Pilgrims in Nghe An are still negligent in preventing the Covid-19 epidemic

Many spiritual establishments in the province are still tourist destinations at the beginning of the year.

The need to visit temples and pagodas is increasing.

At the beginning of the new year, due to the warning about the Covid-19 acute respiratory disease, the number of people coming to participate in religious activities at spiritual establishments is somewhat sparse. "At Ong Hoang Muoi Temple, if calculated in the same period last January, we welcomed about 80,000 people to worship and pay homage every day, but this year that number is only half; there were times when we even had to close the temple and not accept the ceremonies to dispel bad luck because we received warnings from departments and branches.", Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong Thanh - Deputy Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Hung Nguyen district said. However, by the end of January, the temple welcomed more visitors to worship and received more spiritual activities. Typically, at the beginning of February, there were many visitors and people coming to participate in spiritual activities at the Temple.

However, a common reality is that when entering the temple to worship, it is rare to see visitors taking the recommended steps when going to crowded places during the epidemic season, such as wearing a mask, covering their mouth with their hands or a tissue when coughing... It seems that for them, wearing a mask or avoiding crowded places is impossible when they are determined to go to the temple to worship.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Nhung - a tourist in Hanoi said: "If it is regulated to wear masks during the ceremony, everyone must wear them to prevent the disease." Most Buddhist followers and tourists when coming to Ong Hoang Muoi Temple do not wear masks, because their argument is that "Nghe An has not had an epidemic yet, so preventive measures are not necessary."

At Con Temple (Quynh Phuong Ward, Hoang Mai Town), although the temple received an official dispatch instructing not to organize festival activities, it is still allowed to open the door for people to visit.

A representative of the Con Temple Management Board said: “At the beginning of the year, we issued a regulation not to organize large-scale cultural and spiritual activities, and in reality, visitors are probably afraid of crowded places, so very few come to worship at the Temple. Recently, more visitors have come, but the actual services of praying for peace and avoiding bad luck are not many.”

Here, with a space that has both commercial and food services, in addition to spiritual activities, visitors coming here are not at all secure. Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan from Bac Ninh said: "In previous years, we have experienced the services here, and found them quite interesting experiences, but this year the Covid-19 epidemic situation is quite complicated, so although we really want to stay here longer, we only perform spiritual rituals and then leave."

The scene at Con Temple is quite quiet in early January, when there are warnings about Covid - 19. Photo: Nhat Thanh

Similarly, the Quang Trung King Temple (Trung Do Ward, Vinh City) - in previous years, this occasion attracted many visitors from the northern provinces, but on the 15th day of the first lunar month this year, the temple did not organize the distribution of seals as usual because of concerns that many visitors would come to the temple, affecting the work of epidemic prevention and control, violating the regulations of the departments and branches. Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan - Deputy Manager of the Quang Trung King Temple said: "We require everyone serving at the temple to wear a mask when performing the ceremony so that visitors can follow. Thanks to strict regulations, the performance of the rituals still maintains the sacred value without causing reactions from visitors."

The beginning of the new year is the time when many people want to pray for peace, fortune, and luck... For them, it is an indispensable ritual to start a new year. However, due to concerns about the epidemic situation, many temples and pagodas do not accept prayers for peace and luck.

A representative of the Management Board of Ong Hoang Muoi Temple said: "Up to this point, a lot of people have registered, but we also limit accepting many people at the same time. If you want to hold a prayer course to dispel bad luck, you must register a week in advance."

In fact, the number of visitors coming to worship and participate in spiritual activities here is much larger than in January, and it is easy to see that they are not very worried about taking steps to prevent and control the epidemic. Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong Thanh said: "According to the regulations of the Department of Tourism, we have provided alcohol spray for visitors' hands when entering the temple, and propaganda boards are hung in front of the door to remind visitors, even reminding them every hour on the temple's loudspeaker."

Dien Chau people go to pagoda at the beginning of the year. Photo: Huy Thu

It is easy to see that the activities at temples at the beginning of the year are still activities of praying for peace and avoiding bad luck, asking for fortune-telling, attending a spirit medium ceremony... According to a survey at some temples and pagodas, to have a ritual to avoid bad luck, visitors need to spend a lot of time praying. "A ceremony needs to take about 3-4 hours to perform all the rituals, but just doing a simple ceremony only takes 30 minutes to complete. And of course, a ceremony gathers a lot of believers from many places," said a person performing the ceremony to avoid bad luck. And while performing the ceremony, most of the believers do not wear masks, no one knows if they take the recommended steps to prevent the epidemic or not.

However, at some other spiritual establishments, practicing Covid-19 prevention steps has become a rule when entering the Temple. Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan - Deputy Manager of the Quang Trung Emperor Temple said: "We have to reduce the number of people in a ceremony and spread it out over more time, especially we have to advise people to wear masks, even when performing the ceremony."

Agreeing with this opinion, Mr. Nguyen Van Binh - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Hoang Mai Town said: "We do not have many spiritual ceremonies because we also limit large gatherings in a small space. When no temple had yet carried out disinfection work, we took the initiative to do so. Now we are still actively propagating Covid-19 prevention steps and carrying out disinfection work according to the time limit."