Hung King Worship: Connecting National Strength

Hung King's death anniversary in Phu Tho. Photo: VNA

Throughout its formation and development, the Hung King worship has spread strongly and has a long-lasting vitality. In particular, since being listed as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity, the Hung King worship in Phu Tho has increasingly contributed to strengthening the belief and pride in the tradition of "When drinking water, remember its source" of the Vietnamese people.

Preserve and protect the place of origin

Phu Tho is the land of the nation's origin, the origin of the Hung King Worship - a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The Hung Temple historical relic site is the largest center of Hung King Worship practice in the country with solemn and respectful ceremonies and festivals. Every year, on the occasion of the Hung King's death anniversary, the province attracts millions of people from all over the country and overseas Vietnamese to offer incense. Therefore, Phu Tho always strives to preserve, conserve and promote the good humanistic values ​​of the Hung King Worship.

Ms. Pham Thi Hoang Oanh, Deputy Director of the Hung Kings Temple Historical Relic Site, said that in order to pass it on to future generations, the province has developed a national action program to protect and promote the value of the Hung Kings worship belief in Phu Tho.

The province focuses on implementing solutions to raise awareness and capacity of the community; annually organizes the Hung Kings' Commemoration Ceremony at Hung Temple and villages in a solemn and respectful manner.

Phu Tho brings heritage education into schools; expands the inventory area to relics nationwide and some key relics of Hung King worship abroad; collects and studies rituals and performances related to the Hung King Worship Belief of Vietnamese people in the countryside; organizes groups to teach, rituals, performances, and social practices of the Hung King Worship Belief of Vietnamese people in Phu Tho.

The province has invested in restoring and building new worship spaces; reviving many worship customs, festivals, and folk performances. Thanks to that, up to now, Phu Tho province still preserves 345 relics worshiping Hung Kings and characters related to the Hung King era.

The Hung King worship belief is widespread and dense in all villages and communes, in which Hung Temple is the largest and oldest center of Hung King worship practice in the historical development process of the Vietnamese people. Many provinces and cities across the country actively participate in the death anniversary project in accordance with the Vietnamese death anniversary tradition. Many enterprises, organizations, and compatriots at home and abroad participate in the death anniversary and make merit by building works, renovating and embellishing relics in the Hung Temple Historical Relic Site with a budget of hundreds of billions of VND.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Hoang Oanh, Hung Temple is identified as the largest and oldest center for practicing the Hung King Worship Belief in the historical development of the Vietnamese people, therefore, organizing a variety of activities to introduce the Hung King Worship Belief to the general public is receiving special attention from Phu Tho. Every year, the province organizes many activities to introduce and promote the cultural heritage of the Hung King Worship Belief so that people can better understand the great value of the heritage.

During the festival, the province organized many activities such as: palanquin procession of communes near Hung Temple; death anniversary of National Ancestor Lac Long Quan, Mother Au Co; incense offering to Hung Kings; exhibition of photos and artifacts on "Hung King worship".

The province organizes competitions in wrapping and cooking banh chung, pounding banh giay, rowing competitions; art programs to celebrate Hung Kings' death anniversary attract tourists...

Expanding practice space

According to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Tho province, not only Phu Tho has many relics worshiping Hung Kings and characters related to the Hung King era, but currently the whole country has 1,417 relics worshiping Hung Kings and their wives, children, and generals of the Hung King era.

Some localities in the country have many Hung King worshiping places such as Hanoi, Vinh Phuc, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen, Lang Son, Nghe An, Hue, Lam Dong, Binh Phuoc, Khanh Hoa, Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Tre, Kien Giang...

These localities annually organize incense offering ceremonies to commemorate the Hung Kings according to the general instructions of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 10th day of the third lunar month in a solemn and respectful manner, expressing the gratitude and merit of descendants to their ancestors for the nation-building merit of the Hung Kings.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there are 12 places to worship Hung Kings. On the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day, people of the city come to these places of worship to burn incense in memory of the Hung Kings and participate in exciting cultural and artistic activities. Hung Temple in the Zoo, Dam Sen Cultural Park and Suoi Tien Tourist Area solemnly celebrate the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day with the participation of many people and tourists.

In Can Tho, there are two largest and oldest Hung Kings temples located in Binh Thuy and O Mon districts. The annual Hung Kings memorial ceremony is solemnly held by the city.

Vinh Long province solemnly celebrated the Hung King's death anniversary by carrying the Hung King's spirit tablet from Long Thanh temple to the provincial cultural information center on the 10th day of the third lunar month.

Kien Giang also built a temple to worship the Hung Kings in Thach Dong B commune. Over the past 60 years, this temple has become a center of cultural activities for local people and neighboring areas.

According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Tho province, not only in the country, many countries around the world, the Vietnamese community abroad also set up temples to worship the Hung Kings such as in the United States, Canada, Australia... or places of worship to place altars, tablets and statues of Hung Kings so that overseas Vietnamese can organize incense offering ceremonies to remember their ancestors on national holidays such as in Russia, Czech Republic, Laos...

The worship of Hung Kings has been deeply rooted and spread widely. Wherever Vietnamese people live, the belief in ancestor worship - worship of Hung Kings - is honored and worshiped by Vietnamese people.

In particular, in 2015, a number of overseas Vietnamese also founded the Global Vietnam National Day Project, on an international scale. This is a project to honor the spiritual values ​​of the Vietnamese people in terms of culture, society, traditions, customs, cuisine, especially spiritual culture, Hung King worship... The project was implemented to contribute to promoting the image of the country to the world and strengthening the spirit of national solidarity; serving as a bridge between overseas Vietnamese and people in the country.

Over the past 10 years, the Project Board has organized the Hung Kings' Commemoration Ceremony in person and online and honored the descendants of Hung Kings globally; connected overseas intellectual delegates and international friends from nearly 50 countries, contributing to the practice of Hung Kings' worship, strengthening the strength of national solidarity, spreading Vietnamese cultural values ​​and people...

With such great value, the Hung King worship in Phu Tho has been recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

According to baotintuc.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/tin-nguong-tho-cung-hung-vuong-gan-ket-suc-manh-dan-toc-post399659.html