Connecting traditional cultural sources

(Baonghean) - Comrade Ho Mau Thanh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2016 Lotus Village Festival, gave an interview to Nghe An Newspaper.

Opening of the 2015 Lotus Village Singing Festival. Photo: Tran Hai

PV:Dear comrade, in your role as Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2016 Lotus Village Festival, can you tell us about the new and outstanding features of this year's festival?

Comrade Ho Mau Thanh:34 years ago, the National Festival “Sang Lang Sen” was first held in May 1982. After that, the festival was upgraded to the Lang Sen Festival held annually at the provincial level and every 5 years at the national level. After dozens of times of organization, the influence of Lang Sen Festival has become stronger and stronger, becoming an indispensable highlight in every year commemorating President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday on May 19.

This year, the Lotus Village Festival is held at the provincial level, with the main theme being “Honoring President Ho Chi Minh, honoring the Lotus Village culture, praising the Party, and Nghe An homeland integration and development”. Kim Lien Commune is the venue for the festival. In addition, in Vinh City and other districts, cities and towns, cultural, sports and artistic activities will also take place to serve the festival.

The 2016 Lotus Village Festival continues to receive the attention and care of all levels and sectors, especially the efforts of districts and cities in the whole province. The districts have proactively developed plans and organized well cultural, artistic and sports activities in the form of competition clusters. The art competition movement has received the participation of a large number of people with high artistic quality, professional investment and profound content, praising and honoring the life, ideology and brilliant morality of President Ho Chi Minh.

This year's festival, opening on the evening of May 17 in Kim Lien commune, the art program was invested in by the organizing committee in terms of script and direction, chaired by the Provincial Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe and mountainous districts with special performances by ethnic minorities to create a highlight and cultural diversity for the festival.

Also within the framework of the activities responding to the Lotus Village Festival and the 126th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday, other cultural activities were organized in turn such as: Opening of the "Songwriting Camp on the theme of Uncle Ho and the Lotus Village Festival 2016"; Lotus Village Singing Festival; film week about Uncle Ho, sports activities... to diversify the cultural and spiritual life of the people; at the same time enriching the content of the festival program.

PV:According to you, what role and significance does the Sen Village Festival play in the cultural life of Nghe An people today?

Comrade Ho Mau Thanh:The Sen Village Festival expresses the people's gratitude and admiration for President Ho Chi Minh - the national liberation hero and world cultural celebrity. The festival is an opportunity to continue to propagate and educate about Ho Chi Minh's ideology, continue to study and follow his moral example, and promote the image of Nghe An to friends across the country and internationally. The festival meets the people's need to create and enjoy cultural values, thereby promoting the movement "All people unite to build a cultural life" at the grassroots level.

The Sen Village Festival started as a local art festival but quickly spread and grew to become a cultural festival for the entire people. That affirms and deeply reflects the aspiration of the people of Nghe An as well as the people of the whole country who want to have a festival about Uncle Ho. The cultural and spiritual values ​​of the Sen Village Festival are increasingly attached to and integrated into the flow of social life, playing the role of both a mark and a connection between the source of traditional culture and civilization of Nghe An and the whole country.

PV:So what do we need to do to make the Sen Village Festival more widespread, through which we can promote the image of Nghe An to the whole country and internationally?

Comrade Ho Mau Thanh:This is a matter of great concern to many people. My personal opinion is: Organizing the Sen Village Festival with only art programs participating in the "Singing from Sen Village" festival plus some other activities such as carrying Uncle Ho's photo, mobile exhibitions, film screenings, Sen Village beauty contests, sports activities... is not enough to attract a large number of people to participate. Through the reality of festivals across the country, we see that the strongest attraction for people to come to the festival is the "sacredness" of the festival and spiritual beliefs.

Vi and Giam folk song performance at Kim Lien Relic Site. Photo: Thanh Cuong

People come to Hung Temple, Huong Pagoda, Tran Temple or other spiritual sites first of all to burn incense, offer gifts and pray for the blessings of the gods. It is the endless stream of people making pilgrimages to spiritual sites that creates festivals. Wherever there is spiritual belief of the people, there are conditions for festivals to develop. This is a fact that can be verified through thousands of festivals held annually throughout Vietnam. I think that the Sen Village Festival cannot be outside this rule. And Uncle Ho and Sen Village have achieved this sacredness.

To attract a large number of people from all walks of life to participate in the festival, to return to Sen Village, and to promote the image of Nghe An for tourism, the Sen Village Festival must be organized according to traditional festival rituals. The festival must have a sacred character and a sacred space. These are the two spiritual elements that create a traditional festival. In the Sen Village Festival, the sacred character is Uncle Ho, the sacred space is Uncle Ho's hometown Sen Village. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda work so that the Sen Village Festival must become a pilgrimage of the people of the whole country to the origin, the birthplace of President Ho Chi Minh.

Duc Chuyen(Perform)