Pig slaughtering festival in Bac Ninh Province 

Brutal

The pig slaughter festival in Nem Thuong Village of Bac Ninh Province’s Tien Du District starts on the sixth day of the lunar year. The main ritual of the festival involves the stretching of the animal’s four legs and its slaughter in front of thousands of spectators. Visitors elbow each other to get their money soaked in the animal’s blood as they believe it brings luck.

Many people have said the festival is too barbarous.

In some other parts of the country, several other festivals involving fighting and slaughtering of animals still take place, including the buffalo stabbing festival in the Central Highlands region and buffalo fighting festivals in Haiphong City and Vinh Phuc Province. Such festivals often end with the bloody deaths of participating animals, especially the winners.

Despite being greatly criticised for their violence and inhumanity, the festivals have been maintained for years with the support of local people.

 Prof. Ngo Duc Thinh, former director of Vietnamese Cultural Research Institute, said such festivals reflected community demand. They are organised to offer sacrifices to the deities to wish for luck and prosperity.

“The direct stabbing and killing of animals at some festivals terrifies many spectators who said such activities are barbarous and inhumane. Many international visitors aren’t impressed by such rituals as well,” Thinh commented.

 Associate Prof cum Dr. Trinh Hoa Binh from the Institute of Social Science said the practice was traditionally aimed to uphold human strength in conquering nature. However, the festivals include several brutal activities which may have negative effects on young spectators.

“Nowadays, lethal injection is considered a humane method applied for those who are sentenced to death penalty, instead of shooting or decapitation as in the past. In modern life, people prefer minimising violent behaviour. Brutal activities at some traditional festivals are somehow contrary to this trend,” Binh noted.

He proposed that cultural researchers and managers should carefully consider these festivals so as to wisely decide which should be maintained and restored.

Maintaining festivals

Several other experts however still want to maintain such festivals as they claim that the events preserve spiritual values.

Prof. Ngo Viet Thinh said during the buffalo stabbing festival, people sing a song to say that they don’t want to kill the animals and that they are compelled to do so as they need support and protection from the deities.

 “The song proves humanity and the festival is organised for spiritual values,” he commented.

Even though spectators find such festivals barbarous, local people themselves think they are fine. It’s infeasible to ban people from organising their cultural festivals, he said.

In order to prevent possible negative effects, such festivals should be only maintained at a village level with only local participation. Children and those who are from other places should be discouraged from attending, he added.

In response to concerns by some National Assembly deputies at the 12th NA’s 5th session in 2009, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Anh Tuan admitted that brutal activities at some traditional festival were unnecessary and should be removed.

He said that it was really difficult to ban such activities through administrative measures. It would require a lot of patience to change people’s habits and ways of thinking.

dtnews