(TG) - Through the ups and downs of history and the impact of the current context, traditional festivals have had many changes. Therefore, festival management problems also need to be solved from new approaches.
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| The Spring Epic of the Year of the Rooster 1789 was performed by the artists of the Central Tuong Theater at the Festival commemorating the 235th anniversary of the Ngoc Hoi - Dong Da Victory. |
TRENDS CHANGING TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL
The problem of excessive commercialization in the organization of traditional festivals.
The main reason for this situation is the pursuit of profit despite the negative consequences that can affect the festival - as a cultural and religious phenomenon. For example, many people take advantage of traditional festivals to "make a profit at all costs" from various types of side services such as meals, accommodation, selling goods at "exorbitant" prices, "over the top" advertising, and "trafficking". semi-divine god"... This situation exists not only in large-scale festivals but also in festivals in the countryside. In recent years, the festival has taken place along with the market mechanism, so the business has become more obvious, difficult to accept, and has been floated in many places. Although it is not made public, some localities have "contracted out" entire pagodas, temples, and every part of the festival services. Lim festival in the past was another typical example of this situation with singing quan ho, offering betel and areca to collect money. The excessive commercialization of festivals does not stop at Hoi Lim, but also exists in most traditional festivals on different scales, and the effects are also different.
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| In some places, the situation of "going to the festival but not understanding the festival" occurs. (Photo by: Khari Turner) |
In fact, festival commercialization has not necessarily become a "problem" for festival management if it does not exceed the threshold excessively. Festivals, like all activities of social life, operate in a market economy, so the effects of the market economy on festivals are inevitable. The problem is only serious when it is "distorted" and excessive, going beyond the good meaning of organizing traditional festivals.
The policy of socializing cultural activities encourages all economic sectors to participate in preserving and promoting the value of monuments and festivals. However, mobilizing economic resources from all sectors of society does not mean that traditional festivals are deformed and cannot retain their original identity.
Superstition and widespread burning of votive papers take place in most festivals, on all large and small scales.
It should be emphasized that in managing traditional festivals, the issue of limiting superstition will always need to be raised. However, in recent years, the evil of superstition has not only not disappeared but has become increasingly more serious. In the report of the Culture sector on the situation of festival organization, this issue continues to be mentioned with the phenomenon of abuse of beliefs to practice superstitions such as card-switching, séances, fortune-telling...
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(Illustration photo: Khari Turner)
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The State has certain sanctions such as in Decree 38/2021 of the Government regulating penalties for administrative violations in the fields of culture and advertising. Article 14 of the Decree has regulations on handling violations in festival organization. For example, a fine of 3 million VND to 5 million VND will be imposed for one of the acts of taking advantage of festival activities for personal gain, or participating in superstitious activities during the festival. Point a, Clause 2 and Clause 4, Article 15 of Decree 158/2013/ND-CP stipulates fines from 3 million VND to 5 million VND for acts of taking advantage of the activities of séances, fortune-telling, calling souls, and asking for tattoos. , card-switching, casting spells, spells, propagating fortunes and other similar forms for profit. Superstitious activities can even be prosecuted for criminal liability if the violator causes serious consequences, has been administratively handled for this behavior or has been convicted of this crime that has not been erased. criminal record but still violate... However, violations still occur because these are very difficult issues to resolve when beliefs and spirituality are extremely sensitive issues, related to the needs of people. People's personalities, the boundary between religious practice and superstition is also very fragile. All of this makes it difficult for local authorities, despite many efforts, to completely solve the problem.
Some customs recovered along with the restoration of traditional festivals.
The opening of traditional festivals means people have days to rest and participate in community cultural activities. This is also an opportunity for many bad customs to have space and time to rise. Due to the rather special form of organization that existed in the past, every festival today, a sense of guilds and cult factions arises. Gambling, drug addiction, excessive drinking, and superstition have the opportunity to operate. In the open atmosphere of the festival, it is easy to have a sociable mentality, to look at everything with a favorable eye, as harmless, but that is the type of "popular service" that clouds the atmosphere. The fresh air of the festival affects the psychology and life of each person in society. Card flipping, card writing, and public gambling are common phenomena at some festivals...
The restoration of the monument was done in a sketchy manner, deforming the monument. The landscape around the monument has been damaged. The festival space has also changed and shrunk a lot.
Restoring monuments with the aim of regaining their original shape and space is not simple. Some built monuments have disrupted the landscape of the monument, overwhelming the original monument; causing controversy in restoration when using new construction materials and new equipment systems for monuments, especially large monuments. There are many reasons for this situation, but the most significant may be due to the weak and uneven level of awareness, leading to the failure to fully express the artistic and religious ideas of the ancients in the construction of monuments; There is no consensus among cultural sector officials in restoring and embellishing relics, causing each place to restore and renovate relics in different styles; and there are no master plans for infrastructure, socio-economic issues, landscape environment, tourism services, etc. for monuments in general and festivals accompanying said monuments. private.
In addition, the relic space is also increasingly narrowed due to the speed of urbanization spreading to the countryside. There have been many articles complaining about relics being encroached by households for residential land and state agencies violating the scope of relic protection. Besides, in many places, after each festival, relics are damaged and the environmental landscape is destroyed...
The restoration and organization of the festival took place in a chaotic, mechanical, and irregular manner.
In restoring and promoting traditional festivals today, in the name of innovating festivals, linking festivals with traditional education, linking festivals with tourism..., in many places, with different levels. different, there is an ongoing trend of imposing a number of predetermined models, causing people's initiative and creativity to decline, and people are even left out of the cultural activities that belong to the people. by the people and for the people. It is this trend that makes festivals heavily formal, ostentatious, and "fake", which in turn has a negative impact on cultural subjects and causes tourists to misunderstand folk culture clan.
Social evils and other festival-based services arise.
Most traditional festivals today are not just "confined" to a village or a small residential area. With many festivals, the majority of people attending are tourists from everywhere. The anonymity of festival goers - that is, festival goers do not know each other's faces or identities - combined with the spiritual meaning more or less fading in the minds of festival goers, replaced by traditional festivals. Being seen as a fun show or a crowd of people has caused the festival to sometimes become "secular". For that reason, the practice of "selling gods and selling saints" and commercializing festivals has become popular. Not only that, social evils have begun to creep into traditional festivals, especially large festivals on a regional and national scale. In addition to price pressures, the concentration of too many tourists in one location also causes theft, pickpocketing, begging, and even prostitution and drug addiction. In addition, there are accompanying services that have a negative impact on the development of other festivals such as praying for rent, exchanging change at high prices, disguised gambling, inappropriate electronic games...
New social problems arise.
When traditional festivals are held, a series of issues are also raised for local cultural and social management agencies such as ensuring traffic, health care, food hygiene and safety, and guidance. visiting, maintaining local security and order... These are all common concerns of many local departments and branches. Depending on the level of each festival, these issues need attention at different levels.
The disease of ostentation in organizing festivals is one of the social issues worth paying attention to in recent times. Actually, this is not a completely new problem. Although "Every village's drum is beaten by every village, and every village's saint is worshiped by every village", the comparison of one village festival with another village festival has existed for a long time. However, today, the comparison between one village festival and another has new content. In fact, there have been many incidents at the village and commune level trying to "find" the Certificate of Historical - Cultural Relics of the province and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organize large festivals and donations. too much money from the people to organize the festival bigger and bigger, and importantly it must be "bigger than the next village".
In addition, there is another problem that exists: festivals held continuously mainly in the spring have led to many civil servants and public employees neglecting their work and using public vehicles to travel. festival. The situation of "January is a month of entertainment" has been "applied" again in recent years, which has had a more or less negative impact on normal social activities.
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| The festival needs to be done in style |
FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS IN THE NEXT TIME
To preserve cultural identity, ensure safety and social order in organizing and managing the festival, we would like to propose some specific measures as follows:
Firstly, festival development planning must be placed in the master plan with other socio-economic fields.
Organizing and managing festivals has many different purposes, not just purely cultural purposes. Besides, the development, organization and management of festivals cannot be carried out separately but must be linked to the development planning of other fields such as tourism, transportation, and infrastructure development. electricity, water... Only then can we see the different purposes of festival management, see priorities for development, external and internal resources, and predict unexpected changes. only in the cultural field but also in other fields.
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| Mong girls with dances and traditional costumes during the Gau Tao festival in Ha Giang. |
This year, there needs to be a financial regulation policy between festivals that earn a lot of money for festivals that have little money.
In fact, many large festivals collect a lot of merit money, while small, village- and commune-sized festivals earn little merit money, not enough to regenerate investment in renovating monuments. Financial principles do not allow taking money from this monument to spend on other monuments, however, on the macro level, authorities and the State need to research, have policies and investment methods to harmonize this paradox by investing in small festivals and monuments that have close reach, while giving autonomy to the management boards of large festivals and monuments.
Sau is the organizer of cultural and sports activities, fairs and festivals.
It is necessary to determine that the festival is a beneficial event, both an opportunity to unite the community, educate history, and an opportunity to develop the economy and promote the image of the community. Furthermore, festival attendees also have many different needs. The cultural industry needs to direct people's needs into healthy activities. Therefore, organizing cultural, biological and sports activities and opening fairs to introduce local products should be considered one of the important goals of organizing the festival. This not only orients the needs of festival attendees but still promotes the festival's effects on the local socio-economic and cultural development.
In recent times, in addition to the results achieved, the organization, management, and restoration of traditional festivals have also encountered many problems, including problems that arise in connection with the new context and situation. , previously unprocessed. However, the important thing that we must emphasize is that traditional festivals cannot be lost over time and there are certain games in the cultural activities of each community; meaningful to the socio-economic development - key values of each locality, region and the whole country. Due to the existence of festivals as a necessary function for current society, adjustments that need to be discussed and done are to constantly supplement and perfect solutions and ways of managing festivals in accordance with current trends. general position; At the same time, it does not lead to the "disappearance" of the festival as a legacy left by our ancestors./.
