Superstitious and disorderly situations at temples and festivals

(Baonghean)-This January, festivals taking place at temples, pagodas, and cultural relics in the province attract millions of visitors and local residents. Currently, functional agencies are implementing many measures to enhance security and order during the festival season... However, many "problems" still occur.

Strengthen security and order

Since December 2015, the Provincial Police Department has issued a telegram directing the police of units and localities to coordinate with functional agencies and festival organizing committees to proactively develop plans and deploy forces to ensure the safety of festivals taking place in the area. In particular, the Public Security Department has proactively developed and implemented plans to ensure security and safety for visitors attending the festival; prevent solicitation and competition for visitors; focus on fire prevention and fighting; and resolutely handle acts of taking advantage of festivals to engage in superstitious activities, disguised gambling, etc. Coordinate with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and functional agencies to strengthen inspection and supervision of festival management activities. Captain Nguyen Van Dao - Deputy Chief of Staff (Provincial Police) said that for those who take advantage of the festival to commit superstitious acts as well as commit theft and gambling, the police force will strictly handle them according to regulations.

People go to Mr. Hoang Muoi Temple to pray for good luck.

In the first days of the year, at Hoang Muoi Temple (Hung Loi Commune, Hung Nguyen District), a large number of tourists came to burn incense. In previous years, the situation of soliciting visitors, beggars, fortune telling and divination took place openly in the temple grounds. This year, the security situation at Hoang Muoi Temple has been tightened. However, many bad images still occurred. Right at the temple gate, 3-4 beggars lay around, taking off their hats to beg for money. Although, next to that, the temple management board has placed a sign asking beggars not to enter the temple grounds. In the temple, the situation of inviting people to write petitions and ask for fortunes still occurs; at the end of the temple, a large crowd gathered to watch a group of people go into a trance. These women played music, swayed, pointed, yelled, and threw money to give luck to those who came to kneel. The temple management board has asked this group of people to immediately stop their wrongdoings and to propagate to people not to believe in superstitions.

At Hong Son Temple (Hong Son Ward, Vinh City), to ensure security and order as well as limit superstition, the Temple Management Board has posted signs prohibiting the exchange of small change for profit right in the temple. Places for burning votive paper money have also been arranged and specific instructions have been provided for visitors. According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Mau - Head of Hong Son Ward Police, to ensure good security and order at the temple, the ward police have planned to coordinate with functional forces and civil defense forces to regularly be present at the relics to ensure order and fire prevention. In coordination with the Temple and Pagoda Management Board, regularly remind cases of intentional price gouging; at the same time, strictly handle cases of law violations such as property theft and pickpocketing, so security and order are always ensured.

At Con Temple (Quynh Phuong Ward, Hoang Mai Town), although there is still more than a week until the festival opens, since the beginning of the year, the number of tourists has increased. In addition to organizing and managing activities at the temple to ensure the promotion of cultural values, the work of ensuring security and order is also of great concern to the government and functional forces. In addition, a plan to ensure the safety of tourists visiting and worshiping is specifically planned. According to the leader of Quynh Phuong Commune, before, during and after Tet, the police force of the town and ward are always on duty, monitoring the situation to prevent street vendors from soliciting tourists, beggars, vehicles encroaching, and managing cultural services, food and beverage, and prices of goods. To avoid theft, a security camera system has also been put into use.

Beware of superstitions

At Hong Son Temple, according to the temple's regulations (which have been posted), each time a fortune-telling service is offered, it costs 150,000 VND. Currently, there are 5 monks who regularly perform fortune-telling services at the temple. Mr. Ho Quang Tien - Deputy Director of the Temple Management Board said: "In fact, posting the fortune-telling service fee will create favorable conditions for people in the fortune-telling service process, avoiding the situation where people are "overcharged, overcharged" or the monks arbitrarily raise prices... Thanks to this method, fortune-telling services at Hong Son Temple have become more orderly and disciplined in recent years. The Temple Management Board has also made records and handled a number of cases where monks arbitrarily charged high prices or raised prices." However, according to Mr. Ho Quang Tien, because most people have the mentality that when they come to a temple or a spiritual place, they do not bargain or ask questions, so they are still taken advantage of by monks. Therefore, people need to proactively go shopping for offerings, consider when the priests suggest buying more votive paper and offerings, and consult the management board when they see that the prices offered by the priests are higher than the regulations. In particular, people should not be too superstitious and spend too much money to ward off bad luck and bad stars.

Shabby images of beggars and solicitors in front of Can Linh pagoda gate

At Hoang Muoi Temple, more than 50% of visitors to the New Year's ceremony are asking for a banishment. Therefore, for many years now, the banishment activities have been quite chaotic. There were times when there were too many banishment masters, each master set up an altar in a different shrine, taking up all the space, affecting the people who came to offer incense. To rectify this situation, this year, the Hoang Muoi Temple Management Board absolutely does not allow the masters to perform banishment ceremonies in the upper shrine area, in order to create all conditions for people to come and offer incense and make offerings at the beginning of the year, and only allows the masters to organize banishment ceremonies at night so as not to affect the people who come to the temple. Those who take advantage of the temple to tell fortunes or cast lots are strictly prohibited. The temple management board also regularly reminds people during the process of buying offerings and votive paper and suggests that they should not be too wasteful, which is both a waste of money and affects the environment. Thanks to these drastic actions, this year, all the New Year's ceremony activities at Hoang Muoi Temple have been more orderly and disciplined.

Although there have been plans to ensure security and order by the authorities, with many sophisticated forms, many subjects still take advantage of festivals and exploit the ignorance of some people to commit fraud. Even at Hoang Muoi Temple, although the Temple Management Board has prevented fortune telling and palm reading for many years, many subjects still openly operate. Therefore, in addition to the responsibility of the authorities, visitors to temples, pagodas, and relics need to be vigilant, avoid being deceived, taking advantage of trust to participate in superstitious practices, losing money and causing psychological insecurity.

Nguyen Hung - My Ha