Hùng Kings' Commemoration Day, 10th of the third lunar month

Legend tells that Lạc Long Quân, a Dragon lord of the sea, married Âu Cơ, a Fairy of the mountains. Âu Cơ gave birth to a sac of one hundred eggs that hatched into one hundred children. Since one was used to the water and the other to the land, they divided the children: fifty followed their father to the sea and fifty followed their mother to the mountains.

The eldest son went with his mother to the land of Phong Châu, was made king with the title Hùng Vương and named the country Văn Lang. From this story Vietnamese people call themselves children of the Dragon and the Fairy, and call one another đồng bào, born of the same sac.

According to old chronicles and legend, the state of Văn Lang passed through eighteen Hùng Kings, with its capital at Phong Châu in today's Phú Thọ. The period is tied to the wet-rice civilisation of the Red River, to bronze drums and rice farming, and to legends such as Thánh Gióng, the Mountain and Water Gods, and the square and round rice cakes.

The Đền Hùng complex stands on Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain and includes the Lower, Middle and Upper Temples, the Hùng King's Tomb and the Well Temple. Successive dynasties granted royal decrees and sent officials to hold rites there. In 1917 the Nguyễn court set the 10th of the third lunar month as a common anniversary for the whole country.

Wherever you travel, up the river or down, remember the anniversary on the tenth of the third month.

Vietnamese folk verse

In 1946, the first year of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the anniversary was held with great solemnity. Huỳnh Thúc Kháng, then Acting President, came to Đền Hùng to offer incense and presented a map of the nation and a sword to the ancestors, a pledge to protect the homeland.

On 19 September 1954, President Hồ Chí Minh visited Đền Hùng and spoke to the officers and soldiers of the Vanguard Division before they returned to take over the capital. His words there became a reminder for generations and are carved on a stone stele at the site.

The Hùng Kings built the country; we must together keep it.

President Hồ Chí Minh, Đền Hùng, 19 September 1954

On 6 November 2001 the Government issued Decree 82/2001/NĐ-CP on State ceremonies, which includes rules for organising the Hùng Kings' anniversary. In 2007 the National Assembly amended the Labour Code to make the 10th of the third lunar month an official public holiday with full pay. The 2019 Labour Code keeps this provision.

On 6 December 2012 UNESCO inscribed the Worship of Hùng Kings in Phú Thọ on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It recognises a rare tradition: an entire nation honouring shared ancestors and holding their anniversary on the same day.

Every year millions of pilgrims travel to Đền Hùng during the festival season. The main ceremony includes a palanquin procession from the foot of the mountain to the Upper Temple, an incense offering by State leaders and provincial delegates, xoan singing, bronze drums and contests in wrapping square rice cakes and pounding round ones. Many localities and Vietnamese communities abroad also hold incense offerings at temples dedicated to the Hùng Kings.

For working people the day is a precious break in spring, often close to the 30 April and 1 May holidays. Many families use it to return home, light incense for their ancestors, take the children to Đền Hùng or simply rest and remember the nation's shared origin.