Festival of the Hùng Kings

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Adoration of a Hùng king

The festival of the Hùng Kings ( Vietnamese Giỗ Tổ Hùng Vương ) is one of the most important festivals in Vietnam and is regarded as a highlight of the spiritual life. The tenth day of the third lunar month is considered a day of remembrance in honor of the legendary 18 Hùng kings . They are said to be descended from the ancestral mother Âu Cơ and are considered to be the founders of the first Vietnamese empire Văn Lang (land of the tattooed). Âu Cơ is honored as the "mother of the nation"; it is believed that she brought rice cultivation, caterpillar breeding and weaving to the Vietnamese.

Remembrance Day has been a national holiday since 2007. In 2012, the worship of the Hùng kings was recognized by UNESCO as a cultural heritage of humanity.

history

Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ

The rule of the Hùng dynasties was an important period in Vietnamese history. During this time the foundation stone for the country and the culture of the Vietnamese was laid. According to legend, all Vietnamese have a common ancestry. Thousands of years ago, the sea dragon king Lạc Long Quân and the mountain fairy Âu Cơ fell in love. The couple gave birth to 100 eggs and 100 children had hatched from them. Lạc Long Quân went to the coast with his 50 children and taught them how to fish and grow water rice and showed them how to cook the rice in pieces of bamboo. Âu Cơ and her other 50 children advanced into the highlands. They were taught how to raise animals and cultivate the soil. She also showed them how to build houses on bamboo stilts to deter wild animals. The children of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ are said to have been the first Vietnamese. Their first son became emperor and the Hùng dynasty began. The Hùng kings ruled the country for more than a thousand years. Today the Vietnamese call themselves the "children of the dragon and the fairy" and refer to the bloodline of the legend. The legend unites the different regions of Vietnam into one nation. All Vietnamese should treat one another like brothers and sisters and love, honor and protect their tribe.

Celebrations

The anniversary of the death of the Hùng kings is a national holiday and is celebrated nationwide in Vietnam. On this day, all Vietnamese direct their thoughts to the temple complex in honor of the Hùng kings in the municipality of Hy Cương in the north Vietnamese province of Phu Thọ , where the main celebrations take place. Almost 1,500 temples were set up to honor the Hùng kings throughout Vietnam, in Phú Thọ province - up to 326 temples.

The Hùng Temple in Phú Thọ is an ancient and sacred architectural ensemble on the top of the 175 meter high mountain Nghĩa Linh. Every year thousands of people, including politicians and high-ranking statesmen, make a pilgrimage there to take part in the festival.

Some age-old rituals, such as the bronze drum beat festival, processions and the Chưng cake-wrapping competition take place a week before the festival. The rituals for worshiping the Hùng kings were standardized in 2013. Incense sticks are lit in the Hùng Temple, as well as in other memorials for the Hùng kings across the country. The offerings are fruit and sticky rice cakes Chưng and Dày, because the Hùng kings taught the Vietnamese how to grow rice. After the prayer, numerous cultural activities are organized on the grounds of the Hùng Kings Temple, such as the Xoan and Ca Trù singing and numerous folkloric games. At the end of the festival there is also a fireworks display.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin H. Petrich: DuMont travel manual travel guide Vietnam . DuMont Reiseverlag, 2014, p. 448 .
  2. ↑ a b c d The festival of the Hùng-König-Temple - Vietnamese and German Bridge eV - Hiệp Hội Nhịp Cầu Việt-Đức. Retrieved November 22, 2018 (German).
  3. ↑ Worship of Hung kings in Phú Thọ - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO. Retrieved November 22, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Anniversary of the death of the Hung Kings - part of the Vietnamese culture . In: The Voice of Vietnam . April 28, 2015 ( vovworld.vn [accessed November 22, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Holidays and festivals in Vietnam . ( vietnam-special-tours.de [accessed on November 22, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Andrea Lauser: Ancestors, gods, spirits in Vietnam and the diaspora. A transnational field of research. (PDF; 1.42 MB) In: transcript-verlag.de. Retrieved November 22, 2018 (German).