Preserving cultural beauty in spring festival

Connecting the community, paying tribute to ancestors

According to statistics from the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the country currently has nearly 8,000 festivals, of which more than 7,000 are traditional festivals. The festivals take place all year round, but are concentrated in early spring. The unique religious, cultural and artistic activities and traditional folk games in the festivals have helped preserve and promote the values ​​of cultural heritage, while creating attractive highlights, attracting tourists from all over the world every spring.

Spring Festivals in many places are not only an occasion for people to have fun at the beginning of the year but also have profound spiritual meanings. Traditional festivals cannot lack the ritual part imbued with the culture of ethnic communities to pray for harmony between heaven and earth, good crops, and community solidarity and development. Through that, people are connected and share their wishes for a new year with a prosperous and peaceful life.

Among the Spring festivals in Vietnam, we cannot fail to mention the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (Phu Tho province). This is one of the biggest festivals in the country, taking place from the 5th to the 10th of the third lunar month, to commemorate the Hung Kings who built and defended the country, to strengthen the spirit of solidarity, to turn to the roots and show gratitude to ancestors.

Dong Da Mound Festival in the Capital, on the 5th day of Tet, aims to recreate the Dong Da Mound Victory and commemorate the glorious feat of King Quang Trung, honoring the nation's indomitable spirit against foreign invaders.

The Tran Temple Seal Opening Festival (Nam Dinh Province) takes place from January 13 to 15 to pay tribute to the merits of the Tran Kings. The seal opening ceremony takes place at the hour of Ty on January 14 with the procession of the seal from Co Trach Temple to Thien Truong Temple and the seal opening ceremony is solemnly held. This is an ancient custom at the Tran Dynasty's Tien Mieu (former Thien Truong Palace) with deep traditional cultural and spiritual values ​​and profound historical educational significance, demonstrating the nation's morality of "When drinking water, remember its source".

In the Central region this year, on the 7th of January, the Flag-lowering and Seal-opening Ceremony - a royal ritual of the Nguyen Dynasty took place at Trieu Mieu and The Mieu, Hue Imperial City, marking the end of the Lunar New Year, people returning to work, daily life and promising a good, favorable and prosperous life in the new year.

The Tay and Nung ethnic groups from the northern provinces migrated to Cu M'gar district, Dak Lak to live. Every year on the 6th day of the Lunar New Year, they hold the Long Tong Festival (Going to the Fields Ceremony). This has become the biggest and most important festival of the Tay and Nung people at the beginning of the new year, praying for a prosperous and fulfilling year...

The thread connecting tradition and modernity

Each Spring festival is a story of history, spirituality and art, reflecting the cultural depth of the Vietnamese people, serving as an important bridge between the past and the present, helping the younger generation understand and be more proud of their national identity.

However, there are still some bad behaviors and images, even negative ones, that disturb public order, disrupt security and order, and affect the nation's traditions and customs. For example, taking advantage of beliefs to sell gods and saints; robbery, gambling, and overcharging... Most recently, on February 3, a shocking incident occurred. It was the case of dozens of people staging a robbery in front of the Kim Tien Pagoda in An Giang. A few days later, this case of disturbing public order was prosecuted. The involved and related subjects were arrested and investigated...

In order to avoid the above incidents and at the same time preserve the cultural beauty through festivals, the Secretariat and the Prime Minister have issued instructions on the management and organization of festivals. In particular, Directive No. 40-CT/TW of the Secretariat on the organization of the Lunar New Year 2025 and Directive No. 45/CT-TTg and Official Dispatch 09/CD-TTg of the Prime Minister require the organization and strict implementation of the management and organization of festivals according to regulations; ensuring that festival activities after the Lunar New Year 2025 and the Spring Festival 2025 are organized in accordance with the provisions of law, are safe, healthy, economical, and follow a civilized lifestyle, in accordance with the cultural traditions of the nation and the good customs and practices of the local people.

In addition, the Project on Digitizing Festival Data in Vietnam for the period 2021-2025 is being actively implemented by the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). The set of criteria for building a traditional cultural environment in festivals is also a soft standard to help make festivals more beautiful every Spring.

In particular, preserving and promoting the values ​​of the Spring Festival is a way for each person and each locality to express their pride and responsibility for their ancestors' traditions, while creating a unique and sustainable identity in the flow of integration and development of the country. Therefore, this year's traditional festivals in localities are also organized more effectively, combined with the application of modern technology, ensuring that visitors have a joyful and safe festival.

Taking place from January to March of the lunar calendar, the Huong Pagoda Festival opens on January 6, At Ty year with many new features. The organizing committee has integrated scenic tickets and boat and ferry tickets for visitors to visit with electronic tickets. Ticket prices are also listed according to regulations. The festival has tourism-related programs such as: Fair displaying OCOP products; traditional cultural and artistic performances...

Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc, Deputy Director of Huong Pagoda Tourism Service Cooperative, said that at the Huong Pagoda Festival 2025, there will be additional QR codes, so that visitors can evaluate and give feedback on the service attitude of the boat drivers so that the cooperative can grasp the situation and make timely adjustments.

The festival celebrating the 236th anniversary of the Ngoc Hoi - Dong Da victory takes place from February 2 - 4 (January 5 - 7). Besides the sacrificial rituals, palanquin processions and historical battle reenactments, the highlight of this year's festival is a special art program with the theme "Dong Da - Golden History - Steadfast Future". Artists perform in the form of semi-real scenes combined with modern 3D mapping technology, helping people review the heroic history and arouse national pride, fostering patriotism in the younger generation.

At the Gióng festival in Sóc temple (January 6-8 in Sóc Sơn district, Hanoi), the bamboo flower offering is made from short ivory bamboo segments, whittled into flowers at the tip and dyed in two distinctive colors, yellow and red. This year, after the offering ceremony, the festival organizing committee distributed the bamboo flowers to the people one by one to avoid unsightly scenes of jostling and fighting.

Along with ensuring order, traffic safety, food safety, the reception and management of donations are also well implemented in many temples, pagodas, relic sites, and scenic spots. In particular, at the Cho Cui Temple Relic Site (Nghi Xuan, Ha Tinh), this year the Relic Management Board has arranged 3 donation boxes with QR codes for people to donate more conveniently. This work at the Relic Site is noted to be progressing quite smoothly according to the guidance of Circular 04/2023/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance guiding the management and financial collection and expenditure for festival organization and donations, sponsorship for relics and festival activities.