Photo: Collected

Types of festivals in Vietnam today

According to Decree 110/2018/ND-CP regulating the management and organization of festivals, Article 3 stipulates the current types of festivals as follows:

1. Traditional festivals mean forms of community-based cultural activities organized according to traditional rituals in order to meet the spiritual needs of the people.

2. Cultural festival means an activity of introducing and promoting typical and distinctive cultural and sports values; tourism potential to the country and people of Vietnam.

3. Industry festival means an activity to promote the characteristics and strengths of the professions; honor typical organizations and artisans who have made many contributions to preserving and developing the profession.

4. Festivals of foreign origin mean activities to introduce foreign culture, economy and society to the Vietnamese public.

Thus, there are now various types of festivals including traditional festivals, cultural festivals, industry festivals and festivals of foreign origin.

What is the State's policy on festivals?

Article 4 of this Decree also stipulates the State's policy on festivals as follows:

1. To support activities of restoring and protecting traditional festivals in order to maintain unique and typical cultural values and meet the people's spiritual life.

2. To encourage traditional folk cultural, artistic and sports activities; Application of modern science and technology in the organization of cultural festivals, industry festivals and festivals of foreign origin.

3. To raise the quality of training and fostering professional staff in management of festive activities.

4. Expand international cooperation in festive activities.

What is the principle of organizing the festival?

Principles for organizing festivities are specified in Article 5 of this Decree:

1. The organization of the festival aims to educate patriotic traditions, national pride, the ethic of "Drinking water to remember the source", honoring the merits of ancestors and historical figures who have made great contributions to the process of national formation and development; propagating the historical, cultural and architectural values of relics, fine traditions of the festival.

2. Festivals must be organized solemnly, practically and effectively; suitable to the scale and content of the festival; organize traditional festivals in accordance with the nature and cultural historical significance; reduce the frequency and duration of cultural festivals.

3. The rituals of the festival must be dignified and ensure tradition; not perform rituals that are violent, objectionable, contrary to the peace-loving and humanitarian traditions of the Vietnamese nation.

4. Educating and orienting people to form noble behaviors, attitudes and perceptions; Eliminate the tendency to chase material gain, greed and self-interest.

5. To take measures to protect relics and scenic spots; ensuring security, social order and safety, fire and explosion prevention, traffic safety and environmental sanitation.

6. Not to take advantage of the organization of festivities for personal gain or group interests; Do not force organizations and individuals to contribute funds for the organization of the festival.

7. To limit the use of the state budget and promote the socialization of resources in the organization of festivities; practice saving, anti-waste.

Source: thuvienphapluat.vn

Photo: Vietnam Airlines

To create favorable conditions for passengers traveling between Vietnam and Thailand with more diverse flight schedules, from November 29, 2023, Vietnam Airlines will operate flights connecting Da Nang airport with Don Muong airport, the second largest airport of the capital Bangkok.

Accordingly, Vietnam Airlines will operate this route with a frequency of 07 flights/week using Airbus A321 aircraft. Flights depart from Da Nang at 8:00 p.m. and depart from Don Muong Airport at 5:05 a.m. every day of the week.

On this occasion, Vietnam Airlines launched preferential round-trip ticket prices on the Da Nang - Don Muong route from only 140 USD (equivalent to 3,199,000 VND, including taxes and fees). The ticket purchase period is from now until December 31, 2023, and applies to departures from November 29, 2023, to March 31, 2024. In addition, when purchasing an EcoFlex class ticket during this period, passengers will be upgraded to Business class for free and receive 01 additional piece of free baggage allowance in addition to the standard baggage allowance.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines is operating 49 direct flights per week between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Bangkok. Thailand is the destination with the highest flight frequency of Vietnam Airlines among its routes to Southeast Asia. In the first 9 months of 2023, the number of passengers transported on Vietnam Airlines' route between Vietnam and Thailand increased 3 times compared to the same period in 2022, showing the recovery and strong potential of this market.

As a 4-star international airline with Skytrax standards, Vietnam Airlines is committed to optimizing passenger experience through new products and services. The airline is actively researching to increase frequency and open new routes to further improve flight products between Vietnam and Thailand in the near future.

Source: Vietnam Airlines

Photo: Vietnam Pictorial

Vietnam has a unique and long-standing culture associated with the history of formation and development of the nation. Vietnamese cultural identity is expressed in many areas of life and society, including traditional festivals.

Festivals in Vietnam exist in a variety of forms and rituals throughout 3 regions of the country. It is estimated that in Vietnam there are nearly 8,000 festivals held annually, most of which are traditional festivals.

Festival activities include activities with a ceremony and festival section. The "ceremony" part is a gesture of people to show respect to each other, as well as to the symbols of the faith. These gestures constitute customs in life or rituals in beliefs... And "association" is a large gathering of people to practice performances, perform customs, beliefs, cultural forms, religions, arts, entertainment, social spiritual activities...

Gong fighting, a unique art of the Cor ethnic group (Photo: congthuong.vn)

Thus, it can be seen that, although it is a community cultural activity, the festival always performs the "ceremony" part, to show respect, gratitude, life before and after for those who have had merits throughout the history of building and preserving, preserving and promoting the independence and culture of the nation. The ethic of "drinking water to remember the source" is forged and continued from year to year, from generation to generation, as a continuous flow of time through many activities, including traditional festivals of the nation. The "festival" part is one of the indispensable contents of the festival, stemming from the needs of life, making the festival more "soft", more "vital".

Traditional festivals are milestones marking the cycle of productive life and social life of each human community.  

The festival is also an opportunity to bring the community together. Every festival belongs to and belongs to a certain community of people, which can be the village community (village society), religious community, ethnic community ... Community cohesion to show the spirit of solidarity, sharing the same desire for peace, warmth ...

Each traditional festival in each place has a different cultural nuance, expressing cultural concepts, ways of thinking, customs and practices characteristic of people and lands.  

The ritual of carrying the god Kapila around the main hall 3 times to celebrate the new year is under the direction of Mr. Acha (Photo: Bao tin tuc)

Singing Then on Na Nua lake, Tan Trao commune (Son Duong) (Photo: Bao Tuyen Quang)

In traditional festivals, many unique cultural features have been preserved, preserved, promoted, creating cultural values of the nation along the axis of time. Therefore, traditional festivals, even if they appear, are born for hundreds or thousands of years, even for some reason interrupted for a certain period of time, they are still preserved and handed down to the next generation. In the contemporary generation, foreign visitors can easily be "seen", "heard", felt ... cultural features from thousands of generations of ancestors through traditional festivals. Try to do the opposite, if there are no traditional festivals to reproduce, restore, revive ancient rituals and cultural beauties... No matter how rich and diverse the traditional culture of our ancestors is, perhaps the next generation can only use imagination or search in literature, history ... on the journey to find traditional cultural beauty. The value of creativity and cultural enjoyment is clearly seen in traditional festivals.

However, with the characteristics of "continuing" culture, although it is a traditional festival, activities and rituals ... of the old days, when placed in the current context is no longer relevant, there has been adjustment and change. Thus, although the traditional festival has long-standing values, it is always for people, for the community and catching up with the trend of civilization and progress of the times.

The traditional festival has existed for generations with Vietnamese cultural identity as its own values, deeply rooted in human life, mind and spirituality. Those values affirm an indispensable part of culture in today's life. It is the pride and pride of national culture that has been molded and tested over time.

Source: toquoc.vn

Photo: Collected

NDO - National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 is a typical cultural-economic-social event on a national and international scale, especially associated with the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (7 May 1954 - May 7, 2024).

According to news from the General Department of Tourism, on November 13, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Decision No. 3462/QD-BVHTTDL approving the Project to organize the National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024.

Dien Bien Phu Historical Victory Museum (Photo by Department of Culture, Sports, Tourism of Dien Bien Province)

The organization of the National Tourism Year aims to contribute to raising awareness at all levels, sectors, and people about the position, role, and importance of tourism activities in socio-economic development.

This is an opportunity to introduce and promote the beauty of tangible and intangible cultural values, resources, and unique tourism products of the people, the country of Vietnam in general and Dien Bien province in particular.

The Plan is that Dien Bien province strives to welcome 1.3 million tourists by 2024; Total revenue from tourism activities will reach 2,200 billion VND; contributing to the breakthrough development of tourism, creating motivation for socio-economic development of Dien Bien province in the following years.

Through the organization of the National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024, it also aims to improve the quality of tourism programs, while exploiting new tourist destinations and tourist routes that are diverse, attractive, and suitable to the demands of tourists who visit Dien Bien province.

National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 will strengthen tourism development links between provinces and cities in the country and countries/territories around the world to promote international integration and create favorable conditions for revenue, attract resources to develop tourism, enhance the position and image of the country and people of Vietnam in general and Dien Bien province in particular.

According to the plan, the Opening Ceremony of "National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024" and the Ban Flower Festival are expected to take place in March 2024 in Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien Province. The program is expected to be broadcast live on Vietnam Television and relayed on Radio-Television stations in some provinces and cities.

The Closing Ceremony of "National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024" is expected to take place at the end of December 2024 in Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien Province, including a cultural and artistic performance program, handing over the flag to the locality hosting the 2025 National Tourism Year.

It is expected that the Organizing Committee will hold a press conference to introduce the National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 in the first quarter of 2024 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to provide information about the program and preparations for organizing the National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 to central and local news and press agencies.

According to the program, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will preside and coordinate to organize 13 cultural, sports and tourism activities and events. Dien Bien province will host 28 activities and events. In addition, there will be many special activities and events organized by municipal cities.

Dien Bien is a mountainous province, the border is located in the Northwest of the country, a land with a long history of formation and development, and a particularly important geographical, defense, and security position. Besides, Dien Bien has a diverse terrain, fresh climate, many majestic natural landscapes, heroic history, and unique cultures of ethnic groups. With the above characteristics, Dien Bien province Bien has much potential to build and develop diverse types and products of tourism such as historical-spiritual tourism, cultural and ecological tourism, resort tourism, entertainment, and health care.

The year 2024 is an important year with historical milestones for the people of all ethnic groups in Dien Bien province - celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7, 1954-May 7, 2024), 115 years of establishment of the province (June 28, 1909-June 28, 2024), 75 years of establishment of the Provincial Party Committee (October 10, 1949-October 10, 2024), 20 years of separation and establishment of Dien Bien province (January 1, 2004 - January 1, 2024), and 270 years of Hoang Cong Chat's army liberating Muong Thanh.

The organization of the National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 will create an important driving force to promote the mobilization of development investment resources and strengthen socio-economic infrastructure, exploit local potentials and advantages, develop the economy, ensure social security, reduce poverty quickly and sustainably, improve the material and spiritual life of the people, preserve and promote the values ​​of cultural identities of ethnic groups and national historical relics, especially Dien Bien Phu Battlefield.

National Tourism Year - Dien Bien 2024 also contributes to stimulating domestic and international tourism demand, restoring tourism activities in the new normal, creating a step to develop tourism into a key economic sector, and building Dien Bien province into one of the tourism centers of the Northern Midlands and Mountains region.

Source: Nhân Dân