Hung King Temple festival is a national event that is held in Phu Tho. As its name suggests, it takes place annually to commemorate Hung Kings – the founder of the nation . During the festival, people from all over the country and those living abroad head for the main temple on Nghia Linh, Phu Tho to take part in this meaningful festival. The atmosphere of the festival is always bustling with many different folk games including human chess, bamboo swings, rice cooking competitions, “nem con”, wrestling, lion dance, etc. The highlight of the festival is the procession up to Den Thuong (Upper Temple) with participation of governmental leaders, villagers, and many visitors. Therefore, it's considered as national festival of Vietnam.

Well, to start, I would like to describe Tet, which is the most crucial national festival in Vietnam. In Vietnamese culture, Tết marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year. It usually lasts three days but celebrations continue for at least the first week of the New Year. Moving on to the next question, in my opinion, the primary reason for its appearance is that Tết is a special occasion for family reunions as well as for celebrating the arrival of spring. To celebrate the New Year, we do lots of things together. Before New Year’s Eve, we prepare some local specialities, such as Chưng cake, Vietnamese sausage and dried candied fruits to worship our ancestors and then enjoy during Tet. Houses are thoroughly cleaned out and then nicely furnished in the hopes of getting rid of the past year’s bad lucks. Additionally, many families usually decorate their houses with Kumquat trees, Apricot or Peach blossom and parallel sentences that are believed to bring luckiness, happiness and prosperity to them in the New Year. All members of a family gather together and have parties to ring in the New Year. During Tết, there are a lot of customs practised, such as giving lucky money to children, visiting friends’ houses and going to churches, temples or pagodas to make good pray for their family. If there’s time left, I would like to explain its importance to our culture and me. With Vietnamese, Tết is vital as it’s a very meaningful tradition to welcome the New Year. And it’s more important because Tet is the time for families and relatives to gather under the same roof for rekindling love and bonding. For me, I always long for Tet as it’s the longest holiday, which can help me recover my battery after a long working year.