The opening ceremony of the festival to commemorate the death of the Hung Kings will take place on April 14 with a singing, dancing and music programme on a grand stage of Vietnamese culture.

More than 1,300 professional and amateur artists will perform in the 90-minute ceremony. Most songs and music to be performed during the ceremony will be folk melodies.

The programme will demonstrate the national solidarity toward the roots, history of the national construction and defence in the past and at present.

The Hung King Temple Festival has been held annually since 1460 under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong to commemorate 18 Hung Kings who were the founders of the country and started a golden age in Vietnamese history.

Since then, the Hung King Temple Festival has become a rendezvous of national unity and spirit, and been a chance for Vietnamese people at home and abroad to express their gratitude to ancestors.

The anniversary of the Hung Kings’ death was officially recognised as a national holiday in 2000, and in 2007 the National Assembly approved a regulation permitting the country’s employees to have the day off with pay.

The Hung King Temple is located on Nghia Linh Mountain, Phong Chau district, Phu Tho province, 100km northwest of Hanoi . It is a complex of ancient tombs, monuments and temples.

Notably, the Lower Temple, a popular tourist destination, was according to legend the location where Au Co gave birth to a sac containing 100 eggs from which 100 babies were born. The eldest son, Hung Vuong, named himself king and the throne was passed through 18 generations from 2879 to 253 BC.

(Source : Nhandan)