Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and other officials offered incense in commemoration of the Hung Kings, the legendary founders of Vietnam, at Kinh Thien Palace on Nghia Linh Mountain in Viet Tri city, the northern province of Phu Tho, on April 18 (the 10th day of the third lunar month).
The procession to Nghia Linh mountain
The incense offering ceremony was held in the special national historical relic site of Hung Kings Temple.
PM Chính, other officials of the Party, State, ministries, sectors, central agencies and localities, along with people from nationwide attended the event, expressing deep gratitude to the ancestors who founded the nation, paving the way for the construction and development of a beautiful, prosperous, and civilised Vietnam nowadays.
Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and other officials offer incense in commemoration of the Hung Kings, the legendary founders of Vietnam, at the Hung Kings Temple special national historical relic site
Following that, the delegation offered incense at the Tomb of the Hung Kings and laid wreaths at the bas-relief depicting President Hồ Chí Minh talking to soldiers of the Tien Phong (Pioneer) Brigade at the Gieng Temple Intersection.
After the historic Dien Bien Phu Victory in May 1954 and the signing of the Geneva Accords in July the same year, Group 308 of the brigade returned to take over the capital of Hanoi from French colonialists. At Gieng Temple on September 19, 1954, President Hồ Chí Minh talked to the soldiers on their way to Hanoi, underlining that the Hung Kings founded the nation and Vietnamese people must together protect it.
The incense offering ceremony is the most important among the activities of the Hung Kings Temple (Photo: VNA)
The incense offering ceremony is the most important among the activities of the Hung Kings Temple Festival and the Culture and Tourism Week of the Ancestral Land 2024, held from April 9 to 18 at the historical relic site and other localities in Phu Tho province.
People flock to Hung Kings Temple Festival (Photo: VNA)
Legend has it that Lạc Long Quân (son of Kinh Dương Vương and Thần Long Nữ) married Âu Cơ (the fairy daughter of Đế Lai). Âu Cơ gave birth to a pouch filled with one hundred eggs, which hatched into a hundred sons. However, soon thereafter, Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ separated. Lạc Long Quân went to the coast with 50 of the children while Âu Cơ went to the highlands with the rest.
Their eldest son was made king, who named the country Van Lang and set up the capital in Phong Chau (now Viet Tri city in Phu Tho province), beginning the 18 reigns of the Hung Kings. The kings chose Nghia Linh Mountain, the highest in the region, to perform rituals devoted to rice and sun deities to pray for bumper crops.
To honour their great contributions, a complex of temples dedicated to them was built on Nghia Linh Mountain, and the 10th day of the third lunar month, which falls on April 18 this year, serves as the national commemorative anniversary for the kings.
The worship of the Hung Kings, closely related to the Vietnamese people’s tradition of ancestral worship, was recognised as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2012./.
Source: vietnamplus.vn
