The Traditional Festival of Tho Ha Ancient Village: Cultural Values and Contemporary Issues

Abstract

The article positions cultural values as the central analytical axis for reconstructing the traditional festival of the ancient village of Tho Ha across key dimensions: the value of preserving cultural space and collective memory, the value of indigenous belief practices, and the value of folk artistic expressions. Accordingly, the festival is interpreted as a “living heritage”, reflecting the adaptive capacity and flexible resilience of community culture within contemporary society. In the context of rapid socio-economic transformation and administrative boundary changes, the Tho Ha festival is facing multiple challenges: the erosion of sacredness and distortions in ritual practice; the commercialization and spatial transformation of the festival environment; pressures related to the environment, infrastructure, and public order; gaps within the management mechanism; and the potential loss of cultural identity. Responding to these practical demands, the article proposes several solutions aimed at safeguarding and promoting the festival’s values, ensuring harmony between tradition and modernity, and contributing to the preservation of the cultural identity of Tho Ha village in particular and the wider cultural landscape of the Kinh Bac region in general.