To make Kate Festival a unique tourism product

The project to preserve and promote the Kate Festival of the Cham people in Binh Thuan province to serve tourism development, aiming to turn the Kate Festival into a unique and attractive tourism product, attracting people and domestic and foreign tourists, has just been approved by the province.

The project aims to preserve and sustainably promote the unique folk cultural values of the festival, meeting the needs of the Cham community for religious activities and the needs of tourists for sightseeing, exploration and experience. The annual Kate Festival at temples, towers and village houses needs to maintain both the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony has all the rituals and ways of performing according to the traditional customs of the community, the festival needs to focus on maintaining the organization of competitions, performances, folk games and sports competitions suitable to the local cultural traditions.

The annual Kate Festival at temples and towers takes place over two days (the last day of June and the first day of July in the Cham calendar); the Kate Festival at Po Tam Temple (Ham Thuan Bac District) takes place on the 15th and 16th of the 9th lunar month every year (around the middle of July in the Cham calendar). After the Kate Festival at temples and towers ends, the Cham Brahmans hold the Kate Festival at the village house and then perform the Kate Festival at their families. The venues (both the ceremony and the festival) take place at temples, towers, village houses and Cham Brahmans' families in Tuy Phong, Bac Binh, Ham Thuan Bac districts and Phan Thiet city.

The content of the Kate Festival focuses on preserving and promoting unique, distinctive and special cultural features. The ceremony must preserve the space and time of the festival; the objects of worship, offerings, and participants; the order, manner, and practice of the rituals, the content of the prayers, and the hymns in each ritual of the participating dignitaries, as well as the traditional costumes of the dignitaries, women, youth, and Cham girls when participating in the festival.

The festival must maintain and enhance the level of competitions, performances, folk games, and traditional sports competitions of the community such as: Displaying offerings on the Thônla, playing the Saranai trumpet, performing traditional crafts (pottery, brocade weaving, gingerbread making, etc.); performing folk melodies (folk songs, folk dances, folk music); water teams overcoming obstacles, blindfolded pot smashing, stick pushing, tug of war, soccer, volleyball, etc. to create a joyful, bustling and attractive atmosphere, attracting a large number of Cham people, people and tourists.

The organizers of the Kate Festival are dignitaries, monks, intellectuals, artisans and the Cham Brahman community in Tuy Phong, Bac Binh and Ham Thuan Bac districts. The organization (plan, content, program, time...) of the Kate Festival of the Cham people in Binh Thuan annually includes two methods: the festival takes place at temples, towers, and village houses in Tuy Phong, Bac Binh and Ham Thuan Bac districts; the Kate Festival takes place at Po Sah Inu tower (Phu Hai ward, Phan Thiet city)...

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