Due to 2007 being an odd year, this year’s Hung Temples Festival was held by the Phu Tho provincial People’s Committee from April 22-26. The ritual ceremonies were held for three days from April 24-26 and festive activities ran from April 22-26 at the historical Hung Temples complex in Viet Tri city.

The death anniversary of the Hung Kings is celebrated in lunar March every year. The 11^th National Assembly (NA) recently decided to observe the Hung Kings’ death anniversary (Lunar March 10) as a national holiday with a view to providing people with more time to pay homage to their Vietnamese ancestors.

The annual Hung Temples Festival is a special event for the Vietnamese community and provides an opportunity for Vietnamese people to show their national pride and strengthen national unity.

In his speech, Deputy Secretary of the Phu Tho Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, Nguyen Doan Khanh, said “On this great national festive day, Vietnamese people, whether they belong to the Kinh ethnic group or an ethnic minority and whether they are religious or not and currently live at home or abroad, turn their hearts to the ancestral land where the sacred soul of the rivers and mountains and ancestors have focused on the Hung Temples, known as the roots of the Vietnamese nation. The celebration of the Hung Kings’ death anniversary is a good deed and ethnic traditions of Vietnamese people “When drinking water, remember its source”.

In the Ho Chi Minh era under the Party leadership, tracing the roots of the Vietnamese nation gives impetus to more than 80 million Vietnamese people to accelerate the process of national industrialisation and modernisation towards the goal of a rich people, a strong country and an equitable, democratic and civilized society.

The incense-offering ceremony, in commemoration of the Hung Kings showed Vietnamese’s homage to the Hung Kings who had the merits of founding the nation. The famous statement by late President Ho Chi Minh that “The Hung Kings contributed to building the nation, you and I must join hands to defend it,”  is  engraved in the minds of Vietnamese people.

On this occasion, diverse cultural activities were held at the Hung Temples Complex such as Hat Xoan (Xoan Singing), bronze drumming, human chess, and sedan processions.

The incense-offering ceremony was an end to the 2007 “Tracing Roots” programme.