Praying for luck: Pilgrims burn incense at a pagoda on the occasion of the new year festival. Festivals will be better organised this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Quyet

HA NOI (VNS)— Some cultural festivals held last year were organised unprofessionally, according to Pham Van Thuy, director of the Popular Culture Department at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Thuy made the comments at an online ministry conference, organised on Friday to summarise festival management in 2012 and the direction to be taken with large-scale cultural events this year. He suggested that mismanagement and deliberate wrongdoing could erode the values and meaning of traditional festivals.

Thuy cited the example of quan ho singers performing love duets and then holding out their hats asking for tips from tourists at Lim Festival in the northern province of Bac Ninh as an occasion when a bad impression was made on those attending.

He also pointed to visitors across the country burning too much votive offerings at temples, polluting the environment and wasting money.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, deputy chief inspector of the ministry, said that while sometimes his officers uncovered and controlled violations, they could not punish effectively due to a lack of specified sanctions.

"Visitors to pagodas and temples often leave offerings in the wrong places such as ponds, trees and statues instead of putting them in the boxes provided but we can't do anything," he said.

"We have seen people carrying votive money and offerings made from paper to the vestiges with the intention of burning them. We would penalise them if we caught them, but when they saw us there they did not burn the paper and so we can't punish them."

The ministry did emphasise some successes in the last year, including the seal opening ceremony at Tran Temple in the northern province of Nam Dinh which attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Taking place on the 14th night of the first lunar month, the festival is a re-enactment of a custom dating back the Tran dynasty (1225-1400), when mandarins uncovered their seals after the Tet holiday and resumed administrative activities.

Last year, authorities made some improvements to avoid chaos when distributing the symbolic stamps, which are said to bring good fortune. They were printed on paper instead of cloth (unlike in previous years) in an effort to cut costs and make the tradition more environmentally friendly. The time of distribution was lengthened so as to be more manageable.

The number of stamped papers released for pilgrims this year may be increased further, according to Nguyen Chi Ben, director of the Viet Nam Culture and Arts Research Institute and a co-organiser of the Tran Temple Festival.

"We are going to finalise the plan which will include many more cultural activities making up part of the the festival," he said. "Visitors and pilgrims will be attracted to these activities rather than focusing on receiving stamped papers."

Culture Minister Hoang Tuan Anh and five deputy ministers at the conference declared that they would directly manage and inspect the organising of festivals this year.

"With effort from local authorities, festivals will be organised economically to promote our fine traditional values," said Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai. "Problems faced in organising festivals should be solved sensibly in different ways rather than just financial penalties." — VNS