Locals compete in a contest making traditional sticky rice buns at the annual Hùng King Temple Festival. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tùng

PHÚ THỌ  The northern province of Phú Thọ will organise a festival commemorating the death anniversary of the Hùng Vương (Hùng Kings) on April 10. 

The festival will take place at the Hùng Temple on Nghĩa Lĩnh Mountain in Phong Châu District, 85km northwest of Hà Nội.

The Hùng Temple Festival is one of the most important and sacred festivals of the Vietnamese people and is deeply embedded in the minds of every Vietnamese citizen, regardless of what province they come from.

It is held annually from the 8th to the 11th day of the third lunar month. The traditional festival honours the Vietnamese people's ancestors – the Hùng Kings. They are believed to have ruled the country for 18 generations.

This year, the festival, with theme "Hùng Kings Land - Sacred Root", will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the recognition of worshipping the Hùng Kings in Phú Thọ by the UN heritage agency UNESCO as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage in 2012. 

The event will include incense offering ceremonies to the nation's legendary father Lạc Long Quân and the nation's legendary mother Âu Cơ, and to the Hùng Kings at the Hùng Kings Temple historical heritage site on Nghĩa Lĩnh Mountain in Phong Châu.

Flower offerings will be held at the monument to President Hồ Chí Minh, a sculpture  featuring the President talking with soldiers from the Việt Nam People's Army.

Localities around the Hùng Temple will organise palanquin processions with limited participants ensuring COVID-19 prevention and control measures. 

The festive activities will include a swimming competition at Văn Lang Park on the morning of April 9 and an outdoor art show in the park in the evening.

Contests making bánh chưng (square sticky rice cake) and bánh dày (sticky rice bun) will be held to attract festival-goers. 

The worshipping of the Hùng Kings are closely related to the ancestral worship traditions of most Vietnamese families, an important part of people's spiritual life. - VNS