(Photo: VNA/Van Diep)

Deputy PM Dam chaired a first quarter meeting in Hanoi on Friday, where Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Dang Thi Bich Lien said art and cultural programs were held nationwide to welcome the Lunar New Year festival and celebrate the 88^th anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. She noted that event organization abided by regulations and was in line of local cultural traditions and customs. Pham Tat Thang, deputy head of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, stressed the need to better manage festivals and strengthen the campaign of building a healthy lifestyle in residential areas. He said: “Festivals bear traditional and cultural characteristics. I think it’s not appropriate to abolish festivals that are considered unaesthetic, because tradition should be preserved. Instead, we need to improve what we think inappropriate or unaesthetic.”