Temple of the Hùng Kings

As suggestive as the title may seem to some twisted minds Hùng is pronounced with an 'ooh' sound not an 'ah' sound ah. Anyway Hùng Vu'o'ng was the first emperor of Vietnam who according to legend came to power in 2880bc and founded the Hong Bang Dynasty which ruled Vietnam until 258 BC. There is a Temple in honor of the Hùng Kings of that dynasty at the botanic gardens of Saigon which is supposed to be a replica of the original a temple from those time.

Starting from 2007 the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month was declared a public holiday by Vietnam to commemorate the Hùng Kings. Which is a big deal given that we only get 4 public holidays during the year here aside from Jan 1st and of course the lunar new year break. This yr the holiday falls on april 15th and i took the opportunity to revisit the Hùng Kings temple to see the what festivities might be on at the temple to honor the Hùng Kings. Sure enough the place was abuzz with activity as many locals flocked to the temple esp with the usual admission fee to the botanic gardens waived for the ocassion.

This is a pic of the temple with the crowds and festive decorations marking the ocassionIn stark contrast this is how quiet it is on a normal day ie with no crowd, red carpet, flashy dragon dance dragons or colorful flags as in the earlier pic. Yes i said "dragon dance" dragons... these gold dragons in the pics below flanking the temple steps were only a temporary decor to mark this auspicious day.
If you look closely at the above pic u will notice that the turquoise dragons as seen in the pic below which are the normal "guards" cum temple step railings were given a day off, covered up and the more flashy dragon dance dragons were positioned on top of them!

Here's the view from the top of the temple stairs of the holiday festivities with the national history museum in the background.
By comparison the same view on a much quieter normal day
The most interesting part of the festivities were these amazingly ornate and captivatingly brilliant temple offerings made of fresh flowers, fruits and vegetable which lined either side of the approach to the temple.
Some were a combination of the four mythical creatures in Vietnamese folklore : phoenix, unicorn ("chillin"), dragon and turtle.

Other offerings featured the mythical creatures individually, notice the crative use of chilli for the phoenix "feathers", garlic for the unicorn/dragon teeth and pineapple leaves for the dragon beard in the pics below:-






Besides the 4 mythical creatures there were offerings replicating tigers, a bird and fish as well.


Lastly here are some pics of the resplendently majestic interior of the temple where many of the holiday crowd came to pay their respects.