In 2013, the scale and frequency of the festival will be reduced.
Director of the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Pham Van Thuy admitted that the 2012 festival season still has many shortcomings in organization and management, and phenomena that erode the good values of traditional festivals such as gambling and superstition still occur.
The above information was given at the online conference of the three regions summarizing the management and organization of festivals in 2012 and the direction and tasks for 2013, chaired by the Ministry, which took place on January 18.
According to statistics, nationwide in 2012 there were 7,966 festivals, of which folk festivals accounted for 88.36%; religious festivals accounted for 6.82%; revolutionary history festivals accounted for 4.16%; festivals imported from foreign countries accounted for 10%, accounting for 0.12% and the rest were other festivals. The locality with the most festivals is Hanoi city with 1,095 festivals and Lai Chau province has the least with only 17 festivals. |
In particular, according to Mr. Thuy, there are phenomena that cause public discontent such as the men and women singing Quan Ho while taking off their hats to beg for money at the Lim Festival, offering and burning many votive offerings causing waste and polluting the environment at the Ba Chua Kho festival...
In particular, Mr. Thuy pointed out that the financial management and revenue from festivals as well as activities at relics in some localities are still lax, creating favorable conditions for some individuals to make profits, not exploiting effectively and reinvesting in relics corresponding to the people's merits...
To overcome this situation, during the 2013 festival season, the Ministry's leaders resolutely reduced the scale and frequency of organizing festivals to practice thrift in accordance with the economic conditions of the country and each locality; arranged donation boxes reasonably, limited the burning of votive paper, did not burn votive objects; strengthened supervision, inspection, examination, and timely and strict handling of negative phenomena so that festivals can develop healthily and in the right direction...
Also at the conference, Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai said that Minister Hoang Tuan Anh and five Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will divide into five "attack" groups to inspect and urge the organization and implementation of the 2013 festival season.
Previously, during the 2012 festival season, according to Deputy Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Xuan Phut, more than 48 million people participated in the festival; the amount of money collected from donations, drops of oil, and offerings was estimated at 297.801 billion VND; administrative fines for violations in festival activities were more than 21 billion VND, concentrated in the provinces of Lang Son, Vinh Phuc, Hai Duong, and Nam Dinh.
According to NNVN - LC