Dr. Tran Huu Son: 'Hung Temple Festival is a cultural symbol that will last forever'
Báo Dân trí•19/04/2024
(Dan Tri) - "Although the Hung Temple Festival has changed along with the development and maturity of the country, it will still exist forever, even growing stronger," said Dr. Tran Huu Son.
The Hung Kings' Commemoration Day - Hung Temple Festival and the Cultural - Tourism Week of the Ancestral Land in the year of Giap Thin - 2024 will take place from April 9 to April 18 (ie from March 1 to March 10 of the lunar calendar) in Viet Tri city, Hung Temple historical relic site and districts, towns and cities in Phu Tho province. During the process of formation and development, how has the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day - Hung Temple Festival changed profoundly? What are the positive and negative impacts of these changes? The vitality and religious values of the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day - Hung Temple Festival?... Dan Tri reporter had a conversation with Dr. Tran Huu Son, an expert at the Institute for Applied Research on Culture and Tourism about this issue.
Dr. Tran Huu Son - Expert at the Institute of Applied Research on Tourism Culture (Photo: Provided by the character).
Hung Temple Festival and concerns in transformation
Sir, through the historical process and the development of the country, how has the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day - Hung Temple Festival changed today?- From its appearance until before 1917, the Hung Temple Festival took place in the 8th lunar month. From 1917 to now, this event has been moved to the 3rd lunar month (spring) every year. At this time, the Hung Temple Festival takes place on the same day as the main festival of the ancient Co Tich village. In recent years, although the main ceremony is held on March 10, the Hung Temple Festival has also changed a lot. Along with the development of tourism tours, since after the Lunar New Year, people from all over the country have come here, no longer waiting until March like before. The space of the Hung Temple Festival has also shifted, both in terms of sacred space and geographical space. Instead of only being limited to the Hung Temple area (Viet Tri, Phu Tho), the Hung Temple Festival has gradually expanded to the festival space in ancient villages near the foot of Hung Mountain. Currently, in the South, some provinces such as Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho have built temples to worship Hung Kings so that people from neighboring provinces can visit easily and conveniently. It can be seen that from a village festival, the Hung Temple Festival today has changed a lot in scale. During the Le Dynasty, especially the feudal dynasties of the Nguyen Dynasty, this event became a regional festival, then became the national death anniversary.
"Sea of people" flocked to the Hung Temple historical site on April 14 (Photo: Phu Tho TV).
In your opinion, what are the positive and negative impacts of the changes in the Hung Temple Festival? What are the causes of these changes?- On the positive side, this is a special festival, the largest in our country. I think few countries have such a large-scale death anniversary. This event once again honors the tradition of solidarity and attachment of the Vietnamese people, which is also the strength that helps us defeat powerful enemies. The Hung Temple Festival has great and important political and social meanings. The trend of transformation from a village festival (He village festival) to a national festival (Hung Temple festival) and today to a national festival (Hung King's death anniversary - Hung Temple Festival) has contributed to gathering the strength of national solidarity, publicizing the sovereignty of our State through the periods from feudal society to the present day. The changing trend of Hung Temple Festival and Hung King worship also creates conditions and opportunities to educate the Vietnamese ethnic community through generations towards their roots, patriotism, love for the nation, and gratitude to their ancestors. At the same time, they understand more about the merits of the Hung Kings, and are aware of their responsibilities for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. In the cultural field, the changes in the Hung Temple Festival have created for the Northeast cultural region and Phu Tho cultural region a large cultural space of the Vietnamese ethnic community, gathering the most unique cultural values of the whole country, creating conditions for the culture of the Ancestral Land and the culture of the Northeast to absorb and enrich the cultural identity of their own localities. Not only that, the changing trend of the Hung Temple Festival has created an important economic source for Phu Tho province in particular and the State in general through large revenues from tourism and service activities. Because of the above positive impacts, I consider this event to be the greatest success in preserving the heritage of Phu Tho province, and also an achievement of the whole country.
Crowds of tourists from all over the country flocked to the Hung Temple historical relic site to offer incense and sightsee on the afternoon of April 17 (Photo: Thanh Dong).
As for the negative impacts, I see the most prominent is that the community culture of the villages and the Ancestral Land community at the Hung Temple Festival has not been preserved and developed. What does the community role of the villages mean? That is when local cultural features, including the presence of village chiefs, must be promoted, creating a unique highlight in the festival. Festival management is also an important thing, I see that in recent years this has been done very well, but if proposed, I would like to link the Hung Temple Festival with other places such as Xuan Son National Park and neighboring tourist attractions to avoid overloading and over-concentration at a certain place. On the other hand, the trend of changing and expanding the festival space, the community culture of ethnic groups has the opportunity to promote, but the cultural values of the Ancestral Land will be overwhelmed, mixed and distorted and at risk of being lost. Folk games and performances, especially rituals, customs, and agricultural beliefs are at risk of being distorted. Therefore, the issue of preserving the space of the "Cultural Space of the Ancestral Land" festival must be given special attention. Besides, now I see that the establishment of temples to worship Hung Kings in many provinces and cities also raises questions about the preservation of sacred spaces. If the sacred spaces are fake and too numerous and widespread, what is the meaning of the festival? How do you evaluate the vitality and religious value of the Hung Temple Festival even though this intangible cultural heritage has changed over time?- According to legend, Lac Long Quan and Au Co are considered the ancestors of the Vietnamese people, the parents of the Hung Kings. Hung Kings' Commemoration Day - Hung Kings' Commemoration Day is the most concrete manifestation of the Hung Kings' worship belief, demonstrating the solidarity of the community, affirming that the Vietnamese people have a common origin, and the whole country worships the same King. "No matter where you go/Remember the Commemoration Day on the tenth day of the third lunar month/The song is forever passed down throughout the land/The country is still the homeland for thousands of years". That folk song is in the hearts of many generations of Vietnamese people, reminding us to be grateful for the sacrifices of previous generations, joining hands to protect and develop the country. With such meanings, I believe that the Hung Temple Festival, despite changes along with the development and maturity of the country, associated with the longevity of the nation through all ages, will still exist forever, even growing stronger. The Hung Temple Festival is forever a valuable cultural symbol of the Vietnamese people. From ancient times to the present, every Vietnamese person has a love for the country, looking towards their ancestors and roots.
Tourists experience the magical and solemn Hung Temple night tour on April 13 (Photo: Thanh Thuy).
Hung Temple Festival changes but does not deform
Another issue is how to harmonize spiritual tourism and traditional historical tourism like at Hung Temple relic, sir?- Spiritual tourism and traditional tourism are always connected and blended. Vietnamese people make pilgrimages to Hung Temple to worship their ancestors, which is a spiritual activity. When participating in the Hung Temple Festival, they experience, return to their roots and understand more about the history of the nation, which is the traditional element. Therefore, I think that these two things are not separate. - How do you evaluate the activities of preserving and promoting the values of beliefs and cultural heritage today? - First of all, it must be affirmed that preserving, promoting and exploiting the values of cultural heritage is not the work of any single agency or organization, but the whole political system and the people together. If done well, cultural heritage is both a "treasure" and a "fishing rod" and a long-term and immediate economic resource for the people, local and national authorities. In fact, in recent years, activities to turn heritage into a part of cultural products in fields such as fashion, design, handicrafts, publishing, music, film, architecture, etc. have been taking place very vigorously and have made significant contributions to the cultural industry. However, in addition to the achievements, in general, the work of preserving, promoting and exploiting heritage values has not yet achieved the desired results. I see that the process of preserving and promoting religious values through the Hung Temple Festival has many positive aspects and has been well promoted, however, in the matter of preservation, there are still many shortcomings and limitations. Preserving relics as well as preserving heritage, requires a method, in which we must first understand the structure of the heritage. There, the core of the relic is the most important, defining the role of the relic and heritage in social life. At the Hung Temple Festival, I think that the core of the relic is the solidarity of the whole nation, which is an immutable value that never changes. The second is the beliefs that practice that value, such as the annual incense offering ceremony, the elements of literature and art, cuisine, and games serving the festival. The value of the Hung Temple is immutable and long-lasting, while preservation is the preservation of the elements. By taking care of those elements, we will protect the heritage. A simple example is the wearing of national costumes when celebrating the Hung King's death anniversary, I think that is currently lacking and needs to be considered. Besides, as mentioned, the contribution of the villages and village chiefs at the festival is still vague. On the other hand, through the Hung Temple Festival, we can promote elements of literature, art, cuisine, and games, but no matter how they are transformed, they must serve the core values and not distort or damage or erode the core cultural values. Therefore, if we preserve without serving the values, we cannot preserve them.
In the coming time, what should we do to encourage more individuals to participate in exploiting and promoting traditional cultural values? - We need to complete the system of legal documents as well as policies on protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage, including detailed and clear regulations on subjects, time, measures... It is necessary to develop feasible policies and solutions on heritage management to both promote heritage values and preserve heritage effectively. In addition, we also need to strengthen communication and education to raise awareness, especially for the team directly involved in exploiting heritage values, by opening more heritage training courses. Regarding the treatment regime, we currently have a policy to treat folk artisans, however, it is necessary to expand the treatment subjects, pay more attention to those who directly participate in protecting, preserving and promoting the value of heritage, especially village elders, village chiefs, prestigious people in the village, commune... For the young generation, it is necessary to establish support funds and call for socialized capital so that they have more conditions to promote their youth and creativity in exploiting heritage resources. Thank you for sharing!
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