Hung King's death anniversary or Hung Temple festival, the National death anniversary is on the 10th day of the third lunar month every year. This is one of the most attractive spring festivals in the North, a major holiday of the Vietnamese people to commemorate the contributions of the Hung Kings to building the country. The festival takes place at Hung Temple, City. Viet Tri, Phu Tho province.
1. History & meaning of Hung King's death anniversary
- History
In history books recorded from the Later Le Dynasty, the Dinh Dynasty, the Early Le Dynasty, the Ly Dynasty, the Tran Dynasty and the Later Le Dynasty all shared incense and smoke in the Hung Temple. The death anniversary of King Hung was considered by feudal dynasties as a national holiday of Vietnam.
Feudal dynasties assigned Hung Temple to local people to maintain, repair, worship, and hold annual death anniversary ceremonies. In return, the people there would be exempted from field taxes, revenue collection, and no need to conscript soldiers.
In the 20th century, during the reign of King Khai Dinh, the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month officially became the death anniversary of their ancestors. Mandarins had to wear formal clothes to go to Hung Temple to organize offerings. In 2007, the death anniversary became a national holiday, recognized by the Labor Code as an official holiday.
- Meaning
In the minds of Vietnamese people, the death anniversary of Hung King always has an extremely important position. The festival is an opportunity to educate about the fine tradition of "Drinking water, remember its source", expressing deep gratitude to the Hung Kings - those who have contributed to building and defending the country.
Hung Temple Festival has important values in the minds of Vietnamese people (Photo: Collected)
This is also an opportunity for Vietnam to promote to the world an Intangible Cultural Heritage recognized by UNESCO. The festival is a source of national pride, expressing cultural identity and respect for one's roots.
2. What is attractive about the Hung King's death anniversary festival?
The festival usually takes place from March 8 to March 11 of the lunar calendar. Thousands of tourists from all over will flock to the Hung Temple relic site to participate in the festival and experience unique culture.
The festival will start a few days before the main festival day with many interesting activities such as cooking banh chung, pounding banh day and making a pilgrimage to the Hung Temple relic site. Especially the bronze drum beating - an extremely important ritual on the death anniversary of Hung King.
Hung Temple Festival includes two main parts:
- Ceremony part
The ceremony includes solemn rituals. On the main day of the festival (March 10 of the lunar calendar), there will be two rituals held: the palanquin procession - including a team of soldiers wearing traditional costumes, carrying palanquins and holding flags and flowers, going from the foot of the mountain, moving across the mountain. temples and stop at Thuong Temple (where the incense offering ceremony is held); Incense offering ceremony - organized by the master of ceremonies, offering incense from dignitaries to elders, residents and visitors.
- Assembly part
The festival includes many unique fun and entertainment activities such as palanquin competition, Xoan singing (hat teasing) competition, wrestling competition, tug of war competition, swimming competition...
3. Experience going to the Hung Temple festival is useful to know
To be able to make a pilgrimage to Hung Temple on the occasion of Hung King's death anniversary, you should refer to some of the following useful experiences:
- How to get there: From Hanoi, you can refer to 3 routes to get to Hung Temple such as from Pham Van Dong - Nam Thang Long - Vinh Phuc - Viet Tri - Hung Temple or route 32 from Ho Tung Mau - Son Tay - Phu Tho or Thang Long - Son Tay avenue - National Highway 32 - Phu Tho - Hung Temple.
- Attire: You should wear polite, discreet clothes when going to the festival, you should wear low shoes or soft-soled sneakers for convenient walking.
- Buy incense offerings: You can prepare offerings from home to take away or buy them in Viet Tri city. Offerings include banh chung, banh day, vegetarian or fruit offerings, tea, oan or salty offerings (chicken, pork, spring rolls, pork sausage)...
- When participating in the festival: The festival is quite crowded, so be careful with your belongings to avoid theft. There are also help stations at the ruins to help you find lost items or loved ones.