VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will try to convince Bac Ninh people to not hold the pig-chopping ritual in the 2016 festival, said the Ministry’s Deputy Chief Inspector Pham Xuan Phuc.

Phuc said at the Culture Ministry’s meeting on October 2 that the Inspectorate was planning to work with the Department of Culture of Bac Ninh province on the pig-chopping festival 2016 in Nem Thuong Village. This ritual has been fiercely protested by foreign tourists and many Vietnamese for its brutal features.

"This is the local custom so state agencies cannot prohibit it. but we will try our best to persuade people to change the ritual at the 2016 festival to not upset the public," Phuc said.

At this meeting, inspectors of the Ministry of Culture said that sacrifice rituals at some traditional festivals, particularly the pig-chopping festival of Nem Thuong Village in Bac Ninh Province, were controversial. They proposed to change the ritual to be appropriate to today’s society.

Minister Hoang Tuan Anh said that the 2016 festival season must be closely controlled in order to reject the rituals and phenomena that cause negative impact on Vietnam’s image and culture.

Each year, on the sixth day of the lunar new year, Nem Thuong villagers organize a festival to honor their local guardian deity, Doan Thuong. The celebrations include traditional festival features such as a march and live music, and one part of the ceremony is the pig-chopping rite.

A live pig is shuttled around the village before being placed on the ground on its back. Assistants hold ropes attached to the pig's legs, spreading the animal's appendages apart to expose its belly. A man wielding a large blade then chops the pig in half, and the villagers rush to smear the blood on bank notes, hoping for good luck in the new year.

T. Van