The content of the official letter indicated that through actual inspection of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at some festivals, places of worship and relics and general situation in localities, in early 2019, the festival activities have had many positive changes and mostly been held safely and healthily to meet the cultural and spiritual demands of the people and visitors across the country. The burning of votive papers at the places of worship for Buddhists has been in accordance with the Official Letter No.31/CV-HDTS dated 12/02/2018 of Vietnam Buddhist Sangha on strengthening Vietnamese traditional cultures at the places of worship for Buddhists.
Vietnam Buddhist Sangha affirmed: Destine star ritual for relieving people from bad luck is not a Buddhist ritual – photo: Zing.vn
However, religious activities, beliefs and festivals at some places of worship for Buddhists and relics still have limitations, especially the phenomenon of organizing the destine star ritual for relieving people from bad luck with charges and taking unfair advantage of legitimate needs of the people to seek profits.
In order to remedy the above limitations, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism would like to propose the Ministry of Home Affairs (Government Committee for Religious Affairs) and Vietnam Buddhist Sangha to continue to direct the religious establishments in strictly implementing Decree No.110/2018/ND-CP dated 28/8/2018 of the Government regulating the management and organization of festivals and Official Letter No.31/CV-HDTS dated 12/02/2018 of Vietnam Buddhist Sangha on strengthening Vietnamese traditional cultures at the places of worship for Buddhists; strengthen propaganda about the true values and meanings of traditional beliefs and rituals; instruct the places of worship for Buddhists for not allowing organization of the destine star ritual for relieving people from bad luck as a profitable service, affecting Vietnamese traditional culture.
P.V