Create highlights for festivals

(Baonghean)- Among the activities at the festivals held in January this year in Nghe An, sports activities create a vibrant atmosphere at these festivals. Traditional sports taking place at festivals such as: stick pushing, crossbow shooting, throwing balls, wrestling, boat racing, cockfighting... are always unique features that attract a large number of people to watch and cheer.

Coming to festivals such as: Muong Ham (Quy Hop), Vua Mai (Nam Dan), Qua temple (Do Luong), Con temple (Quynh Luu), Bua cave (Quy Chau)... in addition to the solemn and respectful ceremony, visitors can also watch exciting martial arts competitions of traditional sports such as: cockfighting, crossbow shooting, tug of war, boat racing...

At the Con Temple Festival, held on February 12, 2012, from December 25, 2011, the Quynh Luu District Sports Center sent an Official Dispatch to 28 local units with plans to organize sports at the festival. The Organizing Committee also allocated funds to organize the festival and mobilized from sponsors, supporting each rowing team with 6 million VND, each volleyball team with 1.5 million VND, each pole pushing athlete with 100 thousand VND... along with costumes to encourage the teams to practice before participating in the festival.

Thanks to the thorough investment and large-scale organization, boat racing at Con Temple Festival has become a "specialty". On the opening day, on both sides of the Mai Giang River, locals and tourists had to struggle to find a place to watch the traditional boat race. On the river, racing teams tried to compete for every meter to win, while on the shore, tens of thousands of tourists and locals cheered enthusiastically.

Not only Quynh Luu, units have festivals this year such asQuy Chau,MaleDan, Do Luong... have also had careful investment from the preparation to the organization stage, so the scale, number of participating athletes, and sports are larger and more systematic than previous years.

However, most of the athletes participating in traditional sports at the festivals are people from neighboring localities, participating in a "homegrown" style, so the competitions are only superficial and the professional quality of the competitions is not high.

Therefore, in order for traditional sports to truly develop and competitions at festivals to become increasingly high-quality, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and localities with festivals need to have a specific plan to invest heavily in both human resources and facilities, boldly adding more traditional sports with unique features of each region to festivals. On the other hand, in order for competitions to be truly attractive and unique, people should be encouraged to wear their ethnic costumes when participating in sports such as throwing balls, pushing sticks, shooting crossbows, etc.

Duc Chuyen