Every year, a large number of visitors from all over the country participate a national festival - Hung King Temple Festival - an incense offering ceremony in honor of Hung Kings, who were instrumental in the founding of the nation. Legend associated with the Hung Kings
It is said that thousands of years ago,Lac Long Quan (King Dragon of theLand of Lac) had superhuman strength and liked to stay near water. He succeeded to the throne of his father, and governed the Lac-Viet tribe.De Lai, king of a northern tribe, with his daughter Au Co made a tripto visit the south.
Admiring Lac Long Quan's talent, De Lai married AuCo to Lac Long Quan. Au Co became pregnant and gave birth to amembranous sac. The sac kept getting larger and larger, and burst onthe seventh day. Surprisingly, there were one hundred eggs in the sac,which hatched into one hundred beautiful babies. The children of Lac Long Quan and Au Co were the ancestors of Vietnam, and so theVietnamese are known as "Dragon and Fairy descendants." The eldest sonof Lac Long Quan and Au Co, who was with this mother, establishedhimself at Phong Chau, now the southern part of Phu Tho Province, andmade himself king. That was King Hung I whose realm was made up by 50tribes. The 18 Hung kings then ruled the country from 2879 to 258BC.
Accordingto historical records, the regime of the Hung Kings was an impressive,brilliant and outstanding start for establishing Viet Nam as asovereign nation. The 18 generations of the Hung Kings saw the birthand development of a nation and are credited with forging nationalcharacteristics such as the sense of community, mutual affection,patriotism and unwillingness to yield to oppression. From this originalsettlement, the Hong (Red) River civilization and the pre-Dong Soncultures grew. From generations to generations, the Vietnamese peoplehold a festival nationwide on the 10th day of the third lunar month tocommemorate the anniversary of their ancestor's death, founder of theVietnamese nation - the first Hung King.
Hung King Anniversary
The Hung King Temple Festival is annually held from 8th to the 11th days of the third lunar month. The main festival day is on the 10th day of the third lunar March, on which theNational Assembly has approved Vietnamese working people to annually have one more national holiday to mark the anniversary of the HungKing’s death.Every year, on this traditional occasion, Vietnamese people worldwide join their brothers and sistersin spirit to observe Vietnam National Day in commemoration of their ancestors. The main ceremony takes place at the Hung Temple on NghiaLinh Mountain in Phong Chau District, Phu Tho Province, some 85kmnorthwest of Hanoi. The Hung King Temple Festival is one of the mostimportant and sacred festivals of the Vietnamese people, deeplyimbedded in the minds of every Vietnamese citizen, regardless of wherethey originated from.
Let’s contemplate this historical vestige!
The Hung Temple is an ancient and sacred architectural ensemble on the top of the 175 metre-high Nghia Linh mountain. The festival offers an opportunity for Vietnamese to visit their land oforigin. A day before the festival, ancient and modern flags are to behung along the road leading from Viet Tri to Hung mountain. A largeballon will also publicise the festival to surrounding areas. On theeve of the festival, 100 flying lights are released into the night sky.The main worship service is held in earnest the following morning, 10thday, beginning with a flower ceremony. In Den Thuong (Upper Temple)where the Hung Kings used to worship deities with full rituals, theceremony consists of a lavish five-fruit feast. Banh chung (square cake) and banh giay (circle cake) are also served to remind people ofthe Lang Lieu Legend (the 18th Hung King who invented these cakes), andthe merit of the Hung Kings who taught people to grow rice. Next to thestage procession for deities, there are several marches in theprocession such as the elephant march followed by the procession chair.The procession marches are followed by a Xoan song performance (aclassical type of song) in the Den Thuong, a "Ca Tru" (a kind ofclassical opera) in Den Ha (Lower Temple), and other activities likecross-bow shooting, rice cooking, swinging contests, cock fighting, and dragon dancing.
On the day of the Hung King Temple Festival, the Vietnamese always jubilantly take part in the festival with religious belief deeply imbedded in their minds, that is their love and pride of their ancestral land. The Festival not only attracts visitors from all over the country thanks to its special traditional cultural activities, but it is also a sacred pilgrimage back to the origins of the Vietnamese nation.
