Phu Tho (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh andother officials offered incense in commemoration of the Hung Kings, the legendaryfounders of Vietnam, at Kinh Thien Palace on Nghia Linh Mountain in Viet Tricity, the northern province of Phu Tho, on April 18 (the 10th day of thethird lunar month).

The incense offering ceremony was held in the special nationalhistorical relic site of Hung Kings Temple.

PM Chinh, other officials of the Party, State, ministries,sectors, central agencies and localities, along with people from nationwideattended 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.

Following that, the delegation offered incense at the Tomb ofthe Hung Kings and laid wreaths at the bas-relief depicting President Ho ChiMinh talking to soldiers of the Tien Phong (Pioneer) Brigade at the GiengTemple Intersection.

After the historic Dien Bien Phu Victory in May 1954 and the signingof the Geneva Accords in July the same year, Group 308 of the brigade returned to takeover the capital of Hanoi from French colonialists. At Gieng Temple onSeptember 19, 1954, President Ho Chi Minh talked to the soldiers on their wayto Hanoi, underlining that the Hung Kings founded the nation and Vietnamesepeople must together protect it.

Theincense offering ceremony is the most important among the activities of theHung Kings Temple Festival and the Culture and Tourism Week of the Ancestral Land 2024, held fromApril 9 to 18 at the historical relic site and other localities in Phu Thoprovince.

Legend has it that Lac Long Quan (son of KinhDuong Vuong and Than Long Nu) married Au Co (the fairy daughter of De Lai). AuCo gave birth to a pouch filled with one hundred eggs, which hatched into ahundred sons. However, soon thereafter, Lac Long Quan and Au Co separated. LacLong Quan went to the coast with 50 of the children while Au Co went to thehighlands with the rest.

Their eldest son was made king, who named thecountry Van Lang and set up the capital in Phong Chau (now Viet Tri city in PhuTho province), beginning the 18 reigns of the Hung Kings. The kings chose Nghia Linh Mountain, the highestin the region, to perform rituals devoted to rice and sun deities to pray forbumper crops.

To honour their great contributions, a complex oftemples dedicated to them was built on Nghia Linh Mountain, and the 10th day ofthe third lunar month, which falls on April 18 this year, serves as thenational commemorative anniversary for the kings.

The worship of the Hung Kings, closely related tothe Vietnamese people’s tradition of ancestor worship, was recognised as partof the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2012./.