Illustrative photo: Huong Pagoda Festival
Festivals are a type of intangible cultural heritage that has existed in Vietnam for a long time, plays an important role in social life, a cultural activity closely associated with the life of the community. In recent years, our country has developed a socialist-oriented market economy in the context of industrialization, modernization and international integration. In this trend, traditional cultural activities, including festivals, have been restored and promoted, contributing to preserving the nation’s traditional cultural values. The festival has contributed to the creation of new cultural values that enrich the Vietnamese cultural treasure that needs to be preserved for the benefit of the whole society. The festivals are held solemnly, safely, economically and effectively, with many cultural activities, sports and folk games to meet the needs of the people’s cultural and spiritual activities, contributing to educating the fine traditions of the festival; honoring the merits of forebears, historical figures, who have made many contributions in the forming and developing the country and promoting the national cultural identity of Vietnam. Through festivals, the national cultural identity is preserved and promoted, the people’s freedom of belief and religion is guaranteed, the great national unity block is consolidated, and the democratic atmosphere in society is maintained, increased, contributing to socio-economic development.
Therefore, the development of the Project “Digitalization of festival data in Vietnam” for the period 2021-2025 will help the management and unification of specialization in archiving in the festival field.
The project will focus on collecting basic information to review and evaluate the current situation of festivals in our country for the management, conservation and promotion of the value of Vietnamese festivals, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of festival activities; contribute to the transformation of traditional data management methods into electronic storage and management, meeting the requirements of state management of traditional festival activities.
The overall goal of the Project is to collect basic information to review and evaluate the current situation of festivals in our country for the management, conservation and promotion of the value of Vietnamese festivals; systematize the database in management of festival activities and exploit to provide information quickly, efficiently, and save time; contribute to administrative reform, improve the capacity of information technology application in the state management of festival activities; also, convert the traditional data management method to electronic storage and management to meet the requirements of state management of traditional festival activities; thereby enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of festival activities, enhance the roles and responsibilities of state management agencies of ministries, branches, localities and people in festival activities.
The specific goal of the project is to digitize 100% of the data of traditional festivals. The data is digitized to ensure quality, effectively use in management and periodically updated and supplemented with traditional festivals; complete database system of information management of traditional festivals, ensuring effective use. Along with that is the investment in completing information technology equipment, database management software and Portal about Vietnamese Traditional Festivals.
The project will build a database of festival types in Vietnam including Traditional Festivals, Cultural Festivals, Industry Festivals and Festivals of foreign origin.
The digitization project will implement specific contents such as Investigation and statistics of festivals; digitize, standardize and build a database on festivals; build and operate database management software to enter survey data, Vietnam Festival Portal and supplement information technology equipment for data entry, processing, synthesis and exploitation of database; train in exploitation and use of software; maintained and operated every year.
The development of database management software about Vietnamese festivals allows storing, managing, exploiting and reporting from digitized data sources and statistical investigation, ensuring convenient search and meeting requirements of the needs of state management of festivals, capable of integrating, sharing and connecting with the shared databases of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the system to ensure data safety. From the management database on the software, it will be pushed to the Vietnam Festival Portal (invested in construction at the same time with database management software), connected to the Internet to serve the needs of searching and use your readers and promote the cultural value of Vietnamese festivals.
The project is implemented in 5 years, divided into 2 phases. Phase I from 2021 to 2022 will conduct surveys and statistics of festivals in Vietnam; invest in information technology equipment; digitize and build a database of traditional festivals; build database management software and Vietnam Festival Portal. Phase II, from 2023 to 2025, will digitize and build a database of cultural festivals, industry festivals and festivals of foreign origin; complete database management software and Vietnam Festival Portal; train in exploiting and using software; maintain and operate.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism requires agencies and units assigned to actively and actively implement the Project on schedule, request the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Departments of Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism, the Departments of Culture and Sports of the provinces and centrally-run cities to coordinate in providing data and data on statistical investigation of local traditional festival patterns as required; annually update local festival database information, and actively propagate, disseminate, and guide people to look up festival data at the Vietnam Festivals Portal, and implement state management measures on festival activities in the application of Information Technology.
Binh Duong