Vividly reenacting the ritual of King Hung teaching people to plant rice

In order to preserve and promote the unique cultural heritage values of the Hung King era, in 2018, the People's Committee of Viet Tri City organized the restoration of the Hung King Festival teaching people to grow rice after a period of comprehensive and systematic research on history and traditional customs.

Phu Tho at the present Song Dong Memorial House, King Hung Temple, Fire Tree Image 1 — The ceremony includes rituals from the announcement to worshiping the God of Agriculture.

The festival consists of two parts. The ceremony part with rituals from Proclamation, worshiping the God of Agriculture, sacrificial activities, especially the reenactment of "King Hung teaching people to plant rice" was carried out fully and solemnly by the leaders of the Party Committee, the government of Minh Nong ward and the people.

The festival includes rice planting competitions between teams and folk games with the participation of locals and tourists from all over.

The legend of Hung King worship tells that, in the past, people did not know how to plow and plant rice, but lived on tree roots, wild vegetables, and wild animal meat. Seeing the riverside land after each flood, the land was filled with alluvium, making it more fertile, so people were guided to find ways to build banks to retain water.

Phu Tho at the present Song Dong Memorial House, King Hung Temple, Fire Tree Image 2 — Vividly reenacting the ritual of King Hung teaching people to plant rice.

One day, King Hung's daughters followed the people to fish by the river and saw flocks of birds flying around the beach. Suddenly, a bird dropped a rice flower on Mi Nuong's hair.

She brought the rice flowers back to show her father. King Hung then thought it was a good omen and told Mi Nuong to go to the field to thresh the rice flowers and bring them back.

Phu Tho Tai Hien Song Dong Nghi Le Vua Hung Day Dan Cay Hien Hien 3 — Vividly reenacting the ritual of King Hung teaching people to plant rice.

In the spring, King Hung and his people brought seeds to the fields. The King went down to the field and used a sharp stick to poke holes in the fields to plant the seeds.

When the rice seedlings grew, the people did not know how to plant them, so King Hung pulled them up, brought them to the fields, and waded in to plant them for the people to see. Mi Nuong and the people saw this and followed suit.

Later generations, people remembered King Hung's merits for honoring him as the ancestor of agriculture, built the Tich Dien altar facing the southwest right on the promontory where King Hung sat when teaching people to plant rice, placed a food warehouse on Lua hill, stored straw on Straw hill, and named the market Cho Lu.

Phu Tho Tai Hien Song Dong Nghi Le Vua Hung Day Dan Cay Hien Picture 4 — The image of rice planting is recreated at the festival.

The restoration of the festival is to pay tribute to the great contributions of the Hung Kings who pioneered agriculture in the early days of nation building.

In addition, the festival also contributes to preserving the unique intangible cultural heritage values in Viet Tri City. Typical agricultural festival rituals are recreated to honor the industrious spirit in labor and creativity in life of the people, creating a unique cultural identity in the lives of the people of the ancient capital of Van Lang.

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