Closely monitor festivals with large crowds to prevent distortion and profiteering.

On February 6, the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) sent a document to localities requesting that star offerings to dispel bad luck not be transformed into profiteering services; and that activities with signs of heresy, superstition, and going against good customs and traditions not occur at festivals.

Large festivals with large crowds that need close monitoring include the Hien Quan festival and buffalo praying festival (Phu Tho); Buddha casting festival, phet robbing festival, buffalo fighting festival (Vinh Phuc); Huong pagoda, Soc temple (Hanoi); Tran temple seal opening ceremony (Nam Dinh); Do Son buffalo fighting (Hai Phong).

At the end of January, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the chairmen of provinces and cities to prevent superstition, star offering, soul calling, worshiping the dead, and worshiping creditors at religious establishments. Religious activities that are distorted, deviated from standards, and profiteering must be dealt with.

The head of the Government also assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and local leaders to call on people not to burn votive paper indiscriminately, causing waste or in the wrong place; and to propagate so that people understand the origin of festivals, relics, and figures worshiped and honored.

During the early spring of the new year, a series of large festivals took place in the North, attracting thousands of participants. In some places, there were robberies, violence, or widespread trading of seals.

In recent years, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has drastically rectified this situation, so festivals in the North have become more peaceful.