register from the end of the previous year. The average cost for the star offering ceremony to dispel bad luck per person is 100,000 VND (the temple buys everything for the ceremonies and all kinds of votive paper, effigies, etc.); my family has 5 people, so the total cost is 500,000 VND.”

Going to the first ceremony of the year at Hoang Muoi Temple (Hung Thinh, Hung Nguyen).

Many wealthy families also prepare full offerings with the notion of "the earthly life is like the underworld" for the New Year's Eve ceremony. Just finished the ceremony, carrying a tray of offerings with all kinds of fruits, gold branches, gold coins, and various types of votive paper and effigies to burn, Mr. Le Hung in Ba Dinh district (Hanoi) said: "It has become a tradition that at the beginning of Spring, my whole family comes here to perform the ceremony to dispel bad luck. The money for the offerings, thanks to the shaman, the whole package is 2 million VND". Although each tray of offerings is not cheap, the price of votive paper is from 20,000 VND to hundreds of thousands of VND, the horse image is up to 200,000 VND/image, many people are still willing to buy with the notion that "a piece of holy fortune is worth a load of earthly fortune".

This concept first of all causes waste of money, and also leads to the burning of votive paper money, which is common in temples and pagodas at the beginning of the year.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tuong, Deputy Manager of Hoang Muoi Temple said: “Compared to previous years, the number of burning votive papers has decreased thanks to the promotion of propaganda on the media; the Temple Management Board also arranged a team of staff to guide visitors to properly follow the regulations on burning votive papers. However, in reality, the spiritual needs of the people are very large, so it is difficult to control. On peak days of the holiday, a large number of visitors come to perform the ceremony to ward off bad luck and burn a lot of votive papers, which inevitably affects visitors visiting and enjoying the temple on Spring days.”

In addition, one of the difficult situations to correct during the early spring festival is that people come to the temple to burn incense indiscriminately. Although in the past two years at Hoang Muoi Temple during the festival season, the Temple Management Board has arranged an area in front of the gate with incense and lamps to serve visitors, and at the same time instructed visitors to "light only one incense stick per person", but in reality, very few people follow this.

That is also the current situation at Cuong Temple (Dien Chau). “Although since 2014, the Cuong Temple Management Board has placed 14 signs in the temple area, instructing visitors on how to burn incense properly; and at the same time broadcast announcements on the temple's loudspeaker system during holidays, but everything is still the same. It is very difficult to change people's inherent habits, most people still burn a bunch of incense and stick it all over the temple doors" - Mr. Vo Sy Tai, Head of the Culture Department of Dien Chau district shared.

Rectification efforts

Although there are still issues worth discussing, objectively speaking, people's behavior when going to the temple at the beginning of Spring has initially had a welcome change.

According to Mr. Phan Huu Loc, Head of the Department of Building Cultural Lifestyle, Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism, in recent times, thanks to the implementation of solutions, synchronous coordination between the government and the locality with the Monument Management Board to strengthen management and organization of festival activities, in general, going to festivals at cultural and spiritual sites in the province has initially formed a civilized lifestyle, the situation of burning votive paper, burning incense, fortune telling... has tended to decrease compared to previous years.

To continue to promote the management and organization of festival activities in 2015, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 637/UBND.VH on "Strengthening the management and organization of festivals".

Accordingly, it is required that districts and cities: Strengthen propaganda and promotion activities in many forms, supplement the system of boards and signs to guide tourists about regulations on civilized lifestyle at festivals; strengthen the inspection and supervision team and strictly handle negative phenomena and violations in the organization and management of festivals... Along with that, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has also established an inspection team at the festival venues before and during the festival days.

Besides the efforts of all levels and sectors, it is thought that, in order to restore the true value of the traditional custom of going to the temple on Spring Day, each person needs to have a correct understanding of spiritual beliefs.

Discussing this issue, Venerable Thich Minh Tri, Abbot of An Hau Pagoda (Nghi Duc - Vinh City) advised: "Buddhism does not talk about offering stars but about praying for peace and warding off bad luck for everyone and this ritual should be understood as a prayer for peace to self-admonish oneself, to create cause and effect for oneself. Therefore, when going to the pagoda at the beginning of the year, people should only prepare offerings including incense, flowers, fruits, and make a petition according to their beliefs to pray for their family to be healthy, peaceful, and happy that year...

According to Buddhist researchers, the custom of burning votive paper is not a Buddhist concept. Going to the pagoda is to worship Buddha, going to the shrine is to pray to Saints, to Gods according to folk beliefs, everyone believes in what they do, Buddhism does not prohibit it, but encourages giving it up or replacing it with meritorious, good, and useful deeds to restore blessings. This is the "yin-yang" practice according to the Buddhist concept of compassion and wisdom.

The ancients taught that “lighting a stick of incense with sincerity is the key to a successful festival”, and that sincerity lies in the heart. Hopefully, with the efforts to correct the distortions that have arisen in modern life, traditional festivals will return to their original value, restoring the beauty of going to the pagoda at the beginning of Spring that has been a tradition for generations of Vietnamese people.

Dinh Nguyet