Cultural factors and layers
The Sen Village Festival is a combination of many cultural layers: Spiritual - belief culture, political - civilized culture, folk culture - traditional art, memory culture - community symbol, educational culture - ethics, tourism culture - economy.
The first layer of culture is easily recognized as spirituality and belief. The offering of incense in memory, the carrying of photos of Uncle Ho from Hoang Tru's mother's hometown to Kim Lien's father's hometown, or the organization of a memorial ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Square all clearly demonstrate the sacred aspect of the event.
From that awareness, many rituals of a sacred communication nature have been formed such as: the incense offering ceremony - flower offering at Kim Lien Relic Site and Ho Chi Minh Square. The Uncle Ho Photo Ride is a ritual to recreate the journey of nurturing and honoring the sacred origin. The memorial service and cultural activities such as folk songs and art performances are all of a "cultural offering" nature - a new form of community ceremony.
During the ceremony, a community pilgrimage space was formed. Tens of thousands of people from all over pilgrims to the Sen Village during the festival. That journey has a cultural but also spiritual meaning - like a sacred "back to the source", connecting the present with the past.
Folk culture - traditional art of the lotus village festival expressed through folklore activities - artistic means used to convey other cultural classes of the festival. In particular, the introduction of the folk songs, Nghe Tinh - Cultural and intangible cultural heritage of humanity - into the festival space has contributed to the unique identity of the festival, turning this place into a typical cultural destination of the homeland of Nghe Nghe.
In the Sen Village Festival, the deepest cultural layer but with the longest impact is community memory. The festival helps the community recall past values, recreate cultural memories, thereby renewing faith and patriotism in the current context.
Memorial booths, local products, tours to Sen village, memorial houses, Chung Son Temple... not only contribute to cultural preservation but also open up a direction for sustainable socio-economic development.
modern folk beliefs
In modern popular belief, the image of Ho Chi Minh is present in every symbolic space: school, museum, memorial, works of art... creating a wide cultural spread. The State's cultural and ideological policies also play an important role in the development of this form of belief. The programs "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style", the construction of memorial relics, organizing festivals... are the mechanisms that create a legitimate and sustainable space for expressing that belief.
After more than 20 years of organization, the festival has gradually brought many layers of profound meaning to the cultural life of contemporary Vietnam.
Affirming and nurturing national cultural identity: The Sen Village Festival is a space that converges traditional elements such as folk music, traditional games, spiritual rituals, and at the same time connects with the modern symbol - Ho Chi Minh. This helps the community maintain a continuous cultural flow from the past to the present, especially in the context of strong globalization.
Dhibit democracy and diversity in receiving cultural values. Strengthening public trust and ethics. Strengthen community solidarity and local development. Contributing to enriching the modern folk belief system.
Towards sustainable development
The Sen Village Festival is not only a "Ho Chi Minh Cultural Festival", but also a vivid symbol of modern Vietnamese cultural life - where tradition and modernity coexist, support and continue each other.
For the Sen Village Festival to truly become a cultural - spiritual element in community life, a sacred symbol of patriotism and national ethics, a bridge between tradition and modernity, a space to connect and convey identity, the wholehearted need to aim for sustainable development through specific and practical actions:
Continue to conduct interdisciplinary research (chemistry, Sociology, ethnology, psychology, religion, etc.) to identify and develop modern folk beliefs systematically. Build a policy framework for festival preservation and development in conjunction with a strategy for sustainable cultural tourism development. Strengthen the role of community entities in organizing festivals to avoid the risk of administrative or extreme commercialization. Include content about modern folk beliefs, Ho Chi Minh symbols and the Sen Village festival in the local cultural and ethical education program.
Encourage the creation of folk and contemporary art for the Ho Chi Minh symbol, in order to spread the spirit of Ho Chi Minh culture in a flexible, sophisticated and effective manner.
