Hùng Kings' Festival: the legend behind the holiday

The Hùng Kings' Festival (Giỗ Tổ Hùng Vương) honors the legendary founders of Vietnam's first kingdom and is held on the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month. It's a national public holiday, and the main ceremonies take place at the Hùng Temple complex in Phú Thọ province, northwest of Hanoi.

Behind the holiday is one of Vietnam's best-loved origin stories: a dragon lord, a mountain fairy and a hundred children.

What does Giỗ Tổ Hùng Vương mean?

• Giỗ is a death anniversary, the day families remember an ancestor
• Tổ means ancestor or founder
• Hùng Vương means the Hùng Kings

So the name means "the death anniversary of the ancestral Hùng Kings." The festival treats the whole nation like one extended family remembering its forebears. Say it roughly as "zoh toh hoong voo-uhng" in Northern pronunciation.

The legend: Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ

The story begins with Lạc Long Quân, a dragon lord descended from sea spirits, and Âu Cơ, a fairy from the mountains. They married, and Âu Cơ gave birth to a sac of 100 eggs, which hatched into 100 sons.

But a dragon of the sea and a fairy of the mountains couldn't live together forever. They decided to part ways. Fifty sons followed their father to the sea, and fifty followed their mother into the mountains. The eldest son, who went with Âu Cơ, became the first Hùng King and founded the kingdom of Văn Lang.

This is why Vietnamese people sometimes call themselves "con Rồng cháu Tiên", meaning "children of the Dragon, grandchildren of the Fairy." Our guide to the legend of the dragon and the fairy tells the story in more detail.

The Hùng Kings and Văn Lang

According to tradition, there were 18 generations of Hùng Kings, who ruled Văn Lang in the area of the Red River delta in the distant past. Historians treat this as a blend of legend and early history, and the details of the dynasty are not documented in the way later kingdoms are. Still, the Hùng Kings hold a central place in Vietnamese national identity.

Several famous Vietnamese legends are set in the Hùng era, including:

• Lang Liêu, the prince who invented bánh chưng and bánh giầy
• Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh, the mountain god and water god who fought over a Hùng princess; see Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh
• Thánh Gióng, the boy who grew into a giant to defend the land

The Hùng Temple in Phú Thọ

The main site of worship is the Đền Hùng (Hùng Temple) complex on Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain in Phú Thọ province. It includes several temples and shrines climbing the hillside, along with a tomb said to belong to one of the Hùng Kings.

During the festival, huge crowds travel to the site to offer incense and pay respects. Ceremonies include incense offerings by national leaders, processions and traditional performances. Many visitors climb the steps to the upper temple, which can be a long and busy walk at festival time.

A national holiday

The 10th day of the 3rd lunar month became an official public holiday in Vietnam in 2007, giving workers a day off. Because it follows the lunar calendar, the date moves each year on the Western calendar, usually falling in April.

In 2012, UNESCO inscribed the worship of Hùng Kings in Phú Thọ on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing its role in Vietnamese community life.

A saying everyone knows

The festival is captured in a famous folk couplet:

"Dù ai đi ngược về xuôi, / Nhớ ngày Giỗ Tổ mùng mười tháng ba."

It means "Wherever you travel, upstream or downstream, remember the ancestors' anniversary on the 10th of the 3rd month." It's often quoted around the holiday and expresses the idea that no matter how far people go, they share a common origin.

How people celebrate

Not everyone travels to Phú Thọ. Across Vietnam and in Vietnamese communities abroad, people mark the day by:

• Offering incense at home altars or local temples dedicated to the Hùng Kings
• Making or buying bánh chưng and bánh giầy as offerings
• Attending community ceremonies or cultural events
• Enjoying the day off with family

For many families, it's a quieter holiday than Tết, focused on reflection and gratitude.

Why it matters

Giỗ Tổ Hùng Vương connects Vietnamese people to a shared story of origin. The legend of 100 siblings born from one mother is often read as a metaphor for national unity, a reminder that people across mountains and coasts are part of one family.

If you're in Vietnam during the festival, visit a local temple on the morning of the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month; you'll see the tradition up close without the Phú Thọ crowds.