Looking back at the festival of the year of the Dragon

(Baonghean)Every year, Nghe An province has up to 25 festivals, mainly traditional festivals (LHCT). In the past year of Nham Thin, LHCT Nghe An has made progress in many aspects, but compared to the requirements of preserving traditional capital, there are still many things to discuss.

In the organization of the LHCT last year, the highlight is that in the ceremony part, most of the festivals were solemnly organized according to traditional rituals such as the festivals of Qua Son Temple, Bach Ma Temple, Con Temple, Ong Hoang Muoi Temple. The burning of incense in the festival has been organized and guided more closely, such as not burning too much incense, burning it haphazardly in the wrong place as before, at the same time, the phenomenon of burning votive paper in the festivals last year has been limited. Notably, the new ceremony part (rally, speech reading, introducing delegates...) in many festivals has been adjusted and shortened compared to before, such as the Con Temple Festival did not organize a rally in front of the temple yard as before, the Ong Hoang Muoi Temple Festival shortened the new ceremony part as much as possible, such as not reading speeches, introducing delegates... because many opinions said that this new ceremony part created the administrative nature of the festival, "distorting" the LHCT.



Drum and cauldron procession in Vac Village Festival (Thai Hoa Town). Photo: Sy Minh

However, most of the current festivals still have many limitations. First of all, the direction and management of festivals still show many shortcomings and even unreasonableness. Talking to us recently, Mr. Phan Van Hung, Deputy Head of the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, gave an example of this issue: According to Official Dispatch No. 27/TB dated November 6, 2012 of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism only assigned the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to direct 4 festivals (2 festivals are Hang Bua Festival and Chin Gian Temple Festival, 2 new festivals are Lang Sen Festival and Drinking Water Remembering the Source Festival), but then still required the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to direct all festivals in the area, this is unreasonable. Because the district-level localities that organize festivals already have specialized staff with many years of experience in directing, now having additional specialized staff at the provincial level directly direct is unnecessary, more costly and troublesome.

On the other hand, with the goal and requirement of returning the festival to the local people to perform, the direction is only necessary for new festivals and newly restored LHCTs, when requested by the district level, and when the festival has become established, it is reasonable that there is no need for close direction as before. Another limitation in the LHCTs is that up to now, only the Cuong Temple Festival has ca tru activities, while many other LHCTs still do not have this type of activity, although up to now, Nghe An has had many Ca Tru clubs established in many localities. Should the localities coordinate to direct so that these early Spring festivals of Quy Ty will have many localities with ca tru activities in the LHCTs.

Another limitation of some festivals is that due to the limited space, the grand ceremony cannot meet the necessary cultural and spiritual needs, such as the Duc Hoang Temple Festival. On the other hand, some large festivals or celebrations of even-numbered years are organized on a larger scale, but the local implementation is still not different from other years in terms of content and form.

For example, in the Drinking Water Remembering the Source Festival to celebrate even years, there should be the preparation of 54 trays of offerings symbolizing 54 ethnic groups along with the lighting of 10,000 candles, which would be a highlight to increase the cultural significance of the festival. Another limitation is that the planning of the festival has been going on for many years and in the year of the Dragon, many localities are still very slow in preparing, many celebrations and the LHCT only send the plan to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism before sending it to management units such as the Ethnic Minority Management Board, the Provincial Cultural and Sports Center, leading to confusion right from the preparation stage and even in the direction and management stage, even falling into the situation of "the old man and the old woman are in a difficult situation".

The traditional Tet holiday is also the time when localities are rushing to prepare for the organization of the Spring Festival. I would like to point out some limitations and shortcomings in the organization of the Festivals so that we can reflect and join hands so that this New Year Festival will have more improvements.

Mai Ho Minh