Thanh Hoa (VNA) – The central province of Thanh Hoa, home to a large number of tangible andintangible heritage including various traditional festivals, is rolling out practicalmeasures to combine tourism development with the preservation and promotion ofthe heritages' values.

Over theyears, together with efforts in boosting socio-economic development, theprovince has given great attention to the promotion of cultural values.

The restoration and preservation of traditional festivals, folk games,songs and dances have been carried out effectively with positive outcomes. Manyfestivals have become common cultural practices of local residents.

At the same time, many festivals and folk games of local ethnic minoritygroups such as Thai and Muong have been revived.

However, the effectiveness of the exploitation of the heritage to makethem an important resource for the locality’s development has yet to meet ThanhHoa’s expectations.

In this context, Thanh Hoa has focused onchoosing, investing in and promoting a number of typical traditional festivaland unique folk cultural practices with the aim to turn them into its special tourism products, under a project approved recently by the provincial People’sCommittee, to servetourism development.

The province has chosen three festivals atprovincial level and five at district level for promotion, aiming to form and supplementThanh Hoa tourism products and trademark.

The three provincial-level festivals selected for the purpose are Lam Kinh,Ba Trieu and Le Hoan festivals, while the five festivals at district levels are“Mau Tam phu” (Tam Phu Mother Goddess) Festival, Am Tien-Phu Nua Festivals, DongCo Temple Festival, Mai An Tiem Festival, and Cau Ngu (whale worship) Festivalof coastal localities.

Among the provincial-level festival is Le Hoan Festival, which isheld annually on the 7th, 8th and 9th day ofthe third lunar month at Le Hoan historical relic site and temple in Xuan Lapcommune of Tho Xuan district to commemorate Le Hoan, posthumous name Dai HanhHoang De (Emperor Dai Hanh), who was born in 941 in Trung Lap village in thearea which is now Xuan Lap commune. 

He founded the Early Le Dynasty and continued the unfinishednational construction process of King Dinh Bo Linh, also known by hisposthumous name Dinh Tien Hoang, so as to build a strong Dai Co Viet – thefirst centralised feudal state of Vietnam – in the 10th century.

During the 24 years under Le Hoan’s reign, the country was in peace whilepeople enjoyed a happy life thanks to unprecedented reforms.

To pay tribute to Le Hoan, local residents built a temple in his hometown inTrung Lap village of Xuan Lap commune.

Meanwhile, Cau Ngu Festival is held in the second lunar month eachyear in Hau Loc district, Nghi Son town and Sam Son city.

At the same time, the province will also restore and promote sixunique folk cultural practices to perform in tourist sites to serve visitors.

Furthermore, six new festivals will be organised, with the expectation that they will become majortourist destinations – Phu Trinh Temple Festival, Lang Mieu Trieu Tuong (TrieuTuong Tomb) Festival, Trong Mai love festival, Ho Citadel Heritage Festival,Dan Te Nam Giao (Nam Giao altar) Festival, and Huong sac vung cao (mountainousbeauty) Festival.

However, experts held that in order to implement the scheme in aneffective manner, it is necessary for Thanh Hoa to design suitable mechanismsand policies, especially those in developing infrastructure system in touristsites and festival sites to ensure best services for visitors. At the sametime, suitable management mechanisms should be made for particular festivals aswell as the connection of tourism routes in the provinces and in the wholeregions.

Alongside, Thanh Hoa should work harder topromote the role of folk artisans in transferring their knowledge intraditional culture to younger generations, while developing human resources forfestival tourism activities, and calling for the engagement of the community inthe implementation of the scheme./.