Content and Activities of the First Hai Phong Red Flamboyant Festival

The festival lasts for 4 days with many bustling and exciting activities. Beautiful flower baskets fill the shops and houses and the streets are covered with long carpets of fragrant flowers. The highlight of the flower festival here is the children's parade on the first day of the festival and the main parade with large floats decorated with flowers and dancers in splendid costumes.

4. Chiang Mai Flower Festival - Thailand

The first weeks of February are a special time in Chiang Mai, Thailand, when all the beautiful flowers are in full bloom and displayed all over the streets. The annual Flower Festival is an opportunity for visitors to see the local flowers in full. With over 3,000 typical orchid species and other rare flowers, Chiang Mai is a must-see destination for those who are passionate about the beauty of flowers.

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5. Tulip Festival - Canada

This is the world's largest Tulip festival, held annually in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada with over 500,000 visitors each year. The capital city of Ottawa has become world famous for its Tulip Festival held on the first 18 days of May every year.

6. Chelsea Flower Festival - England

The Chelsea Flower Show is the largest flower and garden design exhibition held by the Royal Horticultural Society in May every year for five days. It is considered the largest exhibition in the UK and the largest garden festival in the world. It is also an opportunity for artists to introduce many new flower varieties as well as creative garden design styles.

7. Panagbenga Festival - Baguio, Philippines

Held every February, the Panagbenga Flower Festival (which means “a hundred flowers in bloom” in Filipino) lasts for a month, with its peak activity on the weekends. The streets are filled with beautifully decorated floats and beautiful dancers. First held in 1995, the flower festival quickly gained global fame and has now become a major tourist attraction in the Philippines, a must-see destination for those who love festivals and the beauty of flowers.

8. Hanami Flower Festival - Japan

Whenever spring is mentioned, Japanese people think of cherry blossoms and “Hanami” - meaning flower viewing in Japanese. From late February to late April every year, cherry blossoms bloom from the South to the North of Japan, however, the flowers bloom most in many places from mid-March to mid-April, which is also the time of the Hanami festival.

9. Batalla de Flores Flower Festival - Spain

Batalla de Flores is held in Valencia, Spain, marking the end of the month of Feria de Julio, a traditional festival with many unique cultural and entertainment events. The Batalla de Flores flower festival takes place on the last Friday of August every year, opening with a parade of elaborately decorated flower floats and beautiful young women sitting on top. After completing two rounds of the ritual parade, the battle begins. People on both sides of the street will use flowers as weapons to throw at each other, including the girls on the flower floats. Some even use tennis rackets for defense.

10. Pasadena Rose Festival - USA

The Rose Festival is also known as the New Year's Festival in Pasdaena, California (held annually on January 1). Many floats are decorated with changing themes.

The festival's annual parade is the highlight of the year, and also features a beauty queen contest, horse parade and musical performances.

Thus, it can be said that in the world, there are many different flower festivals that have been organized very successfully. Even in Vietnam, Da Lat - the place known as the "city of thousands of flowers" has organized the Da Lat Flower Festival every two years, starting from 2005. However, in general, most of the flower festivals in the world and in Da Lat are organized to honor not just one but many species of flowers, many varieties of flowers. Most of the honored flowers are ornamental flowers, easy to crossbreed, easy to grow in large quantities, can be planted in flower gardens, flower carpets or combined into large-sized flower paintings and flower carts. In addition, coming to these flower festivals, in addition to enjoying the pure beauty of flowers, visitors also have the opportunity to learn about flower growing, learn about new trends, new forms in the art of playing with flowers around the world, and at the same time, it is a place where professionals come to collect more knowledge and experience in caring for and protecting flowers and trees, and learn about the need to protect the natural environment. In addition, at many flower festivals, there are also many attractive entertainment activities for visitors, such as: immersing in the beautiful world of flowers in the lighting effects of millions of hidden light bulbs; or blending in the romantic space of classical music with a wonderful combination of acrobatic performances, comedy, movies, etc.

Among the above flower festivals, there is a very famous flower festival in the world and the flower honored in that festival has characteristics very similar to the typical flower of Hai Phong city: it is a rustic, simple tree, has shade and often blooms seasonally. That is the cherry blossom of the land of the Rising Sun and associated with it is the Hanami festival - the cherry blossom viewing festival.

The Cherry Blossom Festival, also known as the Spring Flower Viewing Festival, is a long-standing traditional festival and is considered a national holiday in Japan. When spring comes, the weather gradually warms up, the cherry trees lose their leaves and bloom in unison.

province after the cold winter. It is not by chance that Japan is called "the land of cherry blossoms", not only because cherry blossoms are everywhere, but it is also the flower closest to the Japanese spirit.

For the Japanese, cherry blossoms - Sakura symbolize beauty, fragility and purity, are a type of flower that "blooms and fades quickly" and is loved by samurai, because it symbolizes the "path of death" of the warrior (living and dying like cherry blossoms). Cherry blossoms are found everywhere in Japan, especially in parks, along rivers, along canals, in the courtyards of villas. In Japan, cherry blossoms usually bloom in spring, although each place may bloom earlier or later. In the warmer southern part of Japan, flowers can bloom from the end of January while in the northern Hokkaido region of Japan, flowers can bloom in May. Therefore, cherry blossom lovers can enjoy the flowers along the journey from South to North in Japan for months, contrasting with the momizi leaves in autumn, gradually turning red from North to South.

During the cherry blossom season, Japan is covered in a cloud of flowers and the petals fall in the wind like a rain of flowers, both proud and tragic. Japanese people often hold festivals to celebrate the flowers all over the country. Young men and women organize camping trips. Elderly people sit under the trees drinking sake. While drinking sake, if a petal falls into the cup, people often rejoice and consider it a lucky thing. Since 1952, the Japanese government has held a cherry blossom viewing festival (Hanami) at Shinjuku Gyoendo Imperial Garden, presided over by the Emperor or Prime Minister, inviting officials, famous figures in the country and international guests to attend the cherry blossom viewing.

There are many ways to enjoy cherry blossoms. During the cherry blossom season, many people come to the park, quietly sitting under the cherry trees to admire the flowers or strolling through the flower path or sitting on a small boat drifting along the riverbank covered with pollen. Under the cherry blossoms

thousands of pale pink flowers, people with relatives or friends drink wine, recite poetry, sing and dance, and celebrate happily.

The best places to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo are Ueno Park, Naritasan Park, the ancient Osaka Castle built in 1583, Heian Shrine... Every time the cherry blossoms in Iyama Hakusan Shinrinkoen Garden bloom, the Cherry Blossom Festival is held in a very exciting manner.

In the afternoon, the beauty of the Hanami festival is enhanced when the lights shine on the cherry blossoms covered with snow. In particular, the Sakura Mikoshi flower palanquin carried by Geisha will add more floral color to the festival.

Below we would like to introduce to you some popular ways of viewing flowers of the Japanese.

Party under the cherry blossom tree (Enkai)

This is the most popular type of flower viewing in Japan, to the point that just saying hanami can already picture people spreading plastic sheets under the cherry trees and gathering together to eat, drink and chat. This type of hanami is usually allowed in large parks such as Ueno, Inokashira, Koganei... Food can be Japanese dishes bought right at the yatai (small stalls often found at Japanese festivals) in the park, or it can be bento boxes carefully prepared the night before. Recently, there is even a very convenient pizza delivery service.

Walk.

There are many cherry blossom streets along the river or along small paths in the park. Strolling through these streets is a popular way to see the flowers for close friends or romantic couples. A tip for this way of viewing flowers is to go during the cherry blossom season.

just past mankai. That's when you can see sakura fubuki, also known as falling sakura. Each gust of wind will carry the light, fragile petals fluttering.

Boating

Many parks in Japan offer boating services. Two, three, or four people can sit on a boat and chat leisurely while admiring the sakura along the riverbank. This is also a type of hanami that is popular among young Japanese people.

There is also a more advanced way of viewing the flowers, which is to board a large boat, a type of cruise ship used for hanami festivals. On it, you can enjoy delicious food, chat leisurely and watch the cherry blossoms. However, if you go this way, you need to make a reservation, and the possibility of it being sold out is very high.

Night Cherry Blossom Festival (Light-up)

Cherry blossoms are not only beautiful during the day, but also become more splendid and elegant under the sparkling lights at night. People call this the night cherry blossom festival. The lights will be illuminated from the cherry blossoms, different from the day, the space becomes more mysterious and romantic. [21]

The Cherry Blossom Festival is not only in Japan but also spread to other countries such as the US, Vietnam... In 1912, the Japanese government gave the United States 3,000 cherry trees, and in 1956, another 3,800 trees. All of these trees are planted in West Potomac Park in Washington, DC and are the theme for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. In Vietnam, in recent years, Japan has brought many cherry trees to plant in Da Lat, even on Lieu Giai Street in Hanoi and has also organized small-scale cherry blossom festivals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City through the display of cherry blossoms.

On the street, there are hundreds of cherry blossoms in full bloom. It can be said that this is also one of the ways to promote the country and people of Japan to international friends, increasing the attractiveness of the festival. The image of the Japanese cherry blossom festival with parks and streets full of flowers, with a variety of ways to enjoy the flowers, are important suggestions for forming ideas and successfully organizing a flower festival - honoring a flower that Hai Phong is honored to be named after - Red Flamboyant.

In short, through the flower festivals successfully organized in the world is a suggestion for organizing a typical flower festival in Hai Phong. Learning from the experience of organizing the above festivals is a valuable lesson for the tourism industry of Hai Phong in particular and Vietnam tourism in general.

2.2. Content and activities of the first Hai Phong Red Flamboyant Festival - 2012

2.2.1. Idea generation process

In recent years, although there have been many investments, the number of tourists coming to Hai Phong is only seasonal and "massive" during the main holidays, showing that despite great efforts, Hai Phong tourism has not yet had a "worthy" breakthrough. A question worth pondering is that Hai Phong's tourism potential is rich and diverse, the dream of many localities and provinces in the country, so why can't Hai Phong tourism take off? Is it because the city's tourism industry has not created a unique and distinctive tourism product to attract tourists, while overcoming the disadvantages of seasonality? Faced with this situation, those who are attached to and passionate about the tourism industry have boldly proposed an idea to help Hai Phong's tourism industry develop to match its inherent potential. That idea is that every year the city should organize a festival named after the flower that has long been associated with the land and people of Hai Phong: the Red Flamboyant Festival.

Our country has many provinces and cities with royal poinciana flowers such as Khanh Hoa, Con Dao, Ho Chi Minh City... but during the difficult years of the resistance war against America, the song "Red Royal Poinciana City" resounded.

as an encouragement of the pride of the people of Hai Phong. That song has reached all classes of people, talking about Hai Phong is talking about red phoenix flowers and red phoenix flowers have become one of the symbols of Hai Phong Port city.

This idea had been conceived by many people, but was officially announced and widely known only after the article “Royal poinciana festival for Hai Phong - why not?” by author Truong Thi Le Trang was published in Hai Phong Security Newspaper, issue 2 and 3 June 2011. In this article, the author proposed to the leaders of Hai Phong city that the city should organize a festival to honor the royal poinciana flower, which has been grown for hundreds of years in Hai Phong city, a flower that has penetrated deeply into the hearts of every Hai Phong citizen, a familiar image that reminds friends near and far of Hai Phong.

Discussing the idea of organizing a Royal Poinciana Festival for Hai Phong, Mr. Van Nam (Nguyen Kim Tin) - former director of the Hai Phong Department of Commerce and Tourism, later the Hai Phong Union of Tourism and Service Companies (Hai Phong Unitour) expressed: "I support and welcome your idea to develop Hai Phong tourism to its full potential". Mr. Truong Phuong - former director of the Hai Phong Transport and Tour Guide Company, one of the people with many years of experience and passion for Hai Phong tourism from the subsidy period to the market economy, shared with the author: "Organizing a festival of such magnitude as the Royal Poinciana Festival to promote the image of Hai Phong is something that the tourism industry should have done a long time ago. That is the way for us to build, preserve and promote a strong brand of Hai Phong tourism in particular and Vietnam in general, which is Royal Poinciana". [7]

The author of the article also gave some suggestions for the idea of organizing the Royal Poinciana Festival in Hai Phong, because this festival, in addition to its significance in promoting tourism and its great economic benefits, also has profound cultural and humanistic significance. The author suggested that Hai Phong city should plant Royal Poinciana trees along the Do Son coast, especially in the Hon Dau area, so that international ships from all over the world can see it from afar.

Content and Activities of the First Hai Phong Red Flamboyant Festival – 2012

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