Promoting the value of Thanh Tuyen Festival

The authorities and relevant departments and branches of Tuyen Quang province have stepped in, verified and made timely adjustments to both preserve the good cultural values associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival of Thanh Tuyen Festival and maintain the unique, attractive and exclusive tourism products of Tuyen land.

Festival of community bonding

In 2004, starting from a spontaneous procession of giant Mid-Autumn lantern models by local people, Thanh Tuyen Festival has now become a provincial-level event with a grand scale, a unique tourism product of Tuyen Quang . The festival was honored with a Guinness Record: Mid-Autumn Festival with the largest number of lantern models in Vietnam, the largest Mid-Autumn Festival tray in Vietnam, the largest pair of lanterns in Vietnam. Notably, in 2024, the Department of Intellectual Property granted a Trademark Registration Certificate to Thanh Tuyen Festival, affirming the unique cultural brand of Tuyen Quang province.

Phát huy giá trị Lễ hội Thành Tuyên - Ảnh 1. — Giant Mid-Autumn lantern models are paraded by Tuyen Quang people every night, attracting a large number of tourists. Photo: Quang Cuong/VNA

With the spirit of taking children as the center, in communes and wards, people together contribute their efforts to make giant, colorful Mid-Autumn lantern models, simulating stories, as well as characters, mascots in history, folklore, and animals close to daily life. The completed models will be paraded around the streets with children.

Not only a playground for children, Thanh Tuyen Festival is also an opportunity to promote the image of Tuyen Quang people and culture to domestic and foreign friends. The clear proof is that in 2022, the festival attracted 300,000 visitors, total tourism revenue reached nearly 300 billion VND; in 2023, it attracted more than 250,000 visitors, total tourism revenue reached about 280 billion VND. In 2025, returning after a year of suspension due to storm Yagi , on the occasion of the September 2nd holiday, the procession of giant Mid-Autumn lantern models in Tuyen Quang attracted over 56,000 visitors to participate and experience.

Mr. Vu Tien Hung, Kinh Bac ward (Bac Ninh) shared that although it was not yet Mid-Autumn Festival, he took advantage of the weekend to take his family to experience the atmosphere of the parade of giant Mid-Autumn lantern models in Tuyen Quang. The models were very magnificent. His family, especially the children, were very excited to see with their own eyes the giant, sparkling, colorful lanterns.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Tuyen Quang province, the success of Thanh Tuyen Festival is thanks to the consensus of the community in building the model, thereby awakening pride in cultural identity. Each person becomes a tourism ambassador, introducing and promoting the festival, the image of the land, culture and people of Tuyen Quang to a large number of tourists and investors.

Synchronize solutions, keep the festival value true

Every year, the procession of giant lantern models in Tuyen Quang lasts for a whole month before the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, this year, due to the leap year of June (lunar calendar), the full moon day of the Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15th of the lunar calendar) is October 6th, exactly one month after the new school year starts. Therefore, if the procession continues as usual, it will more or less affect the students' studies.

In addition, according to people's feedback, at the beginning of this year's festival (around June and July of the lunar calendar), there was a phenomenon that some model cars were not really suitable in terms of aesthetics and educational value. Specifically, some model cars used high-power sound, remix music, modern electronic sound, sound and light were said to exceed the standard threshold, significantly affecting the general space of the festival. Some participants in the Mid-Autumn Festival model car parade wore performance costumes that were not suitable for the community cultural space with the participation of children.

Phát huy giá trị Lễ hội Thành Tuyên - Ảnh 2. — Giant Mid-Autumn lantern models are completed to be displayed at the Thanh Tuyen Festival in 2025. Photo: Quang Cuong/VNA

Ms. Pham Kim Tuyet, Minh Xuan ward, Tuyen Quang province said that she strongly supports the festival and the model procession activities, but some young people's costumes are not modest, especially when there are children in the group, which is not suitable for the nature of Thanh Tuyen Festival. Therefore, timely reminders and corrections are needed.

Ms. Nguyen Tran Linh Chi from Ha Tinh province said that she has experienced Thanh Tuyen Festival about 3 or 4 times. She believes that the festival is the pride of Tuyen Quang people, a cultural symbol that is preserved and developed. In the face of the trend of modernization, commercialization and increasingly diverse participation of social classes, the emergence of conflicting opinions is inevitable. She hopes that the locality will make appropriate adjustments so that the festival still retains its cultural spirit and becomes more and more attractive.

Faced with these problems, the authorities and sectors of Tuyen Quang province promptly grasped and urgently inspected, verified, and promptly had solutions to direct and adjust.

In Minh Xuan ward, where the main parade activities take place, Mr. Pham Quoc Chuong, Chairman of the ward People's Committee, said that the ward issued a document requiring models participating in the Thanh Tuyen Festival to register and be granted a logo to identify the brand, ensuring fire safety and conformity to traditional customs. Models that are not registered or do not have a logo are not allowed to participate in the parade. Advertising and hanging signs on models must also comply with legal regulations, avoiding abuse and reducing the value of the festival. The ward issued a Code of Conduct in the Thanh Tuyen Festival and actively informed and propagated to the people and tourists to implement it.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Tuyen Quang province, added that since September 19, the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee has issued a document regulating the time of model parades on Friday and Saturday evenings every week. The province also requires all models after construction to be inspected and evaluated by the local interdisciplinary team to ensure technical safety, fire and explosion prevention and to be granted a logo to identify the Thanh Tuyen Festival brand before being paraded on the streets; strictly following the route and instructions of the authorities.

The province also guides and encourages people in communes and wards to wear costumes suitable for the space and nature of the festival when participating in the model procession, and encourages wearing traditional folk costumes...

In addition, the province requires processions and residential groups to register their parade scripts in advance; which must include the content of the model, the type of music used and the description of the costumes. The sound level must not exceed the threshold allowed by environmental standards; the use of dance music and inappropriate music is limited. The authorities will strengthen inspection and supervision at the procession routes to promptly guide, remind and handle schools that do not comply with the regulations.

The functional sector diversifies forms of propaganda to the people, especially the youth - the large force that directly creates the festival atmosphere - to have appropriate behavior and costumes in the community cultural space...

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, in the coming time, the province aims to continue to maintain the traditional cultural identity of Thanh Tuyen Festival, create new forms of expression to create attraction; strengthen the promotion of festivals associated with green tourism, community tourism; encourage people, especially the young generation, to participate in making models in the direction of education and humanity.

Tuyen Quang province always attaches importance to traditional cultural values and wishes to bring to the people and tourists a festival that is both joyful, creative, appropriate and rich in identity. All contributions will be the basis for the locality to continue adjusting and perfecting to make Thanh Tuyen Festival more and more attractive.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/phat-huy-gia-tri-le-hoi-thanh-tuyen-20250929144021438.htm